This is a type of mushroom coral in case you were wondering and the video has been sped up 300 times, so it took roughly 10 hours of inflating and deflating for this coral to brush the dirt of its shoulders so to speak. This time laps video was taken in a lab setting so scientist could see exactly how corals do this sort of thing. You can find at least one more video like this one here, its important to keep in mind that most species of corals get the majority of their nutrients from the symbiotic algae living inside them,  so being cut off from the sun is a particularly bad thing. I don’t know about you but I get exhausted just looking at this thing pulsating, it has to be hard work!

What we have in this photo here is a Wobbegong half way through the process of swallowing a Brown-banded Bamboo shark. Both are species of sharks and this photo was taken in Australia. What’s  even cooler about this image is that while scientist have known for years that Wobbegongs eat sharks this is the first time EVER that it has been seen. You can sort through some of our instructor photos to find more pictures of Wobbegong, they are pretty awesome looking. These photos were discussed and published in the latest issue of Coral Reef Journal which you can read about here.

So what do you think flying saucer or secret underground lair for criminal masterminds….or what I find more likely a submerged cinder cone. Certain “scientists” are pointing out the apparent skid marks in the radar image above, you can make your own assumptions. The object lies in 300 feet of water so its safe to assume someone will be down there to check it out and get an actual image in the near future. To make things even MORE exciting…or not…a second smaller object was found close by suggesting a debris path similar to that of sinking ships.

Being a Michael Crichton fan I have another theory, win a free air-fill to be the first to comment correctly on that connection.

Link to the full story here.

The ship was originally bound to the US with payment for war supplies when it was sunk. While the wreck was discovered 4 years ago it has taken this long for salvage negotiations to be completed. Odds are Sub Sea Research, the treasure hunters who found the wreck, will only end up with about 25% of the total haul, a mere 3/4 of a billion bucks. Unfortunately for us divers the wreck lies in 213 meters of water so any idea of sneaking out there to grab a bar or two is out of the question.

Link to the full article is here.

If you aren’t familiar with Lance Fisher below is a little introductory video off of his website, which you can find here.

I was looking at these two for the longest time trying to figure out what exactly they were doing, as soon as I did I ran to grab a camera. I am thinking Casino night underwater, who is interested?!?

The app is called, Expedition White Shark, and its costs about 4 bucks. For your contribution you get to receive live tracking data for the tagged Great White sharks, at the same time as the research scientists. While I am sure some people my choose to use this as a way to figure out when NOT to go surfing scientist are finally getting a look at some White Shark behavior. Since instituting satellite tracking on White Sharks scientist have discovered that they can travel HUGE distances, such as a 12.5 foot female that in 99 days went a whopping 11,000km from Africa to Australia! You can find more information about her here.

Now initially I was imagining Sharks with satellites attached to their heads such as this technical rendering shows…

but as it turns out they are a little more subtle, as seen below…

You can download the app from the official website here, http://www.expeditionwhiteshark.com/ it is currently only available for the iPad and iPhone.

The lobster. which was found by a Fishmonger in the UK, was rescued it from the pot and donated it to the British Natural History Museum. You can read the full story here. Below is a comparison of what a regularly colored lobster looks like next to the one that was found. Crazy right!

Want to know more about the Cone Snail? You can click here

The intended use was a material that would help absorb  greenhouse gasses, something that could line smokestacks and tail pipes of cars. This is all well and good but how exactly does it relate to us? Think rebreathers. There is no doubt that eventually we will all be diving on rebreathers but there are a few hurdles for the industry to get over before it becomes widely accepted. After expense, the major problem is the scrubber material, its bulky, needs to be replaced on a regular basis and is not readily available world wide. This is where polyethylenimine comes into play. The polymer created is not only cheap, not only does it work BEST in humid conditions (this has been a problem with scrubber material in the past) but it is reusable! Do you understand what that means?!? No more shipping big boxes of material to your destination, one of the barriers is coming down.

I was able to speak with Poseidon Diving Systems, and they mentioned a new more efficient and washable scrubber material in the works, my guess is, its along the same lines as polyethylenimine.

ISN’T THIS EXCITING!!