SCUBA Travel News

Win a logbook and guide to Marsa Alam in the Egyptian Red Sea.

The guide comprises loose sheets designed to fit into a diving logbook binder.

The pack covers 16 sites in the Marsa Alam area: 11 shore dives and 5 off-shore reefs which you would need to dive from a boat.

The guide is extensive and covers all the sites you are likely to do on a week's holiday to the area and more. It includes Elphinstone reef which in my view is one of the best sites in the Red Sea and one I am particularly familiar with. The coverage of this site confirms my belief that these guides are accurate and do detail most of what you will need to know for the dive.

The pack contains the dive guides and also 2 spare logbook sheets (4 dives). All the sheets are standard 3-hole diving logbook size and contain a section for collecting dive data, a guide to the site including a 3D colour drawing, a description of the site and marine life. Finally there is a section for you to add your own notes on the dive.

The data section is very detailed and covers: the usual dive data on duration time, air consumption, weight as well as gas mix, tank type, visibility, water temp, sea conditions. In my view more than enough information.

All-in-all a good idea: I like the idea of a combined dive log and guide.

Review by Andrew Reay-Robinson

About the author of the guide
Julien Stein began exploring the remote diving destination of Marsa Alam in 1999, when it was still a largely unknown diving region. Over many years he created detailed maps of the different dive sites in the area. Today Julien continues with his explorations of new dive sites, while also coaching beginner divers and writing articles for diving magazines.

Win a free copy...
SCUBA News has two copies of the Marsa Alam dive guide and log book to give away. To win your copy, name three of the 16 dives sites included in the Marsa Alam pack (visit the publishers - http://www.travellingdiver.com/ - to find out.) To enter e-mail your answer, together with your name and address, to news@scubatravel.co.uk before 31 January 2008. Note: your details will be deleted when the competition ends - you will not be sent any junk mail.

If you are not lucky enough to win a copy you can purchase one from http://www.travellingdiver.com/ or Amazon.
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Labels: competition, dive destination, Red Sea

SCUBA Travel today releases its list of the best selling books and DVDs bought by SCUBA divers in 2007. For the fourth consecutive year, The Dive Atlas of the World retains its top spot! A surprise entry at number three is a guide to the Italian island of Sardinia - a very popular diving destination last year. Another new entry is Shipwrecks from the Egyptian Red Sea, by Ned Middleton. Perhaps the best performer though is the Blue Planet DVD. This has not been out of the top ten since the list began in 2001.

Here are the top ten: figures in brackets show the previous year's position.

1. Dive Atlas of the World: An Illustrated Reference to the Best Sites by Jack Jackson
   300 pages detailing some of the world's best dive sites. (1)
   
   
2. Dive: The Ultimate Guide To 60 Of The Worlds Top Dive Locations by Monty Halls,
   Describes 60 of the world's best diving areas, and highlights specific dives not to be missed whilst you are there (2)
   
   
3. Sardinia (Lonely Planet Regional Guides) by Paula Hardy
   Complete, practical regional guide for independent travellers. Includes dedicated activities chapter including the best dive spots. (--)
   
   
4. Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World, by Tim Ecott
   Tales of the characters and episodes in the history of diving: the sponge divers, the second world war saboteurs, the free divers, etc. (7)
   
   
5. Coral Reef Guide Red Sea (Coral Reef) by Ewald Lieske, Robert Myers
   Covering jellyfish, corals, nudibranchs, starfish, sea urchins, fishes and turtles of the Red Sea. (--)
   
   
6. Dive in Style by Tim Simond,
   An illustrated book combining the best of travel, lifestyle and nature photography (4)
   
   
7. Coral Reef Fishes: Indo-Pacific and Caribbean by Ewald Lieske, Robert Myers
   A compact, guide to over 2000 species of fish you might see whilst diving on coral reefs. (3)
   
   
8. Lonely Planet Diving & Snorkeling Baja California by Walt Peterson
   Guide to the dive sites of Baja California. (--)
   
   
9. The Blue Planet DVD
   The BBC television series on DVD - action shots of the intriguing behaviour of the underwater world with commentary by David Attenborough. (9)
   
   
10. Shipwrecks from the Egyptian Red Sea by Ned Middleton
    Eight years of research went into this accurate and definitive guide to the wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea. (--)

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Labels: books

The National Marine Fisheries Service, the US agency in charge of ocean species management, has announced that it will examine in detail whether waters off the California and Oregon coasts should be protected as critical habitat for the endangered leatherback turtle.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation charity, Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean have declined by more than 90 percent over the past three decades, primarily as a result of drowning in industrial longline and gillnet fisheries aiming to catch swordfish, sharks and tunas.

The Fisheries Service's finding, published in the Federal Register, comes in response to a formal petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana and Turtle Island Restoration Network seeking a protected area of roughly 200,000 square miles. This comprises a food-rich upwelling region favoured by many marine species, including the leatherback.

In its finding, the Fisheries Service concludes that designating critical habitat for the leatherback off California and Oregon "may be warranted" and solicits public comment on the issue. The finding initiates a detailed review by the Service that must be completed by September, 2008.

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