The November online edition of DIVE magazine is now available to download onto a variety of platforms. In a destination oriented issue, the magazine has articles about the Galapagos whale shark project, Cocos Island from three different perspectives: as an open-circuit scuba diver, as a closed-circuit rebreather diver and from behind the bubble of a one-atmosphere submarine, Bligh Water in the Fiji Islands, Douglas Seifert writes about close encounters with humpback whales in Tonga and there is a review of exotic Pacific liveaboard destinations.

DIVE is available as a free download for a variety of platforms.

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UK-based environmental charity Bite-Back has released a hard-hitting short video with some very graphic footage of shark finning entitled “FIN-Help End the Horror”. The charity aims to make Britain’s restaurants shark fin-free as currently more than 80 restaurants in the UK sell shark fin soup. Bite-Back plans to expose these establishments and encourage them to remove shark fin soup from their menus. The film was created by London advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, with the help of Afrioceans Conservation Alliance, Greenpeace, Lesley Rochat, Pretoma.org, Scubazoo, Shark Project International and WildAid.

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Sony has announced two new CineAlta™ 4K digital cinema cameras. The PMW-F55 and PMW-F5 cameras feature a super 35mm 4K sensor and a 14 stop exposure latitude with high sensitivity and low noise. The F55 offers HD/2K/QFHD/4K whilst the F5 offers HD/2K recording, with both using a new XAVC MPEG-4/H264 codec. The cameras have an adaptor for use with PL mount lenses, including new ones to be offered by Sony, and a native FZ mount for still camera lenses. They also offer new monitoring options with a new 4K monitor and OLED and LCD viewfinders. Lastly, Sony has unveiled the AXSM™ Access Memory System RAW recording system.

The new cameras will be available from February 2013, with prices to be confirmed.

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Hurricane Sandy is due to land in New York city around now. Forecasters are predicting that 90mph winds and a storm surge of 6 to 8 feet will arrive over the next few hours, resulting in severe local flooding. The city has been forced to shut down its subway service and close both the Holland and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels. Bus and subway services are also not operating.

Many New York residents have moved to safety, and we fervently hope that those members of the Wetpixel community that are caught up in the storm are, together with their loved ones, in a place of safety and that any property or business loss will be limited. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

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Steve Douglas presents a review of the Dive and See DNC 5” underwater monitor. This is not a housed land monitor, but rather a self-contained waterproof monitor and has a port for charging. Steve feels that this makes for a more reliable seal. It has a display resolution of 800x480 and offers a reported 5 hours of use per charge.

Steve also reports that routing the HDMI cable inside his housing was a fiddly job

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