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Share your thoughts, experiences or questions and participate in discussions over our favorite topic : SCUBA diving!

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  • us Ksso
  • # CMAS 3* VDST / N4

  • Qualifications:

    PADI Ice Diver, CMAS Nitrox 1, Photography

  • Dived in: French Polynesia, Honduras, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, United States, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Thailand, Greece, Cyprus, France, Indonesia

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Sea wonders : nudibranchs

by Ksso on March 03, 2011

Nudibranchs are also known as "sea slugs". Yet contrary to their earthy counterparts they come on a wide range of shapes and colors. They get especially amazing in warm shallow water, making them even easier to go meet. Their amazing colors are actually a defense mechanism against potential predatorsNudibranchs can size from 2 to 60cm (0.79 to 24 in). Most of them are carnivorous eating things like sponges, some can even be cannibals and eat other sea slugs. Nudibranchs are hermaphrodite, and while they do bear both organs, they still need to mate to procreate.While nudibranchs won't attack you, some may hurt you by secreting an acid on their skin if you try touching them.

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Hot or not ? the Thermocline

by Ksso on March 01, 2011

The thermocline is something you get to know soon enough when you're a scuba diver - the effects on the environments are extremely easy to spot : water below you becomes blurry and suddenly temperature drops by a couple degrees, enough to get you a chill. Move up a few centimeters above the blur, the water is hot again. The blur is actually caused by the altered refractive index of the cold or warm water column. This heat barreer is called the thermocline.A definition (by Weatherfacts) would be : The thermocline (gr: thermo = hot and clino = slope) is generally a steep gradient of rapid temperature change, but applied more particularly to a layer, in a body of water, in which the...

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Fish round up : moray eel

by Ksso on February 28, 2011

The moray eel has give my my first underwater adrenaline rushes while I was still training on my CMAS 1*. Luckily we've got a couple of those in the Mediterranean sea usually hiding below the thermocline, thus requiring a little bit of skill to get to see them, first to get to their depth (around 20m and up to several hundred meters), second some level of stillness to no scare them up.Moray eels can range from 11.5cm to 4m (4.5 in to 13ft). They eat small fish and have 2 sets of jaws stuffed with teeth, second one being in their throat that they launch into the mouth to  catch the prey. Their teeth are often angled towards the throat, so anything that goes within that mouth is bound to go...

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Fish round up : The prehistoric Coelacanth

by Ksso on February 23, 2011

Life origins from the oceans, that's something we've all learned at school. We also learned that at some point during the evolutions fish started wandering on the firm ground and got new appendixes to help them move on the ground more easily.The coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to be extinct since the cretaceous period ( 70 to 140 million years ago). They are considered to be the link between the fish and the tetrapods (all things four-legged). With much surprise one specimen was fished in 1938 off the east coast of south africa and scientists discovered that the species is still present but only migrated to deeper water. Subsequently, a second species was fished in 1998...

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Fish round up : the Sperm Whale

by Ksso on February 16, 2011

Sperm Whale Encounter from Howard Hall on Vimeo.

The sperm whale, also known as the common cachalot, can grow 20.5 meters long (67 ft), is the largest living toothed animal. The head can take up to one-third of the animal's length giving him the lagest brain of any animal on earth. It can live for 70 years.The sperm whale emits clicking vocalizations but while it's the loudest sound produced by any animal its function remains uncertain.It has been widely hunted between the 18th and late 20th century for the spermaceti (a white substance found in the animal's head and giving him the name), sperm oil and ambergris (a biliary secretion ) it produces and which are used in the perfume and...

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An artificial reef made of 400 sculptures

by Ksso on February 15, 2011

Jason de Caires Taylor isn't a newbie in the matter with almost a dozen artificial reefs created on his record. His modus operandi is always the same, he designs a few sculptures that he drowns on a sandy spot at shallow depth (under 10m). But this time he outdid himself with his latest production "La Evolución Silenciosa" . With 400 sculptures drowned by 9m depth between Cancun and las islas Mujeres in Mexico, he created the biggest Arty-ficial reef.Contrary to other artificial reefs, Jason's don't get implanted with corals branches, which would have considerably sped up the coral creation. But overtime hopefully coral will grow and a whole new marine life will make this sculpture their...

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Fish round up : the Cuttlefish

by Ksso on February 13, 2011

Contrary to its name, the Cuttlefish is a mollusk of the class Cephalopoda (just like the Squid and Octopus). The Cuttlefish is fairly widespread and can be easily spotted in Europe and Asia. The Cuttlefish has only one "bone", the cuttlebone, which works as an internal shell. They range from 15 to 25cm (5.9 to 9.8in)The Cuttlefish is fairly remarkable by its ability to change its skin color in seconds, just like a chameleon. He can do so either as a camouflage or as a means to communicate with fellow cuttlefish. Their skin is made of  groups of red, yellow, brown, and black pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective iridophores and leucophores at a resolution of 359 DPI -...

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Know your gear : the regulator

by Ksso on February 12, 2011

The regulator is a key piece of the diver's gear. Like my instructors used to repeat relentlessly "Air is life", and the regulator bring breathable air to your mouth. The main function of a regulator is fairly simple:

Adjust the air pressure (from the tank pressure to the environment  pressure)

Enable inhale and exhale of the air

The classic regulator is composed of 2 stages. The first stage mounts right on the tank and will adapt the tank's air pressure to the environment. Standard 1st stage regulators also include a high-pressure plug to connect to the manometer and get a direct reading to the tank's pressure (and letting you know hom much air you've got left).A 1st stage regulator...

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Laser sizing

by Ksso on February 11, 2011

Classic conversation after a dive :

Diver1 : Have you seen the grouper - it was huuuuge ! almost 2 meters long ! (note : that's unlikely ). Check out the pic I took !Diver2 : Bull***** - You kiddin', that's more like 20cm tops...

Now, there's a real point in that conversation : evaluating the proper size of something underwater wether it's a fish, a wreck or a cave, is quite complicated. And the pictures taken do miss scale to enable proper evaluation of the subject size.Working with the University of Queensland, the Marine Megafauna Foundation and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, a team of researchers led by Chris Rohner has come up with a new technique to add a scale to underwater...

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San Fruttuoso's "Christ of the Abyss"

by Ksso on February 09, 2011

A few dive sites have been staged with intentionally drowned elements to attract divers. The Christ of the Abyss is a 8.5 feet tall 4000 pound bronze sculpture which has been drowned in 1954 at 55 feet depth in Mediterranean Sea off San Fruttuoso between Camogli and Portofino on the Italian Riviera.The statue was removed in 2003 and restored.Shallow high profile spur and groove coral formations are surrounded by relatively flat, coral and sponge encrusted hard bottom, and sand. Large Spotted Eagle Rays and Southern Stingrays are often sighted near the sandy perimeter.View Larger Map

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