WIN FABULOUS SCUBA DIVING MAGAZINE SWAG JUST BY ENTERING!

Yep, it's true: Everyone who submits entries to Top 100 or the Gold List will be entered in a monthly drawing for August and September for a Scuba Diving visor or T-shirt. All you have to do is enter — and you can enter multiple times. Now on with the show...

It's time to cast your vote for Scuba Diving's 2014 Top 100! For 2014, we've divided surveys up into two parts, so that more divers can take part in the fun!

Part 1: Rate Your Destination

Each year, we ask the most knowledgeable and well-traveled group of divers we know — our readers — to rate their favorite destinations as part of our ongoing Top 100 Readers' Choice survey. Click to rate a destination you have traveled to in the past two years, and feel free to fill out the form for as many destinations you have visited.

Part 2: Vote on Your Faves

Even if you haven't had a chance to travel to dive in the past two years, we still need your help! The Top 100 Gold List of operators, resorts, live-aboards, beach bars, topside attractions, dives — such as best wall, shore or artificial reef — and more is a list of everything you love about diving. It's the ultimate undersea (and topside) popularity contest. Click to vote on your top favorites in all these categories and more.

Scuba Diving's editorial staff will compile the results and debut them in the January/February 2014 issue of Scuba Diving and here on scubadiving.com. And be sure to check out results from 2013, 2012 and 2011 below.

Navy EOD Detonate Torpedo Found by Divers

URL:

http://uxoinfo.com/blogcfc/client/index.cfm/2013/9/7/Navy-EOD-Detonate-Torpedo-Found-by-Divers

　

Thatcher Island, Massachusetts Navy EOD technicians safely identified and disposed of a suspected torpedo in waters just off the coast of Thatcher Island, Mass. EOD Mobile Unit (EODMU) 12, Det. Newport was called in after two divers reported the find to the US Coast Guard (USGC).

The ordnance was detonated in place, despite the fact that marine growth on the suspected torpedo precluded positive identification. The USCG requested that the munition be removed to avoid the risk to future recreational divers who could encounter it and also to eliminate the risk of encounter with fishing nets.

[Continued at Blog]

　

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New hammerhead shark species found off South CarolinaDouglas Main LiveScience

Nov. 8, 2013 at 2:44 PM ET

Save Our Seas Foundation / Peter Verhoog A scalloped hammerhead shark, which looks virtually identical to the newfound species, the Carolina hammerhead. When new species are found near populated areas, they are often small and inconspicuous, not, for example, a hammerhead shark.But that's exactly what a team of researchers discovered along the coast of South Carolina. The new species looks virtually identical to the scalloped hammerhead, but is genetically distinct, and contains about 10 fewer vertebrae, or segments of backbone, new research shows.The new species, named the Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilbert), gives birth to shark "pups" in estuaries near the shore off the Carolinas, according to a study published in August in the journal Zootaxa.To find the shark, scientists led by University of South Carolina fish expert Joe Quattro collected 80 young sharks that looked liked scalloped hammerheads. They then analyzed their DNA, and found that they were distinct from their scalloped cousins. Further analysis found more subtle differences; the new species is slightly smaller, for instance, according to the study. Of these 80 sharks, 54 of them belonged to the new species, the study noted. The study shows that the new species is quite rare. "Outside of South Carolina, we've only seen five tissue samples of the cryptic species," Quattro said in a release from the University of South Carolina. "And that's out of three or four hundred specimens."Populations of scalloped sharks, like those of most other shark species, have plummeted in the past few decades — by up to 90 percent, Quattro said."Here, we're showing that the scalloped hammerheads are actually two things," Quattro said. "Since the cryptic species is much rarer than the (more widespread one), God only knows what its population levels have dropped to."The decline of sharks has been driven in part by demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy. About 100 million sharks are killed each year to satisfy this craving, scientists estimate. But there may be some good news — consumption of the soup is down by about 50 percent in China over the past two years, according to the environmental group WildAid.In more shark news, a new species of "walking shark" was discovered near a remote Indonesian island in August.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target=_blank>Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @OAPlanet, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet

For the full article with pictures:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/new-hammerhead-shark-species-found-south-carolina-8C11566213
 
 

Joe Quattro et al / ZooTaxa

Hey all Y'all

As you might know we have been working with NOAA for sometime now on the lionfish issue off of our coast.  On Monday Sept 16th we will be trying a new thing.  We will be deploying lobster traps to see if we might be able to create a combined fishery of lobster and lionfish.  So we will be setting out the traps and then shooting lionfish also. We will pick the traps up about a week later and hope they will be brimming with lionfish and maybe a lobster or 2.

If any of you are interested in participating in the experiement the charter is $115.00 and we will be glad to teach you all we know about lionfish hunting.

 

Give me a call at the store to sign up.   252 728 2265

Debby  

  

So we're trying something new and have started a blog. Hopefully we'll have blogs from our Instructors, Staff and Boat crews full of fun and useful information. We're new to this and not sure where it will take us, but hopefully we'll all enjoy the ride. BT