Beauty of Komodo Island hides a deadly current

Five divers, including three Britons, have gone missing while exploring the Nusa Tenggara archipelago off the coast of Indonesia.

The seas around Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara archipelago are among the most unpredictable and dangerous in the tropics.

This is the area where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, where cold water wells up from the abyss, creating a mosaic of tidal races and whirlpools. There is little boat traffic, save for local subsistence fishermen and the occasional ferry. For a lost diver drifting at the surface, it is a vast and hostile environment.

Divers visit these islands because all that roiling water brings nutrients that power one of the world’s richest eco-systems. Komodo Island – famous for the endemic giant lizards known as Komodo dragons – sits at the heart of the archipelago, and has some of the best dives in South East Asia.

From the timesonline: Read more

In Octopus’s Garden, Sex Is Sleuthy

Marine biologists studying wild octopuses have found a kinky and violent society of jealous murders, gender subterfuge and once-in-a-lifetime sex.

The new study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who journeyed off the coast of Indonesia found that wild octopuses are far from the shy, unromantic loners their captive brethren appear to be.

The scientists watched the Abdopus aculeatus octopus, which are the size of an orange, for several weeks and published their findings recently in the journal Marine Biology.

They witnessed picky, macho males carefully select a mate, then guard their newly domesticated digs so jealously that they would occasionally use their 8- to 10-inch tentacles to strangle a romantic rival to death.

From Discovery News: Read more