Top tip: Dive destination, Tawali resort, Papua New Guinea PNG
June 26, 2008
“PNG is perhaps the Last Diving Frontier. It’s not the easiest of places to get to but it is a destination for divers who want undiluted adventure”.
At BB-Films.com we usually plan our diving trips at least a year in advance and recently we’ve been considering out 2009 summer trip. After considering Galapagos, Hawaii, and Papua New Guinea, we’ve settled on PNG. Our reasons are simple, its relatively undiscovered and we don’t think it will be that way for much longer.
Getting to PNG truly is a monumental undertaking involving no less than 4 flights from Europe, 2 stop-overs each way and no doubt some bone-cruncing speed boat trips for the final leg. But we learned something from a previous trip to Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras that still strikes a note of truth 2 years later:
If it takes 3 days to get to, then its going to be empty… Perfect :))
In all likelihood we’ll be staying at the Tawali resort near Alotau:
“Tucked away, only accessible by boat, sits what may be Papua New Guinea’s best kept scuba diving secret - Tawali Resort. Welcome to the exotic culture of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and to Tawali Resort. Located on a volcanic bluff overlooking the clear protected waters of Milne Bay, Tawali offers travelers a unique location to dive, relax and enjoy the unspoiled wonders of this magnificent part of the world.”
Have you been diving in PNG? Any recommendations/comments/tips? Please post and let us know.
Coral Trout recover after Australian Fishing ban
June 25, 2008
BB-Films: “Is it just us? or is there odd about ’scientists’ being surprised that fishing bans lead to recovery of fish stocks.???”
Australia’s coral trout have thrived under a fishing ban on the Great Barrier Reef, showing that no-take reserves can spur dramatic comebacks in overfished ocean habitats, new research suggests.
Coral trout is the common name of about a half-dozen fish species from the grouper and cod family targeted by commercial and recreational hook-and-line fisheries in Australia.
Scientists behind the new study found that the fish bounced back within two years after no-take reserves were established.
From National Geographic: Read more
Video: Jason2 satellite luanched to track Oceans, climate change
June 23, 2008
A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched June 20 on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.
Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean. Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations.
OSTM/Jason 2’s expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. The data collection was continued by the two agencies on Jason 1 in 2001.
The mission culminates more than three decades of research by NASA and CNES in this field. This expertise will be passed on to the world’s weather and environmental forecasting agencies, which will be responsible for collecting the data. The involvement of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) as mission partners on OSTM/Jason 2 helps establish this proven research capability as a valuable tool for use in everyday applications.
From Science Daily: Read article
From National Geogrphaic: Watch video
shark immune system secretion inhibits growth of human cancer tumours…
June 20, 2008
Studies into the low rate of disease amongst sharks leads to exciting implications for human cancer treatment.
Scientists have spent 10 years using carcinogens to try to induce cancer in sharks and skates, to no avail. After turning their attention to trying to understand shark immunology, they were able to confirm that sharks have a unique lymphoid tissue, not present in any other animals, that does nothing but make immune cells.
These unusual immune cells were found, in the lab, to secrete a substance that inhibits human tumor cells. So far they’ve tested the substance–they’re still not exactly sure what it is–on 18 different human tumor cell lines, including breast and pancreatic cancer. It’s inhibited all of them.
Funding is now being sought for further testing, efforts to further understand and identify sharks’ tumor-inhibiting secretion, making it possible one day for scientists to synthesize it.
From Forbes.com: Read more
Flight of the Whale sharks
June 18, 2008
Monster sharks can execute underwater “flight” moves that would have put some fighter pilots to shame, two researchers announced this week.
Normally seen cruising slowly at the surface, the whale shark, which does not harm humans, can transform in the deep, hurling itself into a swift, steep dive like a pilot, soaring up and then down again in a series of great bounds, said researcher Rory Wilson of Swansea University in the Wales.
“It is like the way a bird dives, then soars, using its momentum and gravity to conserve as much energy as possible. It flies like a bird — but in this case, a bird as large as a bus!” Wilson said. Such behavior has never been observed in a fish before, he said.
“For the first time, we have an insight into what it is that these magnificent creatures get up to when they are out of sight of humans — and it isn’t what we expected”
From Livescience.com: Read more
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