Missing link found for scuba divers' friend the seal

Scuba diving with seals has to be among the best marine life interactions we could hope for.

On a trip to the Farne Islands, off the east coast of England, last year we had some amazing moments in their playground as the inquisitive mammals nipped, nibbled, scrutinized and played with us, zipping around like undersea missiles and then displaying breathtaking underwater acrobatics.

Now a scientist's exciting discovery in Canada's High Arctic has yielded the 24 to 20 million-year-old fossil skeleton of a previously unknown mammal, named Puijila darwini, providing a glimpse into the origins of the species.

The Canadian Museum of Nature said the breakthrough sheds new light on the early evolution of pinnipeds (the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses).

Dr Natalia Rybczynski said: "The land-to-sea transition in pinnipeds has been difficult to study because the fossil evidence has been weak and contentious.

"Puijila is important because it provides a first glimpse into the earliest stages of this important evolutionary transition."

The fossil was found in the summer of 2007 during a fieldwork expedition on Devon Island, Nunavut, in a meteor impact crater.

The new animal has a body resembling that of an otter, but a skull that is more closely related to seals and backs up the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin forecast the transition from land to sea via fresh water in his seminal work On the Origin of Species, published 150 years ago this year.

A "walking seal", Puijila had legs like a terrestrial mammal, but the feet were webbed and adapted for swimming. A website has been set up detailing the discovery and the importance of the breakthrough.

Life in the Deep Ocean

As scuba divers, we are always interested in what lies just beneath the surface of the waves. Arriving at a dive site, we want to know what we might see in the 30m beneath us. Will it be sharks, barracuda, anemone fish? Will there be a surprise like a whale shark cruising past us on the reef like in Egypt?

Beyond that depth, and with the exception of TV documentaries, few of us ever get the chance to glimpse at life in the inky blackness. Until now.

The Eye-in-the-Sea (EITS) was designed by ORCA’s Dr. Edie Widder to find out what is living at the dizzying depths us humans cannot venture. And ORCA's website provides live streaming footage of what happens in front of the cameras on a deep-water mooring in the Monterey Canyon.



Using a cabled observatory, scientists can see their experimental results every day, collecting data continuously for months at a time and stream the video to shore finally providing a live window into the deep-sea.

Scuba Diving: 180 metres on Yolanda

Most of us UK scuba divers will have dived Shark and Yoland Reef.
Yolanda is one of the most popular sites in Ras Mohammed, in the Red Sea and most of us will have pics of the rows of bathtubs and porcelain toilets - and even the captain's BMW - that were dumped on the sea bed when the ship hit the reef in April 1980.

But what about the rest of the wreck?

The ship initially stood have out of the water was pushed to 50m at the start of 1987 following a big storm and then disappeared into the blue in March the same year.
And there she lay, out of site for more than 20 years.

The wreckage was discovered in 2007 by Leigh Cunningham who conducted several dives on the site and pinpointed its actual position and documented some of the wrecks intricacies.

Now a video has surfaced on YouTube of techie scuba diver Oxana Istratova and the Red Sea Explorers Team heading down to the depths and showing what's left of the Cypriot merchant ship.


The divers started the dive at 757 and spent a total of 261 minutes in the water. They documented the trip in great detail and aside from Oxana having a leak in her dry suit leaving her pretty cold on the last segment of the decompression, it went smoothly.

For a full report of the dive by Oxana and Faisal log on to Red Sea Explorers. It also includes the full run time schedule of the dive and the deco gases they used - and the best dive profile graph you could possibly have.

scuba divers swept out to sea in Cornwall

Seven scuba divers on the first sea expedition had to be rescued after being swept out to sea of
Porthgwarra near Lands End.
Falmouth Coastguard officials said walkers spotted the divers and called for help on April 12.
The crew of an inshore lifeboat found five of the scuba divers about a quarter mile off Gwennap head while the other two were rescued after being spotted by a rescue helicopter.
Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager Marc Thomas said if they had not been rescued so swiftly, they have been carried to the Isles of Scilly.
"The currents in that particular area are strong and it is easy to be swept away.
"They weren't aware of the strong tidal conditions in the area and did not have a safety boat with them on scene. I strongly advise any less experienced shore divers to dive in more sheltered and less tidal conditions."
In a separate incident on the same day a 51-year-old diver from Threlkeld in Cumbria was airlifted to hospital suffering with the symptoms of decompression sickness following dive 22 miles off the east coast of Fife in Scotland.
The man had just completed a 48 metre dive when he started suffering with head aches, dizziness and vomiting.
Forth Coastguard Watch Manager Stephen Higgins said: "A swift call to the Coastguard is absolutely crucial if divers suspect decompression sickness. Minutes can save lives.
"It was a perfectly normal dive, the diver completed all his stops and yet he still suffered with decompression sickness."

Dive calendar

While I might appear as shallow as a 5m safety stop, there is a reason for including these images of pretty gals in the almost all-together.



Dive insurance specialist Scubasure has created their first exclusive calendar.

They claim to offer 12 beautiful girls, 12 stunning shots that runs from this month to next April in line with the traditional UK dive season.



More importantly, it features dates of use to us divers.

The calendar is £6 including. They are also using the proceeds to support a number of cancer related charities following the death of Jade Goody