SCUBA News 221
(ISSN 1476-8011)
27 November 2018
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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 221 - November 2018
https://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to SCUBA News. Creature of the month is back in this issue, plus our diving news and offers.
You can download a pdf version of SCUBA News here.
Contents:
What's new at SCUBA Travel?
Featured Liveaboard - Swim with Orcas
When is a Sea Snake not a Sea Snake?
Diving news from around the World
What's New at SCUBA Travel?
Divers rate and review the dive operators in the Red Sea town of Hurghada.
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Brazil's offshore diving has warm water, caves, spectacular rock formations and many, many reef and large pelagic creatures. A hot spot for sharks and manta rays.
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Malaysia has some world class diving, including the famous Sipadan which features in the top ten dives of the world. As well as sharks & turtles Malaysia is also famous for its macro-life. | |
Featured Liveaboard - Swim with Orcas and Humpback Whales
Join Norway's Sula liveaboard for a unique chance to swim with orcas & humpback whales, and see the Northern Lights.
When is a Sea Snake not a Sea Snake?
When it's in the Red Sea.
Our creature of the month is the Spotted Snake Eel, Myrichthys maculosis. This eel occurs throughout the Indo-Pacific and it is often mistaken by divers for a sea snake. However, if you should be in the Red Sea and see what looks to be a sea snake you can know for sure that it is actually a snake eel. This is because there are none of those venomous reptiles in the Red Sea. Scientists think that this is because the Red Sea is too salty.
The snake eels are an interesting group, seen much less frequently than the morays.
The spotted snake eel can grow up to 1 m long, but is usually less than half that length. It generally lives at depths between 1 and 25 m. However, it has been found 262 m down. You see it most often on sandy areas by reefs.
Feeding on fishes and crustaceans, it hunts by sense of smell. Like a lot of snake eels, when not hunting it burrows into sand. The tip of its tail is hard allowing it to dig down backwards.
The eels live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans down to South East Australia and South Africa. They are also known as tiger snake eels or oscellate snake eels.
Class: Actinopterygii > Order: Anguilliformes > Suborder: Congroidei > Family: Ophichthidae
Other creatures of the month...
References
Coral Reef Guide Red Sea, Lieske and Myers
Red Sea Reef Guide, Helmut Debelius
Diving News From Around the World
Our round up of the best underwater news stories of the past month. For breaking news see our Twitter page or RSS feed
Palau bans sunscreens harmful to sealife
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Scuba Liveaboard Sale
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Marine biologists explore delicate deep-sea life with soft robotics and 3D printing
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Five everyday items that contain hidden plastic
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Zeagle Sport Buoyancy Control Devices (BCDs) recalled due to 'Drowning Hazard'
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Is autonomous shipping the future for the maritime industry?
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Sustainable fish fingers are surprisingly cheap
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New Liveaboard offers exceptional marine life encounters in Socorro and Guadalupe
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SCUBA News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. This means we are happy for you to reuse our material for both commercial and non-commercial use as long as you: credit the name of the author, link back to the SCUBA Travel website and say if you have made any changes. Some of the photos though, might be copyright the photographer. If in doubt please get in touch.
Photo credits: Tim Nicholson, Andrew Reay-Robinson
Previous editions of SCUBA News are archived at https://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html
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CONTACTING THE EDITOR
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Jill Studholme
SCUBA News
The Cliff
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UK
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