Packing a big breath: David Mullins. Robert Kitchin/Dominion Post

If you think swimming a length of your local pool underwater is a task, then watching David Mullins will take your breath away.

Mild-mannered office worker by day, Mullins will swap his suit for a pair of fins and become the Man from Atlantis at Porirua Aquatic Centre this weekend.

One of the world’s leading freedivers, Mullins, 29, will try to smash two of his national records, before summoning official judges from across the globe for a world record attempt in September.

The disciplines are officially termed dynamic apnoea, with and without fins: basically, swimming as far as you can without taking a breath. And remaining conscious.

“You get disqualified if you black out or can’t converse, otherwise people just go until they conk out,” Mullins said.

Read full article from Stuff.

As well as all this, we will have some ex-rental gear available to look at and purchase. Fins for $20, wetsuits from $50, BCDs from $50, Dutch Auction on a set of regs!! Limited club t-shirts for $30. Don’t miss the opportunity to get geared up for Semester 2!

When? 6pm, Wednesday 28th July
Where? Engineering Building Rm 3.401, Auckland Uni, Symonds St.

Meetings provide a great chance to meet other members, ask for advice and relax and have a beer. See you there!

NEXT WEEK’S CLUB MEETING – Deep Wreck Adventures by Dr Simon Mitchell
Dr Mitchell is a world renowned technical diver. He began diving in 1972. His diving primarily involves the use of rebreather technology to explore shipwrecks at extreme depths. Simon is an anaesthesiologist and diving physician. He has devoted much of his career to diving medicine and has treated more than 400 cases of decompression illness. He recently co-authored the second edition of “Deeper into Diving” with John Lippmann and co-authored 2 chapters on decompression illness in the most recent edition of Bennett and Elliott. He is a previous Vice President of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society (UHMS), and Chairman of the Society’s Diving Committee.

We are very privileged to have Simon talk to us. He is an entertaining and enlightening speaker. He is regularly flown to dive conferences around the world to speak to audiences who have paid a lot to be there. Next week you can hear him for free. Simon is such a great speaker that even non-divers will be entertained by what he has to say… bring your mates along. As with all our meetings, you don’t need to be a member to come along – the more the merrier!

Photograph courtesy Kim Shiflett, NASA

The first Gulf sea turtle hatchlings enter the Atlantic Ocean in early summer 2010.

It may be 15 years before these hatchlings mature and return to Gulf waters to nest themselves, Hoggard said—if they do at all.

“We’re giving up a whole generation of turtles,” he said, “with the hopes that they’ll come back.”

View more pictures and a story about the relocation of turtle eggs in the Gulf of Mexico on National Geographic.

We offer PADI Open Water courses, dive trips, freediving, spearfishing, a club boat, gear hire, club meetings, deals with shops, advice, underwater photography, buddies, wicked social life and advanced diver training… all at fantastic prices.

If you’re a keen diver, or you’ve always wanted to dive, join us and start enjoying life below the waves. No experience is necessary as we provide the cheapest PADI Open Water dive course to get you started. From there you can come on one of our many trips around New Zealand. We look forward to seeing you underwater soon.

Covering 72 percent of the Earth and supplying half its oxygen, the ocean is our planet’s life support system–and it’s in danger. Watch this video to learn why a healthier ocean means a healthier planet, and find out how you can help.

Photo / APN

What caused the death of Moko the dolphin remains a mystery after a post-mortem, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says.

Boat strike and drowning through net entanglement had been ruled out as potential causes in a report released today.

There were no obvious signs of extensive bruising or skeletal fractures, making blunt trauma an unlikely cause of death, and no usual signs of drowning were present, Massey University pathologists said.

The pathologists were “unable to establish cause of death due to post mortem decomposition”, the report said.

Read full article from The New Zealand Herald.

NOISY BEASTS: Gurnard communicate with each other using distinctive grunts.

By KIRAN CHUG – The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 07/07/2010

Under water grunts, chirps and pops recorded by an Auckland scientist have revealed a mysterious language used by New Zealand fish.

Audio recordings analysed for the first time in New Zealand to find out whether fish talk, will be played to an audience in Wellington today, presented by Auckland University researcher Shahriman Ghazali.

His study began two years ago, when he started listening to recordings taken by colleagues studying ambient noise in the Leigh marine reserve north of Auckland. They made an underwater microphone, with which Mr Ghazali decided to try to establish which sounds were being made by which fish.

“Bigeyes are producing something like a popping sound but they organise them temporarily so it’s like morse code.”

To discover which fish was making each noise, Mr Ghazali brought groups of individual species from the sea to a tank at the laboratory.

Using an easily obtainable hydrophone, or underwater microphone, he continually recorded crayfish to test if there was any basis to the commonly held belief they made sounds when divers approached.

Read full article from Stuff.

Roz Savage gave up her life as a management consultant to row across the Atlantic in 2005. Her mission now is to row across the Pacific, from the West Coast to Australia, raising awareness along the way of plastic pollution, climate change and eco-heroism.

Photographer Brian Skerry shoots life above and below the waves — as he puts it, both the horror and the magic of the ocean. Sharing amazing, intimate shots of undersea creatures, he shows how powerful images can help make change.

There’s a tight and surprising link between the ocean’s health and ours, says marine biologist Stephen Palumbi. He shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies, with a shocking story of toxic contamination from a Japanese fish market. His work points a way forward for saving the oceans’ health — and humanity’s.