Underwater News
Killer Times with Killer Whales
Join us on one of the most exciting of our Big Animal Expeditions in one of the world's most beautiful locations.
During Norway's frigid winter, its majestic Arctic coastline and stunning fjords attract voluminous schools of herring, which in turn attract pods of Orcas. After determining the direction baitfish are being chased by resident Orcas, we will pursue these magnificent mammals until we can slip silently into the water for close up views and photographs of these magnificent mammals satiating their huge appetites.
The trip is greater enhanced by the pod's social behavior. Not unlike the humpback whales unique "bubbling" feeding technique, Orcas display an activity called "carouseling". Swimming under schools of herring, they exhale volumes of air bubbles to separate herring schools. Separated and carried helplessly towards the surface, smaller bait balls make easy pickings for hungry pods.
An activity witnessed by only a handful of snorkelers allows you the privilege to view the whale during its unique feeding behavior. Quietly, two of us at a time will slip into the water to observe the pod feeding. While we are snorkeling and free-diving, Orcas, curious by nature, will amaze us with very cl...
The trip is a bit long but my wife Agnese and me we got used.
And so, after 26 hours flying from Milan to Cebu, we have to drive three hours to reach the Sampaguita Resort in Moal Boal. We arrive at 8pm and after a tasty dinner and a couple of mojitos we go to the room for a good night's sleep. The next day, an employee comes to wake us up because... It's already time for lunch! When we get out from our bungalow we immediately appreciate the sunshine, the garden, the palm trees and the view of the sea.
We realize now that we will spend the holiday in very relaxing and enjoyable place. The resort is very simple and basic but the great thing is that after a couple of days you feel to be at home.
The bar's terrace restaurant is very cozy and is situated directly on the reef.
After lunch we bring our diving equipment to the diving center, and then we check and fit all our cameras in their housings: two housing for dslr cameras, one for a compact one, six strobes, four cameras, cables, batteries, arms, glasses...about seventy pounds of stuff! Of course we know that most of our dives will be dedicated to macro photography. Once everything is settled we go for a dive to test all our equipment.
We can do unlimited dives on local reefs, and every day we'll mak...
April 2015: Finally, after months of waiting, the time has come to make the TOP journey we were longing for.
We left Italy, via Madrid and Miami, and arrived in San Jos?. The next day, from the port of Punta Arenas, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, we boarded the Okeanos Aggressor, a boat 36 meters long, capable of 10 cabins for 20 guests in addition to the crew.
Exquisitely greeted by the captain, his deputy and the crew, after a welcome aperitif and a crew and boat introduction, we finally left towards the Isla Del Coco.
During the 36 hours sailing needed to cover the 300 nautical miles, we met the other guests. Surprisingly, on board there's a group of seven Italians including us, while the others come from various Countries, including the US, Canada, France, Switzerland, Mexico, and even Israel.
Expectations about the holiday grew during the crossing, since one of our Italian fellow travelers is a regular visitor of Cocos (this will be his fourth cruise, the last in 2011), and showed us videos and photos of his previous trips.
Isla Del Coco, considered one of the best diving destinations in the world for encounters with hammerhead sharks and other pelagic fish such as manta rays, whale, gray, tiger and Galapagos sharks, i...
Popular Dive Sites around Tioman Island
Tiger Reef
As far as I'm concerned, this is the most beautiful dive site in Tioman without a doubt. This submerged underwater pinnacle, situated between Pulau Labas and Pulau Sepoi, begins at 12 m deep and slides down to deeper than 40 m, embracing small boulders & caves covered with colorful soft coral and underwater swim-through formations in between, which makes perfect for wide-angle photography. The rock formation is simply amazing because everything is covered in soft coral, hard corals, sea whips, crinoids, sea fans and barrel sponges. The coral life here is relatively well-preserved because this site is rarely dived. Strong currents often bring schools of yellow snappers, fusiliers, barracudas, jacks, turtles and sharks whilst colorful tropical reef fish such as angelfish, butterfly fish, emperor angelfish and parrot fish, etc.often wander carelessly through diversely shaped sea fans & barrel sponge corals at the deepest part. At 45-48m deep, there is also a weirdly shaped sponge coral area, looking like a kind of sculpture museum, which is the best theme park that I've ever visited.
Bahara Rock / Bahara Light House
Locally knwon as Tokong Bahara, this is my second favorite dive site on ...
Usually the word we all love, diving, always gives us the idea of sea, sun, tropical temperatures and nobody would think to go in the middle of winter to Norway to enter the water with killer whales and humpback whales.
The journey is very difficult because, once you reach Oslo, it takes another two flights, with few frequencies, to get to Andenes, a small town on the tip of a fjord in the middle of the North Sea.
In January, the sunlight is very little, about 5 hours, and the sun rises just a few degrees above the horizon.
Nevertheless, I assure you that, except for the very cold and the dark that still creates a very special atmosphere, the emotions that you can experience in a trip of this kind are endless, both in the water and in the fantastic landscapes culminating with the opportunity of watching the amazing spectacle of the Northern Lights.
The trip needs to be very well organized and nothing should be left to chance.
The apartments where to stay are very few and hotels and practically non-existent. You land at an airport having a small room where collecting your luggage and just one employee.
From there, you calmly exit to the square serving also as a small parking lot.
I traveled with
Sharks are one of, if not the most widely recognized fish in our oceans. They invoke a wide range of emotions from fear to inspiration and everything in between. People that fear sharks and think of them as mindless killing machines don't know a fraction of the story. Don't let television drama fool you, truth is, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than be bitten by a shark. People that are bitten are usually mistaken for a normal prey item or are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter your opinion of them, they are important to us and our oceans. Sharks are at the top of their respective food chains and regulate populations of species below thus keeping oceanic ecosystems in check.
There are more than 440 described species of sharks and they come in a variety of sizes. They range from the deep water dwarf Lanternshark, Etmopterus perryi, which maxes out at about 17 cm to the Whale shark, Rhincodon typus, which reaches approximately 12 m. Often identified by most people as a shark by their distinct fin structure, the modern shark as we know it has been around for roughly 100 million years. Although they looked very different than modern day sharks, fossil evidence has been found that shows sharks existing roughly 420-450 million years ago.
Sh...
The alarm rings at half past five. At six the boat of "Solo Buceo" diving awaits us on the back of the Sotavento Hotel in Cancun, where there is a channel connected with the open sea.
Still sleepy we enjoy the spectacle of the sun rising over the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, while we circumnavigate the northern extremity of Isla Mujeres. After about an hour of navigation finally we reach this vast area of the sea in which a large number of whale sharks from all the Caribbean meet in the summer months due to the large presence of bonitos eggs that the currents concentrate here.
Soon begin to appear the first dorsal fins that cut the smooth surface of the sea. There are many spaced a few tens of meters. We reduce the speed up to stop and while drifting reaches us under the boat one of these huge beasts, so already from the boat we can see the grey back with the unmistakable grating of vertical and horizontal streaks clearer alternating series of white spots.
Wasting no time, with great excitement and emotion we wear fins and mask, grab cameras and dive in these warm waters to meet these large, harmless sharks in their natural environment. Putting our head
under the water we can see more than one with a single glance, so we start finning...
AN UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE !!
Something that frightens many but in the same time attracts few very brave divers is diving under ice.
Diving under ice is one of the most extreme conditions that a diver can face. In most cases there is only one hole in ice where a diver can enter or exit. An ice saw or a chain saw is used to cut a hole in the ice. That's why whole ice diving experience is an extraordinary chance to see the ice from a different perspective, and cold water itself is a one more challenge which requires special diving equipment that's been used in cold water such as dry suits to avoid hypothermia, regulators designed for cold water use, etc. Besides the experience, divers have to be certified in order to use this special equipment.
Because of the water temperature that ranges between 4?C and 0?C in fresh water, and approximately 1.9?C for normal salinity sea water it is mandatory to use dry suits, gloves and hoods. Nevertheless the risks of hypothermia and freezing are significant. It is equally important to be protected also at surface, because the dive sites are usually very cold and windy.
Ice water has a huge effect on a diving regulator. It is necessary to have two first stages that are atta...
The Natural History Museum has now officially become the charming and cozy choice for the International Competition of Underwater Photography Deep-City of Venice, now in its seventh edition. The exhibition of thirty-three winning images in the Galleria Cetacean under the impressive whale skeleton has ever seen as the influx of hundreds of Italian and foreign visitors. Ninety participants from the United States, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Indonesia, England, Norway and Italy have submitted three hundred ninetytwo underwater photographs taken around the world.
The photographers competed in the categories SLR and Compact cameras, divided into Macro and Wide angle Tropical and Mediterranean. Added to this are the categories Crabs, dedicated to the Museum, Plastic Sea, born from a project of Eleonora De Sabata in collaboration with Medsharks, and Donna Fotosub. Claudio Bertasini, Gianni Neto and Giuseppe Pignataro had to struggle hard to select the top ten photos of each category because of the high technical level. Isabella Maffei wins again the prize Woman Fotosub, while the Spanish Elisabeth Espinalt yook the first place in the category Crabs, which was attended by 68 competitors. The ranking still speaks Spanish thanks to the laurels that have ...
I'm on board: Sachika Safari boat. I want to see "big stuff" and this is the perfect place... Life is like that: being in the right place at the right time. And this is the right boat...
It 'just after dawn and we are going to have the first dive.
6:15 am. A cup of tea and I'm ready to set my photographic equipment. The dhoni crew have already set up and checked the thanks, the jacket and all the underwater equipment. They are waiting for us.
Usually I have to assemble the equipment and check everything by myself but here I’m relieved of any task concerning diving stuff.
What are we going to discover today? Tree, four dives a day, feeling amazed and thrilled at any time.
Sharks, this morning!
So many elegant gray sharks and the harmless white tips sharks! Giacomo Ganda, the dive leader is a marine byologist, expert in maldivian dives. He tells us that there will be a lot of underwater current in this place. We will use hooks to latch on the rocks. It goes without saying: no currents, no sharks.
We go down quickly and suddendly we see grey sharks hunting near the passe. They are quiet, not concerned with us. We stop near a rock waiting for them to come nearer. Standing still, we admire their amazing...
52,409 photos online!
726 videos online!
Sign Up Now !
Search
Partners & Events
