Wetpixel/Under The Jungle Cenote Workshop 2021
Articles
This is your Ocean: Sharks wins award
The Daily Pilot has reported that the film This is Your Ocean: Sharks was recognized with a Special Achievement Award in Environmental Filmmaking by MacGillivray Freeman Films. The film debuted at the Newport Beach Film Festival last Friday. The paper reports the film’s director George C. Scellenger as saying:
“”Sharks play a critical role in the health of our oceans,” and “the decisions we make right now determine the future of these animals. It’s critical that we see them differently and this film shifts the paradigm.”
Australian Geographic publishes the State of our Oceans
Australian Geographic has published an except from a report from February 2008, conducted by an international team of scientists led by Dr Benjamin Halpern of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, USA. The study found that only 4% of the worlds oceans are now undamaged by human activity. Climate change, fishing, pollution, and other human factors have taken their toll in some way on all the other 96 per cent of the and a staggering forty-one per cent of the oceans are seriously damaged.
The article goes on to contrast this with the amazing biodiversity discovered more recently during the Census of Marine Life and the reality that this new discovery is already at threat due to the degradation of the oceans
The Nightstalker: Hunting octopus at night on Vimeo
Russ Sanoian of Backscatter has published a clip of a hunting octopus during a night dive at Little Cayman onto Vimeo:
“Once I entered the lair of the beast I was cornered and my only way out was to shadow his every move and when the opportunity presented itself, scurry out the nearest crack…”
Whilst Russ was filming, the octopus would stop and come over to touch his hand and then go right back to hunting before returning again for some affection. Russ lists cephalapods as his favorite critter to see on a dive.
Operation Squid Skin: Developing the ultimate camouflage
Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory are running a project for the Office of Naval Research to “to study and ultimately emulate the exquisite ability of some marine animals to instantly change their skin color and pattern to blend into their environment.” Researchers Roger Hanlon and Lydia Mäthger are studying the way longfin inshore squid (Loligo pealeii) change color to mimic their environment with an aim of reproducing this in materials. The team has previously discovered that cephalopod skin contains opsins, the same type of light-sensing proteins that function in the eyes, and now plan to research how these sense light and the neural pathways involved. Previous research has suggested that the that as squid have polarized vision, it might be possible that they send concealed signals to one other while staying camouflaged to fish or mammalian predators, most of which do not have this ability.
2011 Wetpixel/Scubacam “Apres ADEX” party
Wetpixel/Scubacam’s Aprés ADEX Sundowner’s party was a fun night out as the usual suspects in the underwater photography industry mixed with members of Wetpixel and the dive industry at the Tawandang German Thai Brewery @ Suntec City in Singapore. From BBC cameramen to resort owners, the eclectic mix of people spent the evening downing vast amounts of lager and picking on thai food. Check out the pictures!
Submerge Camera releases modified Turtle HD housing
Submerge Camera has announced the release of a modified Amphibico Turtle HD housing. The modifications include the addition of a second handle and softening the push-buttons, making them easier to operate at shallow depths. It is also only available in one color. The housing accepts 15 Sony HD cameras, with plans in the pipeline to add support for Canon and Sony new models in late May to early June.
The “Submerge Turtle HD” is available now at a retail price of $1199.95.
Call for entries: Sea the Change Conservation Contest
PADI has called for entries for the 2011 Sea the Change underwater video competition. The aim behind the contest is to spur people to capture video about the sea and what they are doing to help protect it, with the aim of inspiring others to do the same. The entries should address the following questions: Firstly, what do you love about the underwater world, secondly, what do you do to protect it, thirdly, how do you make a difference locally or otherwise and lastly, if you are a PADI Diver, how has scuba diving changed your view of the environment? The competition will be judged by an on-line public vote.
Full details of the competition rules, entry procedures and prizes are on the Sea the Change website. The deadline for entries is 15 December 2011.
Dolphins dig 3D
Posted recently in the forum are stills and a link to video shot by Becky Kagan Schott of Liquid Productions LLC of a pod of wild spotted dolphins as she films them with a 3D camera. The video shows the pod taking a massive amount of interest in the camera, and at one point you can actually hear them using their sonar to ping at it.
The 3D camera she is using is one of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory 3D set ups.