Returning to the Abyss

Ocean ‘X Factor’ to reach deepest point will net £6m.

Fifty years ago today two men sealed themselves inside a tiny steel sphere and were lowered over the side of a ship in the Western Pacific. For the next four hours they dropped steadily down through the ocean depths. A porthole cracked, shaking the craft, but they continued. Within another hour they reached the deepest point in the ocean, 11 kilometres down.

No human has returned since then, prevented by the high cost and technological challenges of withstanding the crushing pressures in the deep. But later this year the X Prize foundation will offer at least $10 million (£6 million) for the first privately funded craft to make two repeat visits to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

According to Francis Beland, a senior adviser for the Ocean X Prize, among the likely contenders are Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, and James Cameron, the director of Titanic, The Abyss and Avatar. Both men are passionate about ocean exploration.

BB-Films comment: Coming soon via live feed to an Imax theatre near you!

From Times online: Full Article

Is there still time to save the seas?

The ocean is acidifying and coral reefs are dying. And it will only get worse until we rein in our emissions.

[BB-films note: from time to time I think it's worth stepping back and thinking about how we are amongst the last generation of divers that are going to be able to enjoy the World's oceans as they are today. Given the predictably pathetic lack of global consensus and infantile bickering over agreed effective combined actions at the UN summit in Copenhagen, the sad but true answer is that it is now (and perhaps has been for some time) too late to avoid widespread and permanent catastrophic changes to the World's oceans and seas. What's left for us now is to dive them, enjoy them, document them and teach our grandchildren about our experiences of a natural wonder that they can no longer enjoy, in part, thanks to us. The upside is that the faster we speed our impending extinction, the faster the planet can get back to equilibrium and the next cycle of life can begin.]

The glistening back of a whale sends ripples across the surface of the Arctic Ocean. Terns wheel overhead, while in the crisp, clear water beneath, tiny translucent sea snails flap their feet like butterfly wings against a shimmering backdrop of fish. The ocean is boundless, timeless and about as far away from Man as it’s possible to get. But not far enough.

The waters of the Arctic are changing faster than anywhere else on the planet. Glaciers are melting ever quicker and the sea ice is retreating, but these are only the physical effects of the fumes pouring from humanity’s smokestack. Our emissions are shifting the ocean’s chemistry too, and the combination is shaking the very foundations of its biology.

Just as ocean currents encircle the world, so too will these transformations. By mid-century the reefs shielding the Maldives will be eroding faster than they can grow. And out beyond the reefs’ ash-grey remains, a still more sinister threat will be reaching up from the depths.

Standing on a clifftop gazing out at the wild sea, it’s easy to feel the ocean’s power to recharge. Marine life is at once the lungs and the kidneys of the planet, providing half its oxygen, recycling its nutrients and absorbing its waste. Take a deep breath of that fresh sea air, and your chest swells with the scent of ocean life.

If the UN summit in Copenhagen ends with more half-hearted commitments, come the middle of the century you — and the other 80 per cent of the world’s population who live within 100km of the coast — had better think twice before drinking in that sea breeze. The characteristic scent is the product of microscopic, surface-dwelling plankton, but rival species are on the rise. A lungful of their fragrance leaves not the feeling of freedom but toxic irritation.

From The Times Online.
Full Article here.

The truth about the Sardine Run

Having just bought my new Sony EX1 video camera, Green Force HID 250 lights and corresponding Gates housing I made up my mind to “break it in” with one of the underwater world’s greatest and most challenging spectacles, the Sardine Run off the Wild Coast, South Africa.

The Sardine Run is billed as “the greatest shoal on earth”, “a unique experience” and “pure adrenaline from start to finish” a chance to follow the annual migration of millions of sardines along South Africa’s Wild Coast driven by a cold water current that heads north from the Agulhas Bank to Mozambique. Shoals can be over 7km long with isolated “bait balls” being decimated by a veritable plethora of predators including a variety of sharks, dolphins, cape gannets, seals and occasionally orcas, albatross and penguins. Although not connected to the sardine run feeding frenzy, this time of year (June & July) also coincides with the annual migration of humpback whales through the same body of water.

Man was I up for a bit of that!

After a few days of Internet research and great email feedback from all the operators I got in touch with, it transpires that Port St. Johns is the recognised epicentre of diver activity on the Wild Coast during the Sardine Run (incidentally, its the ass-end-of-nowhere for the rest of the year). My decision on which operator to go with came from a recommendation by Trevor Krull who pioneered shark diving trips on Protea Banks further north near Durban and who has many years experience diving and photographing the Sardine Run. Trevor recommends one operator, Scuba Addicts (www.scubaaddicts.co.za) which may be a personal preference of his or may, as he says, be the only responsible operator that he knows taking tourist divers down to the sardine run. In any case, for better or worse, I stuck with his advice and booked a week’s diving during late June.

Apart from the barn-stormingly nuts idea of deciding to do the Sardine Run in the first place, your next big decision once you’ve selected an operator is deciding on which week you want to go. This is not quite as complicated as it might sound since you have absolutely no chance whatsoever of second-guessing when the sardines are going to run or what the weather, visibility and other conditions will be like that far ahead. My advice (to myself anyway) was to choose one week as close to the middle of the June/July period and hope for the best. As it turned out this was the only week that was available anyway.

During the Sardine Run only, ScubaAddicts operates out of Cremorne (www.cremorne.co.za), a simple, no frills, idyllic, river-side fishing resort with easy access for the dive boats to get out onto the Umzimvubu River, past the sand banks and river mouth surf at Port St Johns and out into the open ocean. Five stars it was not but that’s not what you want from a place to rest up and swap diving stories at the bar in between your expensive Sardine Run dive outings. I would recommend Cremorne without hesitation as the place to stay. It’s clean, functional, warm and friendly but most importantly, its close to the action.

If you’re in the area for a while and are looking for something a bit more up-market, then the Umngazi River Bungalows (www.umngazi.co.za) is absolutely stunning and everything you’d want from an isolated top-rate Wild Coast retreat. I stayed there during my non-diving weeks and overdosed on their excellent bungalow accommodation, food, activities, spa, river trips, beautiful (deserted) beach, hill walks etc. Considering how much there is to do and see within a day-trip driving distance of Port St. Johns, you’re more than likely going to want to spend longer than a week in the area. Two out of three weeks were sight-seeing and beach chilling with the third devoted to the Sardine Run – or at least that was the plan until the weather had other ideas…

I have now been to South Africa on holiday twice, both times ostensibly on diving trips, once to Cape Town four years ago to do cage diving with great whites and this June to do the Sardine Run. I now understand fully that the weather is absolutely the key random factor that can make or break a diving trip to SA. It is complex, unpredictable, essential and can be a total bitch. Within days of being in-country every diver suddenly becomes a budding amateur meteorologist. You wake up and the first thing on your mind is wind indicators, cloud density/type, sunrise colour etc and try to divine its likely affect on the day’s diving conditions. Although weather is an essential consideration when choosing any diving destination it is even more so when talking about the Sardine Run which occurs in June, pretty much in the middle of the SA winter. A fact which is both necessary in order for the north-east-bound currents to drop below 21 degrees (C) and the sardines to run, but also means that your chances of experiencing good visibility, navigable surf, clear skies and smooth seas are lets say, less than optimal.

Unfortunately for me, the weather was on its worst behaviour during my booked diving week with a combination of rain, storms and huge surf, made worse by the high Spring tide – another complicating weather factor – and 3 out 5 of my diving days were a total bust. For some in the group, the surf didn’t seem to be “that bad”, the sea not “so rough” but all such naive thoughts were dispelled once we heard the stories that evening in the bar of the production film crews that braved the elements only to have to turn back with absolutely nothing to show for their sea-sickening efforts.

One sure sign that I was at least in the right place at the right time though, was the presence of some very well known videographer/film-makers in and around Port St Johns including Bob Cranston, the award-winning underwater cameraman for BBC and National Geographic Explorer. Having been there for 6 weeks with a full crew and some *very* expensive equipment it was of little satisfaction to hear that they too had very little to show for their efforts due to the “unusually poor weather”.

Not everything was a complete loss however, there were 3 days which we actually managed to get through the viciously-breaking incoming surf and venture out into the coastal waters of the Wild Coast. Never mind that at times the waves was 6m high from peak to trough and ignoring the seasick old French lady blowing chunks over the side. I even came to terms with the dull over-cast sky that wasn’t exactly going to flood my target subjects in bright, warm, detail-enhancing ambiance – it didn’t matter, we were out, I had my new equipment and I was going to try my damnedest to get that ultimate Sardine Run shot, you know, the one where the sharks/dolphins break through a swirling mass of sardines revealing sunlight on the water surface through the gap before being swallowed up once more by however many tons of bait-balling fish. If not then at least I was going to capture some cape gannets dive-bombing through the surface leaving a torpedo trail of bubbles on their way to claiming their fishy prize. Game on, lets go!

Yeah right, it didn’t take very long to put that little fantasy back in the bullsh*t box where it belongs.

On our first successful outing spirits were high and conditions looked just about as good as they were going to be: relatively calm waters, clear skies and all around us were thousands of cape gannets and hundreds of dolphins breaking the surface in twos and threes, circling around patches of water with the whole business spanning some 500m in width. At first sight the scene is pure chaos and we listened intently to our knowledgeable skipper (Anthony from African Ocean Charters: www.africanoceancharters.co.za) as he explained the behaviour of the birds, the differences between the dolphin and shark species and the probable areas of ‘action’ under the surface with bait-balls and sharks. We quickly learned where to look as it is only when the gannets are diving that they actually make any noise, a kind of hellish screeching appeared to me to be saying “mine, mine, mine” as the bird gracefully drops from the sky, tucks its wings, accelerates amazingly quickly and vanishes below the water surface.

To us tourist divers the action was all around us but to the experienced eye the bait-balls were few and far apart which meant being in the right spot at the right time was very difficult to manage. Heading over at top speed in our twin-outboard semi-rigid would most likely mean that action would be over and done by the time we got there – and we saw this happen on more than one occasion as we watched some of the less experienced (or more pressured) captains rushing about like complete lunatics.

Anthony patiently waited and watched and then successfully manoeuvred us into the path of a few small oncoming patches of action. I noticed a look of concern passed between the captain and our dive guide as they gauged the clarity of the water which to be honest did not look too good. In fact, I’ve seen clearer soup. Nevertheless we were given the go-ahead to dive but since everything was moving so fast underwater, scuba as not really an option. Whilst I’d known this was a probability it was only when faced with dropping into the ocean with 15kg+ dead weight of camera gear and lights and weight belt that I wished I’d been more thorough in my fitness prep for the ‘holiday’ and hadn’t smoked quite as much this year. OK, the gear is practically neutral buoyant in the water but I challenge you not to be a little nervous on our first time out with such a rig and no BCD! With both hands managing the camera gear I had to forgo the 1m long ’shark-stick’ which my fellow divers held on to for dear life with instructions only to use it as a prod if a shark gets too close into your ‘personal space’. My plan was to keep my back to the group, thus protecting that avenue of approach and use the camera gear for defense of the frontal zone – after all I wouldn’t be too gutted with a shot of a shark biting the housing!

Bobbing about on the surface like a group of nervous first-timers (which really we were despite being a very respectable collection of dive-masters and instructors…) we gradually gained some confidence and snorkelled out following the direction of the captains’ extended finger and saw… well, not a lot really.

With head above the surface the scene was filled with diving gannets, dolphins breaking the surface etc but the moment you put your head under the water the only thing to be seen was a murky green emptiness – apart from the occasional shadow of dolphin or shark almost imperceptible at distance of only 5m, the closest we came to a bait-ball was 20 or so bait fish hiding under the shadow of the boat, not enough really to get the attention of any passing predators that’s for sure.

It dawned on me the captain’s warning to stick together as a group and not to be tempted to break off and dive down on your own and be mindful of the fact that there are literally hundreds of sharks sharing the same immediate body of water. In these conditions I realised that the sharks could sense us but not see us and we had absolutely no idea where they were, what mood they were in or how much like prey we did or did not appear to them. To a certain extend we were all there for the element of danger but this was getting close to foolishness.

There was another couple of dive attempts on scuba over a couple of days which were generally met with the same degree of success, poor visibility and fast-moving small packets of action that were so fleeting and unpredictable that there was no chance to get within visible range (5 to 10m) unless the bait-ball shifted towards you and literally surrounded you. An situation that I was reliably informed by very experienced guides that you do not want to find yourself in under any circumstances. Allegedly the best course of action if you should find yourself in the middle of a bait-ball is to drop down below the shoal, yes into the shark zone, and let the shoal pass over before returning to the surface. Yeah, sounds easy when you put it like that…

The story is told around the bar in Cremorne of the Japanese film crew who came to film a reconstruction of a tourist that got bitten by a shark on the Sardine Run in exactly that scenario – the shoal shifted, surrounded him and a shark came through and mistook his arm for a juicy fish. After insisting that he be deposited in the center of a bait-ball, as a condition for the guide team getting their full bonus, the cameraman was duly introduced to what must be one of the most panic-inducing experiences of the ocean realm – and held there firmly by his first stage at arms length of an obliging dive guide for the couple of minutes it took to reflect carefully on the phrase “be careful what you wish for, you might just get it!”. Needless to say his bowels didn’t share is mind’s initial confidence in his ability to handle the situation…

On my long trip back home I had plenty of time to reflect on the holiday and the Sardine Run experience. Many of my fellow divers on the trip would have described it as a non-experience and there was certainly plenty of money-back demands directed at the dive operators.

Personally I have a different view. For me its comforting to know that in this fast-moving, on-demand, consumer-driven world we live in, some things cannot be commanded or arranged to suit. This is nature at its wildest, totally unpredictable and the rewards are huge for those who are extremely lucky (very occasionally) and those who have simply earned the right through patience, perseverance and hard work. Operators cannot be held responsible to nature for delivering on their marketing material, they have a business to run and the risk is quite rightly on us drop-in, part-time, thrill-seeking divers.

This year we were particularly unlucky as the Run didn’t really get going and the weather was really unseasonably poor. Everyone suffered, divers and operators alike. I’m pretty sure that the tips were pretty thin on the ground and perhaps damaged reputations will be harder to overcome next year. But I don’t really see that its fair to play the blame-game, we all went for the experience and we have to take away what we can from it. For me personally it was a different experience to the one expected but nonetheless, South Africa has an amazing array of experience on offer and as usual I enjoyed every minute of it.

I know now that this Sardine Run trip was just a taster/introduction for me to really see what’s involved and what it will take from me to have the experience I’m looking for. It was far from a waste of time or money and is something that I will be repeating every 3-4 years for as long as I am an able-bodied diver. I’m hooked.

I know now that I must be fitter, more experienced and more patient and if its going to be done properly then I need to be there for longer and to start further south and follow the shoal up the coast. Sure it will involve much more time and money and I’m not a rich guy by any means – but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

I want that shot more than ever!

Thank you President Toribiong (Palau)

President Johnson Toribiong of the tiny Pacific replublic of Palau is to create the world’s first “shark sanctuary”, banning all commercial shark fishing in its waters.

With half of the world’s oceanic sharks at risk of extinction, conservationists regard the move as “game-changing”.

It will protect about 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles) of ocean, an area about the size of France. President Toribiong will also call for a global ban on shark-finning, the practice of removing the fins at sea.

“These creatures are being slaughtered and are perhaps at the brink of extinction unless we take positive action to protect them,” said President Toribiong.

“Their physical beauty and strength, in my opinion, reflects the health of the oceans; they stand out,”

From BBC News

Gallery: Satellite view of Bahamas Ocean sands

Though you would be forgiven for thinking this picture a work of abstract art, it is actually a photograph of the Bahamas Ocean Sands captured by the Earth-orbiting Landsat 7 satellite.

Ocean currents in the Bahamas made the sand-and-seaweed sculpture in much the same way that winds create sand dunes in the Sahara.

NASA’s Earth Observatory has announced the ten most popular pictures of our home planet from its Image of the Day catalog, the culmination of a user-voted contest marking the tenth anniversary of the observatory’s Web site.

From “The best pictures of Earth: Reader pics of NASA Shots” Gallery, NationalGeographic.com

For full gallery, click HERE

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