I don't know about you, but my memory could use some help when it comes to fish identification. Black tip reef sharks and the bright orange Garibaldi are easy to remember but the variations of damselfish and triggerfish can be overwhelming.

Fish ID guides, like those by Paul Humann, are a critical part of any divers bookshelf but they're not always the easiest to use if all you can remember is the general size or markings on a fish. What I've always wanted to see is a fish guide which cross-references their characteristics in greater detail and It looks like the folks at WikiDivers are doing just that.

Their fish identification guide begins with describing the characteristics of fish: body shape, fins, markings, gills, size, and body/fin configurations. Each of these includes a link to fish which have those characteristics. If your unknown fish had vertical bands, click the Bands link and a list shows you those with vertical bands.

There is a growing number of fish species already in the guide but it's a work in progress. While the main page is a great starting point with photos and links, the search results don't generate thumbnails. Bummer, because clicking through links for individual photos is no better than paging through Humann's book. The founders of WikiDivers have voiced their commitment to the site so hopefully their hard work will continue and produce an intuitive and thorough resource.

It's 2007 and hopefully you've survived another Festivus holiday. I'm looking forward to next year when I don't have to follow my 14-month-old around my in-laws' and pulling him away from tables and electrical outlets.

My scuba stocking had these great books inside...

The first, Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography, is authored by Jack and Sue Drafahl. I've only paged through but it looks like an excellent introductory guide to underwater shooting with your digital camera. There are many photos and references to new(ish) gear from point-and-shoot digitals to SLR. Topics covered include camera settings (what <i>is</i> the histogram used for?), setting proper exposure, strobes, wide-angle, macro, composition, and traveling with your gear. This is my first book on the topic and it looks like an excellent place to start.

The other is a giant coffee-table-sized thing called Ocean: The World's Last Wilderness Revealed. With a foreword by Fabien Cousteau, it's the end-all, be-all visual reference and fact guide to our seas. There are beautiful two-page photos and hundreds of diagrams describing every facet of our great seas from ocean currents to temperature to the creatures living in dark depths. It's the type of book where you can read two or three pages and move onto the next topic. If nothing else this should inspire you to get back into the water, try a new dive site, or simply impress your friends.

So what did you get for dive-related gifts?

When The Discovery Channel airs a documentary covering dinosaurs they'll devote a few minutes to aquatic life, mention the Megalodon as "King of All Oceans," and move on with the program. If we rewind the clock from Meg's 16 million years to 400 million years we find another terror in the ocean: Dunkleosteus terrelli.

This four-ton fish grew to 30+ feet in length and had bladed jaws (pic), a unique feature lacking in other marine life of the era. Through computer modeling of a fossilized head (pic), scientists determined Dunk has the most powerful bite of any fish ever to swim in the seas.

The bite to rival that of T. Rex crushed down with 11,000 pounds with 80,000 pounds per square inch at the tip of the fangs. The jaw could close in 1/50th of a second usually sucking its prey into its mouth. Dunk was a placoderm, an armored fish, preying on everything in the water including other armored fish and sharks.

If these in-shore predators lived today you'd find them in regions of Poland, Belgium, Morocco, and North America.

This week, archaeologists officially announced the discovery of a shipwreck off Spain's Mediterranean coast. Dating to the first century, the unusually large wreck -- estimated to be 100 feet long with a capacity of roughly 400 tons -- is reported to have been carrying well-preserved, 3-foot-tall clay jars used for holding fish sauce, a prized condiment for wealthy Romans. Amazingly, within the jars, archaeologists have uncovered 2,000-year-old fish bones.

Resting in only 80 feet of water, the wreck was discovered by boaters in 2000. Unfortunately, news of the wreck quickly spread, and rogue divers absconded with many of the ship's amphorae, forcing the local government to install thick metal grates over the ship to protect it. What remains of the ship lies almost entirely buried in mud. Experts believe the remaining cargo to be not nearly as exciting as 2000-year-old fish bones. Instead, they expect to find lead and copper, used for plumbing and jewelry, respectively. No word yet on whether the Romans used tartar sauce.

Aside from the U.S. Navy's testing of sonar which is linked to whale beaching, I hardly think about the impact of military action and the marine environment. This story brings the issue into sharp focus in the Middle East where the clash between Israel and Lebanon took its toll on nesting sea turtles.

One mile of beach near Mansouri provides a nesting ground to Loggerhead and Green turtles. Even with the fighting 70 and 9 nests, respectively, were laid and 5,000 hatchlings made their way to the ocean. This number may have been more had the turtle conservationists been able to stay in the area and protect the nests. Unfortunately the conflict forced them to flee. Although the fighting has ceased, the beach has become littered with plastic water bottles and other trash from marine vessels patrolling the coast.

On a bright note, Lebanese don't eat turtle for religious reasons and laws have been enacted to prohibit harvesting them.

According to the Greek Air Force, Greek military divers successfully raised the wreckage of a German World War II Stuka bomber from the sea floor last Friday. Shot down in 1942, the Junkers-87 dive-bomber has been resting 492 feet below the surface, off the island of Rhodes. Initial reports do not indicate the existence of human remains.

Out of an estimated 6,000 aircraft produced between 1936 and 1944, only two survive intact in museums, although the wrecks of three more Stukas have been salvaged. This once-feared Nazi plane will be conserved and displayed at an air force museum near Athens.

It's not terribly difficult to find details about the weather conditions of a dive destination. A quick Google search or thumbing through Sport Diver will give up the answer. Finding the information in one place may be a different story.

From Africa to the Virgin Islands, Dive Global has an alphabetized listing of dive destinations and what to expect for water conditions based on the season. It's not as nicely designed as their Critter Calendar which presents animal encounters by calendar month (hint, hint), but it's a start.

Diving deeper, longer, and into unknown places has long been the dream of many divers. Hence, the reason for increasingly advanced dive gear, more complicated gas mixtures, and specially-designed submersible-suits. If you're one of these budding explorers who just can't seem to get deep enough, then I've discovered your next trip: you'll be heading into the abyss with Deep Ocean Expeditions. Who knows, while vacationing up to 17,000 feet below the waves, you might discover a new species!

Deep Ocean is the brainchild of Australian adrenaline-junkie Mike McDowell, founder of Quark Expeditions. Deep Ocean -- as the name suggests -- explores the nether-regions of the oceans using 25-foot-long MIR submersibles. Rather than just take you down, show you around, and then surface, however, Deep Ocean "educates through exploration." In other words, you'll be treated to in-depth discussions by noted experts who will explain what you're seeing. Happily, the deep blue company is decidedly green: all their visits to the seafloor are conducted with "negligible or no impact on our oceans."

In addition to visiting hydrothermal vents around the world, Deep Ocean has taken passengers to wrecks like the Bismarck, and subs, including Komsomolets, Kursk, and the I-52; they even assisted James Cameron in the making of Ghosts of the Abyss. In the coming years, Deep Oceans' crew will be making trips to explore shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and -- in my mind, the most intriguing -- the Coral Triangle area off PNG. Unfortunately, these trips don't come cheap: according to the itinerary (PDF), a 15-day visit to PNG will cost between $4850-$6300, depending on berth selection. To help you decide if that kind of cash outlay is right for you, check out Deep Ocean's small but sweet video gallery. You'll be asking, "Where do I sign?"

[Via X-Ray Mag]

As soon as I saw this photo by Arne Kuilman, I knew it was a winner!

Arne shot this gorgeous photo in Medes, Spain. According to him, this picture was taken in front of a cave where hundreds of jellies reside. I love the way the jelly obscures the sunburst, which in turn makes the jelly appear to glow. Great, great shot. Don't forget to add your sunburst shots to Divester's Flickr pool!

We told you that recent oil spills in Lebanon threaten more than 50 miles of Lebanese beaches and 6 miles of Syrian coastline. Moreover, the spills threaten tuna, sharks, and green turtles that nest in the area. Determined to help, some UAE divers with experience in clean-up operations -- including post-tsunami Thailand -- and equipped with lift bags supplied by the Dubai Police have decided to do something about the mess.

As soon as they receive the "all clear" sign, Ibrahim Al-Zu'bi and some of the 650 members of the Emirates Diving Association will head to Lebanon to attack the environmental damage. According to Al-Zu'bi, "Members are...willing to camp on the beaches if necessary. We'll do the cleaning ourselves, it's what we've been doing for the last 11 years." With expertise in protecting coral reefs, the EDA will be educating the public, cleaning up debris, examining the reefs, performing basic fish counts, and doing anything else they need to do to save the area's environment. What a great way to help marine life and promote diving at the same time!

This story blew me away, it was like seeing the forest of the trees for the first time. We've been reporting on huge jellyfish populations, dirty water and dead zones but what is emerging, is an argument that we are turning the clock back on the the sea, to a more primitive time.

"Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This 'rise of slime,' as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people." Primeval sea creatures back on the rise.

Things like fire-weed scare the crap out of me, if you ever run into jelly fish, it's unpleasant but usually doesn't leave you with chemical burns and scars on your body.

In the article, the fisherman describes the pain as being, "It's like acid,...It kept pulling the skin off." It's gotten so bad that some of the commerical fisherman have simply given up during certain months of the year.

Great.

I for one, welcome our new primitive organism overlords

This weekend, two vessels -- the MV Karwela and the MV Cominoland -- will be scuttled off the Maltese Island of Gozo. The sinking is part of the EU's "Niche Tourism for the Island of Gozo" project. Gozo already boasts several underwater attractions -- including the famous Blue Hole -- and EU officials hope the new wrecks will increase so-called niche tourism -- in the form of diving -- for the island even more. If you live in the area, the scuttling is scheduled to begin around 1000CEST. If you don't live in the area, then you can visit the wrecks after marine life begins to collect.

[Thanks, Craig!]

Being a savvy diver and a worldly sort of person, you already know that Greece recently opened 18,000 miles of its coastline to divers. However, you might be wondering about the quality of the area's diving. Previously, we'd mentioned Crete: with great viz; thriving marine life; and plenty of floundered fishing boats and WWII-era ships in relatively shallow water, there's plenty to keep the average diver busy for a long time. But if you're looking for more details, Scuba Geek has found two great trip reports from recent dives in the area.

First, Stelios Grigoriou turned in this engaging report about diving in Athens. With water temps ranging from 51-86° F, the area immediately surrounding Athens is a bit congested due to boats. Nevertheless, most area dive sites are easily accessible by car. In fact, Grigoriou writes that Athens boasts at least "4 modern wrecks in depths permitted to recreational divers and...4 in depths reached easily by technical divers." Currents are generally not an issue, and the viz hovers in the 45-60 foot range. His only warning is that, given the number of boats in the region, it's essential that divers use dive buoys.

Second, Dimitris Kotsifakis writes about his experiences diving the island of Samothraki in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. With mountains and waterfalls ringing the dive sites, Kotsifakis claims that the diving is amazing: crystal clear water, abundant marine life, dynamic rock walls, and a variety of reef to explore.

Generally, it sounds like Greek diving, while in its infancy, has a lot to offer. It's certainly a place to keep on your short list.

Generally speaking, diving isn't a very sexy sport. Let's face it: we pull ourselves into skin-tight wetsuits that don't flatter us. We wear goofy-looking equipment that makes us wobble around the boat. And when we're finished diving, we get a weird ring around our faces, and we usually have snot dripping from our noses. We're not a sexy bunch. But that doesn't mean the places we visit can't be sexy.

In fact, the world is filled with sexy, dive-friendly islands, and if you doubt me, check out this list of the world's 10 sexiest islands. The list's makers claim that, to be "sexy," the islands had to be "neither overdeveloped nor underdeveloped"; had to maintain the right level of indulgence; had to be neither too easy (not too hard) to reach; and had to have unusual natural or cultural features. Briefly, the islands are:

1. Anguilla
2. Corsica
3. Hvar
4. Formentera
5. Lhaviyani Atoll
6. Molokai
7. Paradise Island
8. St. Barthelemy
9. Santorini
10. Sardinia

Be sure to check out the slideshow of the islands. It includes tips on where to stay and how to get there.

Algarve is far and away Portugal's most popular tourist destination with over 25 million visitors annually. Located in the extreme southern part of the country, Algarve stretches from the Spanish border on the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Despite the huge number of visitors the region receives, though, the Algarve only hosts around 25,000 dives annually. IPIMAR, a Portuguese agency dedicated to the ocean, is hoping to change that.

Recently, IPIMAR announced its desire to promote scuba diving in the region. The announcement is one component of the SUBMED -- the Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Subaquatic Tourism -- Project, which will be finalized this September. According to Miguel Neves dos Santos, a biologist for IPIMAR, the gap between the number of visitors and the number of dives made needs to be reduced, if the country wants to make scuba diving a sustainable economic activity. 

If the region is already a tourist wonderland, why are there so few divers? The good folks at Dive Inspirations speculate that it's the fault of chilly waters. (In fact, sea water temperatures range from only 57F to 71F.) Additionally, I'd like to point out that surfing vacations in this area are popular, and maybe people are turned off by rough seas. Nevertheless, this is great news for Algarve's local dive shops, like Tivoli-Diving, Marina Dive Time, Espirito Azul, and Dive-Time.

Have you been diving in the Algarve region? What did you think?