A final Soundings column from DIVER Publisher and Senior Editor Phil Nuytten, taken from his 1995 Simon Fraser University Convocation Address in British Columbia I am here to give you an uplifting and inspiring message, using examples from my own work. I think we’ll give the examples a pass, since …

Industry luminaries remember diving legend Phil Nuytten, OC, OBC, DSc (hon), LLD (hon): magazine publisher, engineer, innovator, artist, businessman, eccentric, raconteur, magician, writer, husband, father… and—first and foremost—diver. By Jean-Michel Cousteau, Friend As a world-renowned dive pioneer and undersea explorer, Phil Nuytten was an inventor, entrepreneur, artist, President and founder …

FREE Digital edition now available on Magzter. This issue is available for free Magzter, sign up for a free account and get immediate access. Features this issue: Remembering diving pioneer, subsea engineer, innovator and DIVER Publisher Phil Nuytten. Dr Joe MacInnis, Jean-Michel Cousteau, David Doublet, Jill Heinerth, and more …

The deep-sea diving industry relies heavily on robots and unmanned submarines today, but 50 years ago, when Phil Thompson began his career in commercial diving, the work was all done by humans. During the 1970s, the world of diving was a new frontier for industrious individuals and companies. There …

By Steve Lewis What kind of dive turns your crank? Cold water wildlife, tropical reefs, shipwrecks, caves… what’s your poison? Personally, I love cave diving more than anything else. As a kid, caves fascinated me and since then it’s simply grown to become an obsession of sorts. But when …

By Jean-Michel Cousteau and Holly Lohuis There are powerful meanings in the stories we share about our personal experiences in vastness of the ocean wilderness. Every scuba diver is a storyteller, sharing personal experiences of encounters with the beautiful underwater world, a place many people will never see for …

Words by Dr. Joe MacInnis When a man’s life depends on your skill as a diving physician, your memory of him goes deep. So it is with Jon Lindbergh. We’re in Key West. I see him walking up the gangway to our ship Sea Diver. He’s 32 years old, carrying …

The Shipwreck Preservation Society of Newfoundland and Labrador wanted to make the Bell Island wartime story more available to people by producing an online museum exhibit. The Shipwreck Society partnered with the Bell Island Heritage Society and worked for two years gathering archival documents and photographs from Canada, the …

New mapping technology and a small manned submersible allow a team of scientists to 3D map a moment in history Text by Joseph Frey On July 15, 1942 Kapitänleutnant Hans-Dieter Heinicke, commander of German submarine U-576, would make a decision that would seal his fate and that of his …

Off the shores of Florida’s Key Largo, buried beneath almost two centuries of coral reef formations, lay remnants of the dark side of 1820s piracy and the illegal transport of slaves from Africa to Cuba Text By Joseph Frey Early on a hot July morning we head out into …

One of diving’s most iconic artificial reefs, Grand Cayman’s Kittiwake, is revisited by one of its former crew members Words and Photography by Drew McArthur A naval vessel is much more than just a place of work and a roof above the heads of the people who serve on …

By Michael Menduno Depending on how you count it, technical diving quietly turned 30 years old last Fall, marked by the anniversary of Dr. Bill Stone’s Wakulla Springs Project 1987. What was once considered the radical fringe has taken its rightful place as the vanguard of sport diving. Today, …

60 years after it first aired, Sea Hunt’s leading lady recounts some of her experiences on the TV show that made diving a star – Words by Zale Parry The television series Sea Hunt came along at a point in time when television itself was just emerging as the great mass …

Words by John Lockwood Before the famous aviatrix was lost without a trace over the Pacific in 1937, “Lady Lindy” tried her hand at deep sea diving  Amelia Earhart is well known for her aeronautical feats in the 1920s and 30s and, of course, the mystery that surrounds her …

Citizen scientists around the world are being urged to share their anchor ‘finds’ following the relaunch of an online resource that aims to be the world’s biggest public record of these iconic objects.  The Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) has relaunched the popular Big Anchor Project following a generous public …

By Jill Heinerth Sadly, the global community lost a stalwart pillar of strength when the B-15 iceberg, known to scientists as “Godzilla” passed away from natural causes. After 18 years adrift in the southern extremes of Antarctica, the final shards were reported as “no longer large enough to be …

Text by Hillary Hauser Fifty years ago December a 1,020-foot (311m) dive off Catalina Island, California, changed everything. Hannes Keller’s revolutionary accomplishment accelerated a new age of deep sea diving, but the daring exploration came at a price   On his sixtieth birthday Hannes Keller flew a Russian MIG …

The Diving Almanac is the ultimate authority on diving exploits and history, but what’s the story behind the stories? By Jeffrey Gallant I was dreaming of overnight success… Reality struck at my first DEMA Show where I met veteran publisher Rick Stratton who looked me straight in the eye and said: …

A chance meeting on a Florida beach became a lifetime friendship between contributor Ellsworth Boyd and 1950s pinup favourite Bettie Page Text and Photography by Ellsworth Boyd The year was 1957. I was lifeguarding in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, one of a dozen Ocean City, Maryland, beach patrol nomads who …

The Niagara Divers’ Association will present its 21st Annual Shipwrecks Symposium on Saturday, May 2, 2015. This one-day symposium on shipwrecks will feature multimedia presentations with internationally renowned speakers from both the United States and Canada. $44 CDN / US up to January 26, 2015; $49 CDN / US …

Parks Canada have just uploaded a high-definition video on the first-ever tour of the shipwreck of HMS Erebus provided by our archaeologists. Read about the next part of their expedition here.  

Divers are set to revisit the sunken Franklin ship HMS Erebus in the arctic over the next week or so in an ambitious joint operation that will pair up Parks Canada Underwater Archaeology Service and Royal Canadian Navy Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic and Pacific) divers in the first under …

Without any doubt, the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia’s most popular and exciting, non-diving event is our annual SHIPWRECKS conference. While you will need to leave your regulators and scuba tanks at home for this event,  there will be no shortage of diving stories, and divers to meet, …

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 …

Originally Published for DIVER April 1995 By Phil Nuytten So there I was, right at the edge, one foot actually in the water.  I kneeled down to pull on my fin and lost my balance.  Just a little.  My knee moved forward and down, perhaps six inches, no more.  In …

Advances in gear design & technology over 60 years may not make diving more fun, but it is much easier. And, a picture’s worth a lot of words, we think! Text by Phil Nuytten  Bouyancy Compensators Bouée Fenzy / Aqua Lung Axiom i3 The French Navy’s Bouée Fenzy, left, was …

In a mission through time Nuytco’s robotic Exosuit is set to dive on an ancient shipwreck in the Greek isles for an uncommon artifact called the ‘Antikythera mechanism’. Used for predicting astronomical events, the advanced mechanical calculator was developed in antiquity and is often characterized as the world’s oldest …

Text by Sierra Cardenas History was made in July of 1964, when four U.S. Navy divers successfully lived and worked for 11 days in an underwater habitat called SeaLab I that was submerged in 192 feet (58.5m) of seawater off Bermuda. This man-in-the-sea experiment helped prove the viability of …

Only whales and whale sharks need apply Text and Photography by Michael Wood SCUBA diving or snorkeling with any kind of whale or a whale shark remains high on my adventure bucket list, though I had what you might consider a close ‘second’ on the excitement scale with something …

Tonnes of fuel oil were recovered from the aging wreck but the Coast Guard says it will monitor the remote site for leakage Text by Robert Osborne Grenville Channel is the very epitome of west coast beauty. Rugged, heavily forested mountain slopes plunge precipitously into the deep, dark water …

For some it was Jacques Cousteau, for others, DIVER Publisher Phil Nuytten among them, it was Hans Hass who triggered interest in the ocean world and SCUBA diving. The Austrian diving legend and pioneer died June 16 at age 94. A service was held June 22nd at the Hietzing …

Bob Meistrell, cofounder of Body Glove has died aged 84. Meistrell reportedly died from a heart attack aboard his boat, Disappearance, near Catalina Island, California. With twin brother Bill, who predeceased him in 2006, they created the first commercially viable neoprene wetsuit from their ‘Dive n’ Surf’ store, believed …

In the late 19th century, men wore homemade dive rigs to navigate the muddy Mississippi and other rivers and lakes in a little known ‘gold rush’ for the pearly ‘button’ shells of freshwater mussels Text and Photography by Phil Nuytten Cotton may have been King, but freshwater ‘Clams’ didn’t …

DIVER salutes Ron Taylor, diver, pioneer underwater filmmaker and champion of our ocean world The world diving community has lost a charter member with the death September 9 of Australian underwater filmmaker Ron Taylor, at age 78. In partnership with his wife Valerie, Taylor focused his life work on …

Text by Phil Nuytten The U.S. Navy Mark V diving helmet is the coin of the realm among diving helmet collectors. The Mark V embodies all the mystique of ‘Deep Sea Diving’ in one handsome package and although it is arguably the most mass-produced of all diving helmets, it …

  By Jean-Michel Cousteau The Cousteau name is forever linked with the ocean and so it is also necessarily linked to a ship run by a team that keeps the vessel and the adventure going. This remains true even without a ship. The team comprises a wide-range of devoted …