The murky world of police scuba divers

Underwater search teams are a familiar sight during major police investigations. In a recent triple murder investigation in Bradford, they were a photographed as they made the grisly search for evidence that may have been dumped in the river.

But what is it like to make a living probing the country's murkiest recesses?

One officer who has to contend with these challenges on a daily basis is Sgt Steve Howe, 39, who has served with Northumbria Police's Marine Unit for eight years and admits that nothing could have prepared him for the murky reality of Tyneside and Wearside's hidden depths.
"If you're claustrophobic, it's definitely not for you," he said.

"About 90per cent of the time you have absolutely no visibility. You've always got the danger of entanglement. And let's face it, it isn't very pleasant when you're called out at 3am in February."

For the full story, log on the the BBC online magazine.

So you want to be a scuba diving instructor? Part 1

There I was sitting at the desk on my IE, the PADI Standards and Procedures exam opened in front of me and a row of fruit and herbs in front of me.
I was stuck on question 32, trying to work out how a peach related to the Open Water course.
Now before you start looking for the soft fruit section in the Instructor Manual, this turned out to be a dream. Or was it a nightmare?
So you can guess the pressure I had put myself under to qualify as a PADI instructor.

I had not really wanted to be an instructor. I was happy when I qualified as a Divemaster. The position seemed to fit perfectly. I was good at the logistics, the running around behind the scenes, the friendly sergeant type who students could go to for advice and help.

And then came a dive in Egypt. Within our group were two youngsters. One seemed to have a problem getting down and the guide seemed to signal to him to surface on his own and find the boat. As I was diving in a team of three (my wife and another English guest) I decided to step in. They could buddy each other and I could help the youngster. In the end the dive passed off without incident but it got me thinking about my diving future. At the same time while on holiday my boss 'kindly' called to say my job was at risk. Again, my future came to the fore.

So I got back and signed up for my AI with Aquasport.

Now my knowledge, dive skills and presentation style were really put to the test. I didn't see the pool as a problem, but the classroom was another story.

More later.

World Ocean Day

Today, June 8 is World Ocean Day and Project Aware is urging you to spend two minutes and join AWARE Divers worldwide demanding that sharks be given a fighting chance.

Each year, tens of millions of sharks are killed by Earth’s most dangerous predators – humans. Too many of them fall victim to the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning – the act of removing shark fins and discarding the often still alive shark overboard.

According to the PADI consevation group, Governments have ignored scientific evidence and advice in favour of short-term economic interests at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), March 2010.

They failed to give eight threatened shark species the trade protections they deserve.

Despite set-backs, thanks to advocates like you, sharks have received recent, historical national protections in Europe, Maldives and Palau. Together, we will make a difference for these critical species.

To express your outrage at the recent CITES failures, sign the petition. Your signature, together with thousands of divers and advocates worldwide, will demand government parties to CITES heed science and protect fragile ocean ecosystems.

Thanks to your support we’re giving sharks a fighting chance.

June 8 was officially recognised as World Oceans Day as a result of a United Nations General Assembly resolution passed in December 2008.

The concept for a “World Ocean Day” was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and it had been unofficially celebrated every year since then.

Since 2002, The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network have helped to promote and coordinate World Oceans Day events worldwide.

Designation of World Oceans Day provides an important boost to those organizations and individuals who have been deeply committed to ocean conservation. Official UN designation is another important step toward improving the health of our world's ocean.

The Deep at the Natural History Museum

The deep dark ocean. You could be forgiven for thinking the inky black depths are devoid of life. But a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum is offering a rare glimpse at the life that lives hundreds of metres below the waves.

This is an area rich in weird and wonderful alien looking creatures, marine life that has adapted to the seemingly inhospitable darkness and pressure to eek out an existence far from the gaze of man.



But using discoveries of the past and present, the Deep exhibition has revealed how some of the strange creatures live their lives. From the fish that use bioluminesence to disguise themselves or to hunt to those that dislocate their jaws to swallow prey greater than their own body weight.

These are also creatures with big teeth - you never know how long it might be until your next meal comes along so its best to keep hold of what you get. Having spent a couple of hours walking around the exhibition, I was over-awed.



The oceans cover seven-tenths of the Earth's surface with an average depth of almost 4km, but plummeting in places to 11km deep.

Amazingly, (as I discovered when given a Project Aware teaching presentation on my PADI instructor exam) the oceans provide about 190 times as much living space as all of the Earth's other environments - that's soil, air and fresh water put together.


Until the Challenger expedition of 1872, little was known about what lived in the depths of the ocean, beyond the twilight zone and into the perpetual darkness deeper than 1km. Over four years the expedition discovered much of what we now know to be true.



And with much of the ocean still to be explored (more men have stepped on the moon than have been to the deepest depths of the ocean) scientists are continually discovering new things - some of them very surprising.

The Deep exhibition reveals some rare specimens and models from shimmering jellyfish and scary angler fish to giant spider crabs and colossal squid. At the centre of the exhibition is a real sperm whale skeleton that has never been on display before.

The record for the deepest fish goes to Abyssobrotula galatheae, a member of Ophidiidae family. It was dredged from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench at a depth of 8,368m in 1970.

The largest known deep sea fish is the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, which grows to over 7m in length. However, it doesn't spend all its time in the deep sea. It also comes up to the surface to eat offal thrown overboard from fishing boats.

Lucky diver gets ticket to dive

LUCKY Marc Oliver Williams has got a ticket to dive after landing a sponsorship deal as part of a EasyJet promotion for its new flights to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt from Manchester.
The airline has given Mr Williams a ticket that entitles him to free return trips to Sharm el Sheikh.
He will therefore be able to complete the 60 recorded dives required to gain a PADI Divemaster qualification.
Ali Gayward, easyJet's commercial manager, said: 'We're excited to be operating yet another new route from Manchester and what better way to celebrate making a top diving spot more accessible to the north-west than helping a local scuba diver to achieve his dream of becoming a dive professional?'
The airline is offering three weekly services to the popular Egyptian holiday destination from Manchester.
Andrew Harrison, the airport's commercial director, said Egypt's location outside the euro area means it is proving one of the most popular countries for holidaymakers.