A man named Jason Holmberg, who lives in Portland Oregon, is coordinating a global project to monitor whale-sharks.

Whale-sharks are the biggest fish on earth and one of the ocean’s gentle giants: whale-sharks can grow to 60 feet in length but do so on a diet that consists solely of plankton.

Encounters with whale-sharks (also known as blue whalers) are dreamt about by most SCUBA divers as the whale-shark is such a large but gentle creature.

Many divers who have come across a whale-shark on a dive declare the experience to be truly humbling. Indeed Mr. Holmberg himself comments on meeting a whale-shark, stating that its eyes “will track you; you can look at it, and it will look back at you… It’s like contact with alien life”.

Mr. Holmberg intends to help us to improve our understanding of whale-sharks though this research project: at the moment we know very little about blue whalers such as their life expectancy, reproduction or how social they are.

We all know that man has contributed to the serious damage of numerous reefs worldwide.

Many reefs that at one time literally teemed with life have been reduced to little more than skeletons by deliberate actions such as blast and cyanide fishing, or inadvertently by overenthusastic individuals who want to take a little reminder of their visit to the reef home with them.

However, not all of man’s actions result in the deterioration of coral reefs and the marine communities they help to support.

Miami’s Reef Builders

The Miami based company, Reef Builders, actively helps to promote reef growth by… making them! Reef Builders has been involved in a number of reef creation projects such as the Atlantis Memorial Reef Project (an artificial reef located 3.25 miles off Key Biscayne in Florida inspired by the Lost City of Atlantis). Reef Builders have recently been commissioned with another reef creation project in Florida: this one is called the Miami Reef Project.

The Miami Reef Project

The Miami Reef Project will be designed not to an artist’s impression of some lost world, but the reef itself will be comprised of the words “Save the Reef”. The words will be built with letters of 200 feet in height across 3,000 feet of Florida’s underwater real estate. The Miami Reef will be approximately 35 feet underwater and will provide over time a home for a multitude of Florida’s marine life. It is hoped that it will also become a huge draw for divers.

The planning and engineering of the Miami Reef Project is truly inspiring as is the passion of Reef Builders team to create a spectacular underwater environment that helps to sustain marine ecosystems.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edward A. Ferns has upheld a decision to process a $4m lawsuit filed by a recreational diver who was left behind when the dive boat he had been on returned to land without him. The diver allegedly spent several hours bobbing about without any idea of whether or not the boat crew would come back for him.

The diver, a fifty year old resident of Santa Monica, filed a lawsuit against Sun Diver Charters and Ocean Adventures for negligence, fraud and infliction of emotional distress when he was left by the Ocean Adventures boat crew off of Santa Catalina Island in April 2004. Due to good fortune and fair winds the diver was rescued by some Boy Scouts who happened to be passing by in a boat.

Sun Diver Charters and Ocean Adventures argue that as a diver the man must assume certain risks befitting such an “extreme” recreational sport and thus waive the right to blame the operators responsible. However, Judge Ferns disagrees stating that being abandoned at sea is not an inherently risky event that one should accept as a diver.

Fortunatley for the diver he has been able to get his case to court… anybody seen the movie Open Water?