This hasn't been a good week for divers in the Red Sea. Last weekend, four divers (two Russians, a Hollander, and an Egyptian) vanished while diving at Marsa Alam. Yesterday, another Russian diver died. According to police, Alexander Nikitan was found dead on Monday near the shore at Ras Mohammed. Apparently, Nikitan ignored the warning to divers not to dive below 180 feet and, instead, descended to 300 feet, where he ran out of air.

Of course, pretty much everybody has heard of Palau's Jellyfish Lake. Millions of years ago, the Lake's outlet to the ocean closed, trapping the jellies inside. Slowly, having no natural predators inside the Lake, the jellyfish lost their stinging cells, and today, the jellyfish population is completely sting-less. Although people are not allowed to dive in Jellyfish Lake, snorkelers are welcome. This 3-and-a-half minute clip illustrates what the experience is like.

Hypnotic.

On Beyond the Blue, Jaime Burns posted an interesting trip report about cave diving in Nha Trang, a city lying on the southeast coast of Vietnam, abutting a huge bay sprinkled with small islands. Claiming the caves were "not hard to dive and anyone with a reasonable standard of diving should not have any problem investigating them," Burns points out that no special equipment is required to explore these caves, although "a large torch is essential." Think of it as Cave Diving Lite.

After motoring into the sheer-cliff'ed bay, Burns swam through 75-foot-viz waters, marveling at giant pufferfish, huge schools of Yellow sweepers, unfamiliar, colorful nudibranchs, cave shrimp, and much more. Burns suggests that hard-core scuba divers may be unimpressed with the overall dive conditions in Nha Trang, although if you're a diver who appreciates a little culture with your dive trips, then Nha Trang might be for you. Personally, I enjoyed the report, though I would've loved some more photos.

Interest piqued? Here are some other (non-cave diving) trip reports to Nha Trang:

• BSAC Travel Club
• This Is The Life

This 4-and-a-half minute clip presents some excellent footage of the Windiate freighter. Lying bolt upright 190 feet below the surface of Lake Huron, the Windiate is in incredible shape, despite having sunk well over 100 years ago. Shot by Dale Kreiner, this intriguing video shows the boat's deck and rigging, as well as a well-preserved yawl boat.

Stephen Frink recently returned from a 7-day dive trip to the Galapagos Islands. Guess what? He had an awesome time -- both above and below water -- and he took some absolutely incredible photos. If you're interested in reading about his fantastic experience, Scuba Diving is hosting his well-written, day-by-day trip report. In it, he carefully details the dive sites he visited, describes the liveaboard he stayed on, provides some trip tips, and more. If you think your dive boat usually has a lot of cameras on board, check out the image of the camera table on the first page. It looks like a high-end camera store!

Don't forget that you can travel with Frink on one of his many upcoming trips. From Raja Ampat, to Australia, to PNG, it looks like he's going to have an exciting 2007!

Previously:

• Short Stephen Frink Interview
• 10 Questions for...Stephen Frink
• How-To: Photograph Divers Underwater

As you know, this weekend several divers went missing during a dive in the Red Sea. Apparently, five divers -- three Russians, a Dutchman, and an Egyptian guide -- were exploring a reef off Marsa Alam when the instructor warned them of sharks and instructed the group to surface. Several hours later, one of the Russian divers stumbled onto shore and told authorities about the accident. The other four never appeared.

A helicopter and 15 boats have been searching the area for four days, but today, officials called off the search. According to Alaa El Din Abdelgeleel of the Red Sea Association for Diving and Marine Sport, "I am sorry to say there is no chance to find them alive. We are limiting the search to the coastal areas, looking for their bodies."

Egyptian authorities are not planning to charge the owner and employees of the dive center that organized the excursion. An inspection concluded that the dive center had all necessary licenses, and that its equipment was in good condition. Rather, the prosecutor concluded, "Bad weather conditions, large waves, and the fact that the current swept the tourists away from the vessel were the main causes of the accident."

If you're thinking about getting married next month -- or you're considering renewing your vows -- but you want to do something a little...I don't know...different, then maybe a trip to Thailand is in order. On Valentine's Day, 30 couples from around the world will participate in a special wedding ceremony, held 40 feet underwater off Thailand's Trang Province. Never heard of this event before? Dunno why. It's the 10th Anniversary of the annual Underwater Wedding, and in 2000, participants entered the Guinness Book.

The Underwater Wedding is way more than just an underwater wedding, though: it's also a cultural immersion. Participants will get to enjoy traditional Thai wedding culture, which includes Buddhism rituals and the Thai tradition of pouring ceremonial water. Moreover, couples will experience the symbolic hand-woven, silk Thai wedding costume.

Unfortunately, the Wedding Certificate that participants receive is merely a Certificate of Participation in the Trang Underwater Wedding and is not legally binding. However, for $625 per person, you can afford to get the wedding officiated elsewhere for real. Hurry! The deadline for registration is January 31st. Not surprisingly, only certified divers are allowed to participate.

On October 15, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake rattled Hawaii. The following day, a 5.8-magnitude quake shuddered through the Island, as well. The quakes -- the largest to shake the Islands in 23 years -- disrupted air traffic, sent boulders crashing onto highways, and knocked out power across much of the state. It also destroyed one of the area's wreck dives: a Mark 4 military landing vehicle dating to World War II.

According to Jim Spears, a retired San Diego police, "I've been diving on it for years. The earthquake caused it to collapse." Resting in about 60 feet of water on the Makena side of South Maui, the vehicle was relatively intact before the earthquakes; after, the front end of the vehicle had broken off. Before the natural disaster, the vehicle served as a turtle-cleaning station. Since the quakes, however, Spears claims the turtles are gone.

Spears has some amazingly crisp images of the landing vehicle on his website, including an interesting, and somewhat sad, before-and-after comparison of the damage.

Lembeh Strait is probably the most famous critter/muck diving spot in the world. If you visit, you'll undoubtedly be delighted with the area's amazing diversity of wildlife and comfortable diving conditions. From March 24-28 of this year, Tony Wu -- co-author of Silent Symphony -- is going to be in Lembeh aboard the Archipelago Adventurer I, a boutique liveaboard specializing in cruising the Strait. The Adventurer I takes a maximum of 8 people, has no fixed schedule, and provides dinghy-service so that if you want to dive away from where everybody else is, you can. <Sigh.> Sounds divine.

According to Tony, "I'll be on board the Adventurer I taking photos for myself, but I'll also be happy to help with camera equipment, photo techniques, photoshop questions, marine life questions, etc. for anyone else who's on the boat." Wow! This is a terrific opportunity to dive in a world-class location with a world-class shooter without the world-class "surcharge" added for said opportunity. If you're considering a last-minute getaway in late March, this is where I think you should head.

For those who need a little arm-twisting (or who can't make it but would like to know more about the place), check out Tony's trip report from his last trip to Lembeh, and then head over to the pool of Lembeh photos he added to Flickr. Almost makes you want to fudge the numbers on your tax return, so you can get a larger refund...

In May, 2006, sculptor Jason Taylor launched his Underwater Sculpture Gallery in Grenada. The unique artistic display celebrates Caribbean culture while it simultaneously explores the constantly changing relationship between art and the environment. More importantly, the Gallery is a fascinating dive destination.

Sculpting the pieces in the Gallery looks time-consuming and labor-intensive. For divers exploring the work, however, it appears to be worth it: the pieces aren't just statues or swim-throughs. They're gorgeous, multi-dimensional displays of genius. La Diablesse, for example, is fashioned from concrete and steel and secured to the ocean substrate. The effect is a sublime underwater goddess -- at once beautiful and wretched -- watching over the reef. Meanwhile, The Lost Correspondent is a forlorn, amazing work -- and totally incongruous underwater.

There's no way words can convey the beauty -- and the unusual-ness -- of Talyor's work. To begin to understand his art, check out his image gallery. However, to get the full impact, you should watch this video. It's amazing.

Via: VideoSift

If you want to visit the Sculpture Garden, head to Grenada's Moliniere Bay and get hooked up with the folks at Dive Grenada. Located 2 miles north of the capital on the West coast of the Island, the Gallery sits within a designated National Marine Park.

From January 5-20, the guys from Dive Zero Video Magazine will be filming Issue #2 in Roatan Island, Honduras. I can't wait to see what they come up with, as I was a big fan of Issue #1.

During their Honduran excursion, the team will be posting video snippets to their blog every two days, for a total of 6 posts. In addition to their daily adventures, the clips will feature behind-the-scene video -- and clues to a contest that sounds pretty simple. The first 20 people to solve the contest will receive a free copy of Issue #2 and a chance for the grand prize: a trip for 2 to Roatan.

If what you're doing is better than a trip for two to Roatan, then keep surfing the Web. If it's not, then check out the video in which they explain the rules to the contest.

Britain's Protection of the Military Remains Act of 1986 protects ships that sunk with British servicemen inside. However, the act only prevents British citizens from entering such war graves -- it doesn't prevent foreign nationals from diving in them. Citing the prevalence of videos and photos posted on the Internet -- clearly showing that companies are taking divers inside ships like the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse -- some people want this loophole closed.

Calling for new laws to ensure wrecks are given the same respect as war cemeteries, Hannah Rickard, whose father survived the sinking of the Prince of Wales, claims, "It is obvious from some of the videos and photos circulating that the graves of these men are being disturbed... If it was British divers doing it, they would be prosecuted." However, Rickard admits that visiting the outside of the wrecks is not wrong, though the wrecks should be treated with the respect of a military cemetery: "to dive and just have a look at these wrecks I don't see as a problem. It's not ghoulish at all. We have battlefields that we go to in this country and the Tower of London where lots of people died."

Additionally, campaigners are comparing the taking of artifacts on the wrecks to grave robbing and are calling for a complete moratorium on that, as well. Admittedly, the loophole seems ridiculous and quite unfair.

[Via Diving News]

Lately, I'm determined to prove to the disbelievers that artificial reefs do, in fact, provide fish with important habitats and promote healthy ecosystems. If you're one of those disbelievers that I'm trying to convince, then check out this short clip of wreck diving on Florida's Duane and Bibb. There are fish everywhere!

If you're not one of those disbeleivers...then good for you -- and I hope you enjoy the video. Personally, I was especially intrigued with the footage of the Duane's conning tower.

A long time ago, we pointed you to the incredible panorama shot inside Bali's Tulamben wreck. Created by stitching together more than a dozen images shot underwater -- and inside the wreck -- zooming around the pano is almost as cool as swimming around inside the wreck. Almost.

If you're looking for some more virtual dives, check out these cool panoramas:

1. Mal Yeo -- the same photographer who shot the Tulamben pano -- has created an amazing image from 75 feet below the surface at Halifax Park, Australia. Prepare to see LOTS of fish.
2. Andreas Kampf has a series of 9 underwater panos that rival Yeo's in their beauty and artistic-ness. In my opinion, the Fesdu Wreck is especially gorgeous, but they're all worth investigating.
3. Alexandra Albin has created a small but well-lit pano of a wreck dive off Catalina Island.
4. Undersea features half a dozen effective underwater panos, including a nice one starring a cuttlefish.
5. Scott Highton managed to capture a gorgeous over-under pano in a Florida spring.

Of course, as photographic equipment -- and photographers -- become more sophisticated, we'll probably see more underwater panos in the future. Dip your hand in a bucket of water, and it'll be just as relaxing as a dive trip. Almost.

If your Christmas-time scuba stocking didn't have a free trip to North Sulawesi in it, then maybe you need a new family to take advantage of this incredible opportunity. FiNS Online is offering divers the chance to win a portion of over $2500 in prizes, including:

• 5D/4N stay at Siladen Resort & Spa for 2 people (US$1,000 value!)
• 5D/ 4N for 1 person aboard luxury liveaboard Archipelago Adventurer I in Lembeh (US$1000 value!)
• 5D/4N stay with Two Fish Divers on Bunaken or Lembeh Island for 1 person (US$562 value!)

The catch? You have to answer 7 multiple choice questions about yourself and/or North Sulawesi. It's so simple, it even took me under 2 minutes to complete! Good luck -- and if you win, please add some images to Divester's Flickr pool.