Underwater videographers Becky Kagan Schott and husband David Schott, won a total of 4 Emmy’s at the recent award celebrations in Florida. You should recognise Becky Kagan Schott from the cover of DIVER magazine just over a year ago (Volume 38 issue 2). The young professional’s career in underwater videography filled a very …

Many DIVER readers would have seen small, yellow scuba tank water bottles infiltrate all corners of the globe. What a lot of people aren’t aware of is that they were originally intended to house every sea lovers favourite tipple, rum. Time to rejoice rum lovers – they soon will. Tank Rum is the …

US gear manufacturer Hollis, have announced a partnership with Canada’s Sea the World Adventure Travel, with their first expedition to Truk Lagoon now taking bookings for 2016.  Divers will get the chance to join Hollis Ambassador, Bill Coltart, aboard the luxurious S/Y Truk Siren for a ten day wreck diving expedition. Divers …

Whilst at DEMA this year, we had the pleasure of bumping into Chelsea Welch. Her exciting new Kickstarter campaign is for a women’s dive watch that’s been designed by women divers. Las Vegas based The Abingdon Co. is a boutique watch company for women.  They’ve produced and sold luxurious adventure watches …

Text and Photography by Andy Murch You would think that a large, globally occurring species like the great hammerhead would be a relatively easy shark to encounter but until a couple of years ago that simply wasn’t the case. Shark diving operators in the Bahamas and elsewhere raved about …

Preparing to shoot your best video in cold water By Jill Heinerth You’ve dedicated years of training and invested plenty of money on equipment to be ready to visit the wreck of the Forest City in Tobermory or the Rosecastle at Bell Island, Newfoundland. You are sweating profusely on the dock …

Social media websites are among the most popular on the world wide web. They can be powerful tools for dive businesses, or just fun – for a sea of divers. Text by Russell Clark Facebook www.facebook.com We’ll start with the best known and the second most popular website on …

Diving is fun. Diving is deadly. Training and experience make the difference. Text by Bret Gilliam The deal in diving is that you’re certified for life upon successful completion of a recognized SCUBA training program. There’s no requirement to renew that wallet card they give you because it doesn’t …

The brand new Red Sea Aggressor cruises down the southern Egyptian coast to dive sites remote and iconic, and they do it in style Text by Michele Westmorland When I told friends and family here in the United States I was headed to Egypt to dive the Red Sea, …

Text and Photograph by Eiko Jones Every fall Coho are among four species of salmon returning to spawn in Vancouver Island’s Campbell River. The next spring Coho ‘fry’ emerge from the gravel spawning bed upstream to spend a year or so along the banks and side channels of the …

Text by Jean-Michel Cousteau and Jaclyn Mandoske If there is one thing we know from the history of life on Earth, it is that the oceans are resilient and relentless. Nearly four billion years ago the first raindrops fell from our cooling planet, accumulating in low basins and forming …

Text by Polina Reznikov A thunderous crack shatters the dive, sending a shock wave through the very core of me. Instinctively, I glance at my buddy, Darryl. We’d been instructed what to do and immediately dive down, fining hard. In deeper water we level out, pushing away from the …

A couple of hours northwest of Stockholm, Sweden offers up a dive site extraordinary for its location and blend of natural and manmade features. Known as the Tuna-Hästberg mine, it’s a vast web of water-filled passages tens of kilometres long, radiating in all directions far beneath the earth’s surface. …

From a depth of 105 feet (32m) the surface shimmered in light. The vista was stunningly clear, an expansive panorama washed in a watercolour blue that recalled diving somewhere decidedly warmer. Before me there were bold swaths of colour so richly saturated they seemed more psychedelic than from the …

New Zealand’s Mikhail Lermontov reveals a tragic tale of duels, death and poetic injustice, but it’s a helluva sunken ship to explore Text by Kevin Davidson and H.E. Sawyer Photography by Kevin Davidson This tale comes from Soviet Russia, so naturally it’s a tragedy. And a tragedy born out …

Covered the world of diving for decades Text by Phil Nuytten Holy Cow! These old Skin Diver Mag covers bring back a lot of memories. Hard to believe that the person who shot so many of these is still a freelance professional underwater photographer and diving journalist today! Based in …

Women Underwater – The Comprehensive Guide for Women in Scuba Diving provides detailed suggestions, tips and hints regarding equipment choices, medical issues and the unique social factors challenging women in this male-dominated sport. Drawing on decades of experience as instructors, consultants and expedition leaders, co-authors Jill Heinerth and Reneé …

Text by Bret Gilliam Photography by Andrey Nekrasov Let’s clear the air – You can get bent while breath hold diving. Sam Espinosa parked his battered pickup truck full of yellowfin grouper, snapper and a smattering of big pelagic fish in front of my office and, with obvious difficulty, climbed the …

Underwater archaeological preserves reveal history of this sunny, seafaring state Text by Franklin H. Price For a landmass almost completely surrounded by the sea, it’s no big surprise that maritime history figures prominently in its story. It’s certainly true of Florida, southernmost of the continental United States and with …

SeaLife Micro HD 16GB $399.95 Micro HD+ 32GB WiFi $499.95 The newest addition to the SeaLife range of user-friendly cameras is the ultra compact Micro HD. Unlike most cameras this is a sealed unit – no openings, no O-rings, no memory card ports and, therefore, no risk of flooding. SeaLife’s trusted ‘piano key’ design makes …

Volunteer payoff as turtle hatchlings high tail it for the sea On a quiet Little Cayman beach this July 5th, a small group of excited – and lucky – turtle watch volunteers witnessed the hatching of the island’s first turtle nest of the season. It was a rare event …

Hitchin’ a ride on the Red-eye Medusa By Jett and Kathryn Britnell Named for the telltale ‘red eyespots’ ringing the base of its tentacles, the Red-eye medusa (Polyorchis pencillatus) is one of the prettiest jellyfish in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea. These ocelli are actually tiny light-sensitive receptors that help …

By Jill Heinerth These days, it seems that most divers own a GoPro or similar small sport camera. These little devices are awesome for traveling light and capturing great underwater moments. Yet, sometimes unavoidable small and large disasters get in the way of bringing home the best possible footage. …

Visibility notwithstanding, dive masks are the solution… for human beings By Dr. David Sawatzky The eye is really just a complex, living camera.  The main parts of the eye are the cornea, iris, lens and retina.  The cornea is clear and has no blood supply.  It protects the eye …

Text and Photograph by Andy Murch While hunting for skates on a featureless sea floor around Madrona Point on southern Vancouver Island, B.C., I came across this sunken tree trunk with its cover of  gigantic orange plumose anemones. These anemones are usually white, but under certain environmental conditions (like …

Lowepro DryZone 200 US$283.86 ‘A drysuit for your gear’ claims the world’s first waterproof soft-sided camera backpack. TIZIP zipper system, rubber covered sealed seams, adjustable dividers, mesh pockets and a lifetime warranty. www.lowepro.com Ikelite RX100 III housing $550 Sony’s RX100 III is a first rate compact camera that produces …

Canadian manufacturer Aquatica has taken the plunge (no pun intended) into the MFT market and introduced the AE-M1, an enclosure tailored for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 (the more potent version of the legendary M5). This is a big step considering the resources needed to develop an entirely new housing …

Mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses promise a bright future By Michel Gilbert & Danielle Alary With modern featherweight carry-on allowances and large, tendinitis-inducing camera housings, many people opt not to shoot large DSLRs. If you don’t care about the status symbol associated with the bigger/heavier ‘pro’-look cameras, there are …

The Franklin ship discovered in early September by the 2014 search team in the Canadian arctic has been identified as HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 two-ship expedition and the vessel directly under his command.  HMS Terror, remains to be found. The confirmation was made by …

Behind the Scenes we talk to the diving duo behind TV’s Descending TO WIN A DVD OR BLU-RAY DESCENDING BOX SET – CLICK HERE!!! DIVER: For those unfamiliar with Descending, tell us a little about the show. DESCENDING: At its simplest, Descending is an underwater travel documentary. The destinations and specific locations …

Read an EXCLUSIVE interview with TV show Descending’s Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis, then enter to WIN a copy on blu-ray!   Your Contact Descending can be purchased online at: www.departuresstore.com    

In the waters off George Town, Grand Cayman, a group of approximately 50 volunteer divers led by local dive operators, and guided by the Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE), are working tirelessly to repair a coral reef severely damaged by a cruise ship anchor in mid-August. Working in …

Text by Jean-Michel Cousteau and Jaclyn Mandoske Ten million people of the Pacific Island Nations are calling – and we have yet to answer their plea. Like the canary in the coalmine, thousands of drowning islands in the Pacific are telling us that something dangerous is happening. As ocean …

A city of grand scale attractions, Dubai is now planning an Atlantis-like sunken city theme park for SCUBA divers and snorkelers in the shallows off its World Islands development. Los Angeles-based Reef Worlds is behind the design for two sites now on the drawing board under the working title …

Ocean inhabitants traveling Australia’s marine superhighway have made this rest stop a dive site that doesn’t disappoint at any time of the year Text by Lilla Clare Just 1.73 miles (2.8km) off the eastern-most point of the Australian continent, there’s an unassuming little outcrop called Julian Rocks.  By chance …

Text and Photograph by Brandon Cole It sounds like a marine Frankenstein project: Graft coral onto a rebar skeleton, shock it and, “It’s alive!” With reefs besieged on all fronts, the Global Coral Reef Alliance is taking charge. Literally. Their Biorock™ ‘reefs’ – metal constructs of various shapes, even …