Scuba Sport Magazine has suspended operations due to lack of industry support. This includes future issues, magazine sponsored trips and any other activities.
The magazine, which has grown from an initial circulation of 10,000 to over 20,000 was becoming increasingly popular to divers. On the digital side, every new issue was receiving over 1500 downloads within the first 30 days of being released. The magazines Facebook page has grown to over 4500 fans.
But it didn’t seem to catch on with diving equipment manufacturers, travel agencies, resorts, diving operators & liveaboards; who seemed to feel their marketing budget was better spent elsewhere.
Subscribers will either receive pro-rated refunds for their remaining subscriptions, or will receive copies of a comparable magazine. These should begin appearing in mailboxes in the next 30-60 days.
Diveheart has been working on writing and publishing the Diveheart Book of Dreams, based on testimonials of our divers and volunteers. The long-established non-profit organization specializes in introducing scuba diving to people with disabilities and wounded war veterans.
We know that there are hundreds of volunteers and divers that have a story to tell. The non-profit organization wants you to tell them your story. Click here to learn more.
Dive travel enthusiasts! As many of you are already aware, we LOVE to cover diving destinations that are off the beaten path. You know, ones that haven’t been covered dozens of times in the past year or two.
With this in mind, we invite you to follow along with our editor as he embarks on another awesome assignment, this time to Okinawa. The article will apear in the March 2013 issue of Scuba Sport Magazine.
We thought it would be fun for Joe to keep us up to date on the happenings on this dive travel assignment: the diving, the sights, the local flavor. Whatever adventure he finds (and he tends to find a lot), he will be sharing it on the Scuba Sport Magazine Facebook page the day it happens.
To follow Joe on this adventure to Japan, be sure to go to our Facebook page and “like” it. Here is the link: CLICK HERE
Explorer Ventures Liveaboard Fleet began operations in June 1987 with the introduction of the original Caribbean Explorer in the Northeastern Caribbean. Twenty-five years later, EV remains true to its roots and continues to offer outstanding dive experiences at an exceptional value. The company now boasts 6 liveaboard destinations across the world, including Saba, St. Kitts and St. Maarten in the Northeastern Caribbean, plus the Turks & Caicos Islands, Southern Bahamas, Galapagos Islands, Maldives and the Dominican Republic.
To see the last of the incredible 25th anniversary specials, click here
Most of us that have had the opportunity to dive in the ocean, especially in warmer climates have had an encounter with a sea turtle. But very few are like this one.
OK… We all know that touching or harrassing a sea turtle is not only unethical, but also illegal. But what if the turtle is harrassing you?
CLICK HERE and check out this hawksbill sea turtle that is very insistent on making a new friend.
Did you have an interesting encounter with a sea turtle, shark, eel or some other sea life that you’d like to share? E-mail us @ joef@scubasportmag.com and tell us about it.
Five loggerheads — among several dozen sea turtles found almost frozen to death on Cape Cod beaches in recent weeks — are recovering at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
For unknown reasons, many more juvenile sea turtles this year are becoming stranded on Cape Cod beaches during the annual southern migration. The turtles, heading south, swim inside the elbow of Cape Cod and can’t get out from the bay with land on three sides, said Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium.
The Cook Islands created a 1.9 million square kilometers shark sanctuary in their ocean today. The Mayans were wrong — today wasn’t the end of the world, it was the beginning of the end of the overfishing of sharks!
The sanctuary, encompassing an area the size of Mexico, is the result of a partnership between Shark Defenders Pew Environment Group and the Pacific Islands Conservation Initiative, and had the support of many local community and political leaders.
(ENS) – The federal government has proposed that 66 species of coral in U.S. waters should be protected under the Endangered Species Act because global warming, disease and ocean acidification are pushing them toward extinction.
Under the rule proposed by NOAA Fisheries, 12 species of coral would be listed as Endangered and 54 as Threatened. Listing species as Endangered does not prohibit activities like fishing or diving, but prohibits the specific “take” of those species, including harming, wounding, killing, or collecting the species. It also prohibits imports, exports, and commercial activities dealing in the species. Listing would mean habitat protection, recovery planning and prohibition of federal actions that could jeopardize the corals.
Of the 66 corals covered in NOAA’s proposed rule, seven live in Florida and the Caribbean. In these waters, five corals would be listed as endangered and two as threatened. The other 59 species proposed for protection live in the Pacific, including Hawaii. In the Pacific, seven species would be listed as endangered and 52 as threatened.
NOAA Fisheries is also proposing that two Caribbean species – elkhorn and staghorn corals – already listed under the ESA be reclassified from threatened to endangered.
“Healthy coral reefs are among the most economically valuable and biologically diverse ecosystems on earth,” said NOAA administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco. “Corals provide habitat to support fisheries that feed millions of people; generate jobs and income to local economies through recreation, tourism, and fisheries; and protect coastlines from storms and erosion. Yet, scientific research indicates that climate change and other activities are putting these corals at risk.”
“Corals are facing severe threats, and it’s highly likely that these threats will increase over time,” NOAA said in its proposal. The agency notes that coral cover in the Caribbean has declined from 50 percent in the 1970s to less than 10 percent today.
“The three major threats identified – rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and disease – are all directly or indirectly linked to greenhouse gas emissions and a changing climate,”
One independent study cited by NOAA reports that coral reefs provide approximately $483 million in annual net benefit to the U.S. economy from tourism and recreation activities and a combined annual net benefit from all goods and services of about $1.1 billion. NOAA also estimates the annual commercial value of U.S. fisheries from coral reefs to be more than $100 million; reef-based recreational fisheries generate an additional $100 million annually.
Together, the Status Review, Supplemental Information, and Final Management reports form the basis of NOAA’s proposed listing of these 66 corals. Click here for a list of all 66 corals.
Tourism has not affected whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, a five-year study has found.
Even allowing people to swim with the fish has had no impact, indicating conservation efforts are working, the Australian Institute of Marine Science-University of WA report says.
The number of tourists participating in whale shark activities at Ningaloo Reef has sharply increased from 1000 to 17,000 since 1993 and now generates about $6 million each season.
The research, the first multi-year study on the effects of ecotourism on whale shark populations, found sharks that frequently encountered tourists were just as likely to return to the reef as sharks that little interaction with humans.
“Our research shows that the code of conduct used by the Department of Environment and Conservation to protect whale sharks is very effective with no detectable impacts of tourists on their aggregation behavior at Ningaloo across years,” the report’s lead author, Rob Sanzogni, said.
The reef’s ecotourism industry was sustainable in its present form.
Kim Hands, development manager at Ecocean, which was involved in developing the code of conduct, said the findings were good news. She hoped other countries where whale sharks congregated, including Mexico, would adopt similar regulations.
“Obviously, it’s been a good model and worked very well as a great example for the rest of the world,” she said.
Conservation organisation WWF’s marine spokesman Paul Gamblin said the report was encouraging and showed the industry was receiving appropriate attention but more needed to be done to assist our neighbours, particularly around the Coral Triangle, including Indonesia and the Philippines.
“Australia has played an important role but needs to up the ante to protect the whale sharks when they leave our waters. We need to help support local community tourism projects up there because the whale sharks enter more dangerous waters when they leave Australia,” he said.
Mr. Gamblin said despite the report’s positive findings there were still concerns about the impact of resources projects in waters near Ningaloo Reef.
“It increases our concern about the increasing development of the oil and gas industry which is getting ever closer to Ningaloo, including areas where the whale sharks migrate through,” he said.
“There’s potential for a spill, the impact of very high levels of underwater noise and drilling is something that we should be very concerned about the tourism industry.
“[Protection of whale sharks] is something that obviously needs ongoing vigilance; we can’t take our eye off the ball.”
The researchers hope the report will provide a blueprint for similar work on the impact of ecotourism on other marine megafauna such as manta rays and whales.
Scuba Sport Magazine just announced that it will be increasing its circulation in 2013. The scuba magazine that caters to recreational scuba diving, now in its second year of operation, has experienced a high demand from dive centers in its network.
“We will be increasing circulation to 17,500 for the January issue, then to 20,000 beginning with the March 2013 issue. We are already in over 350 “opted-in” dive centers. After the DEMA Show, we estimate that this number will increase to at least 400″, said Scuba Sport publisher Joe Froelich.
Scuba Sport Magazine arrived to DEMA last year as a prototype. The first issue was released the week of Christmas 2011. Since then, the scuba magazine has gone from struggling to ensure all copies find a home, to ensuring there are enough copies for the homes that have requested it or have become paid subscribers.
It hasn’t hurt that the diving magazine has been able to recruit some of the industry’s biggest names to provide content. In 2012 alone, contributors included Howard Hall, Cathy Church, Jonathan Bird, Michele Westmorland, Bonnie Cardone, Ellsworth Boyd, Michael Lawrence, Fred Garth, Cesare Naldi, Andy Murch, Graeme Teague, Gretchen Ashton, Markus Roth & Steven Barsky.
2013 promises to be even bigger and better with such contributors already agreeing to appear as Amos Nachoum, Ned & Anna Deloach, Friedrich Tobias & Nancy Boucha, as well as “repeat offenders” Gretchen Ashton, Fred Garth, Pam LeBlanc & many others.
“Of course, the readers will also have to suffer through an article or two from me. I find that I really get to stay in touch with today’s recreational divers by handling regular assignments for the magazine. It is crucial in delivering to the readers what they really want because they’ll tell me what’s important to them thinking I’m just another diver on the boat, not a scuba magazine editor.” Froelich said.
Because this announcement is occurring so close to the DEMA show, the scuba magazine will honor the 2012 advertising rate cards until December 1 to those who recently received one.
“This quite simply gives advertisers even more “bang for their buck” as our rack rates were already the most competitive scuba diving magazine in the industry, now add into the mix that they will be receiving an additional 33% worth of exposure for their money.” Froelich said.
To subscribe for as little as $9.99 for a year, please visit www.scubasportmag.com. If you are a dive center and want to request copies for your students and customers, send an e-mail to joef@scubasportmag.com
