The best undiscovered beaches in the world

A certain type of New Yorker has complaints about the beaches in Tulum, Mexico, Saint Barth’s, or Mykonos in Greece. “Why escape New York,” they ask,”just to be surrounded by New Yorkers?”

Do not hang out with these people.

But do heed their warning: If you want to go to a beach to get away from other humans, you’ll have to try a lot harder than visiting those popular, luxurious, seaside spots. At the six under-the-radar destinations listed below, you won’t know a soul anywhere in a hundred-mile radius-and the locals will make you feel like one of their own. Not just that: These untrammeled landscapes are postcard-perfect, free of photo-bombing tourists and full of secret coves just waiting for you to discover them. As icing on the cake, they’re all within close proximity to places you already know and love.

Time’s ticking, though. These spots won’t stay secret much longer.

You’ve done Mykonos … now try Zakynthos

Tired of looking at Mykonos’s beautiful windmills? Never. But maybe you’re ready to swap out the thumping social scene for something more laid-back. Head to the Ionian island of Zakynthos, a little-explored paradise where secret, pearlescent coves are hidden from plain sight by towering limestone bluffs.

The western and northern sides of the island are the quietest and most beautiful-and the latter is where you’ll find the stone-walled Porto Zante Villas and Spa, which Greece expert Mina Agnos, president of Travelive, says offers an unsurpassed experience. “Each villa has panoramic views, a private, heated swimming pool, and access to a private section of beach,” she said. Other island draws: the neon-blue Shipwreck Beach (named for a destroyed vessel that still sits on the sand), endangered Caretta Caretta (loggerhead) sea turtles, and plenty of yacht charters for a day of Ionian beach-hopping.

You’ve done Saint Barth … now try Sint Eustatius

Not every place that Christopher Columbus discovered was put on the global map. Case in point: Sint Eustatius, one of the most under-the-radar islands in the resort-rich Caribbean, which the famed explorer first documented in 1493. Little has been said about it since then. Its sole city, Oranjestad, is known as the “smallest capital in the world,” and the entire island has a population of just 3,183.

But Statia, as it’s known, is just a short puddle-hopper flight from Sint Maarten, and scuba diving expert Robert Becker, of ProTravel, considers it one of his all-time favorite places. “There’s no mega-tourism, and most people don’t even know it’s there,” he said. “It’s got great hiking and lots of gorgeous tropical foliage, plus very welcoming people who have a genuine desire to know that you’re enjoying your stay.” Bunk up at the Dutch colonial-style Old Gin House, where Becker says you’ll feel like you’re staying with family friends, and pack goggles: The island is ringed by a national marine park, with impeccably-protected coral reefs and tropical fish stocks.

You’ve done Punta del Este, Uruguay … now try Mancora, Peru

“This beach is popular with locals, but few Western visitors have discovered it,” said Ashish Sanghrajka, Latin America enthusiast and president of Big Five Tours. That’s because most travelers to Peru head inland to the Sacred Valley, rather than up the coast. That’s a big mistake.

Not only does Sanghrajka say that the beach town of Mancora-close to the border of Ecuador and a four-hour flight from Lima-has “some of the best banana board surfing in Latin America.” It’s also home to a stunning nine-room resort, Kichic. Nearby, at Túcume, you can still accomplish some of that requisite Peruvian ruin-spotting; the adobe complex is nearly a thousand years old. And soon enough, the country’s luxury resort standard setter, Inkaterra, will open a beach retreat in the vicinity-in a fishing town that inspired Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

You’ve done the Maldives … now try India’s Andamans

You’ll see nobody else on the beaches of India’s Andaman Islands, said Black Tomato co-founder Tom Marchant, except for the occasional elephant. That should be selling point enough. (Who doesn’t love elephants?) But the Andamans have even more going for them: Some of the world’s best scuba diving, easy access via suddenly trendy Calcutta, and its first-ever five-star stay, Jalakara. “Now is the time to see these pristine islands before more people get wind of them,” Marchant told Bloomberg. “They’re a haven of natural beauty, a contrast to the bustling mainland and a relaxed alternative to the Maldives and Mauritius.”

You’ve done Ibiza … now try coastal Portugal

Portugal’s tourism mojo has skyrocketed in the last year, luring many to its romantic cities and dreamy wine valleys, but its rugged beaches have yet to experience the boom. According to Virginia Irurita, who specializes in custom trips to the Iberian peninsula, there “are no unexplored beaches left in Spain,” but several spots along the Portuguese coast are still “wild, beautiful, and empty.” Take Odeceixe (pronounced udd-sesh): It’s set at the juncture of the Atlantic Ocean and the tightly-coiled Ceixe River, which separates the Algarve from Alentejo.

There, you’ll find pristine beaches between the river’s curled banks as welol as on the quartz-lined ocean coast-so many of them that you can kayak from one to the next, looking for resident otters or places to avoid human contact. The crowds are thin, in part because there are no luxury hotels. One exception: Herdade do Touril, an affordable boutique bolthole with direct beach access. It’s far more stylish and hospitable than its 100 euro per-night price point would let on.

You’ve done Zanzibar … now try Likoma Island, Malawi

Alex Malcolm, founder and managing director of Jacada Travel, says off-the-beaten-path Likoma Island on Lake Malawi “should be considered a ‘world’s-best beach,'” both for its “current-free, crystal-clear waters” and its vibrant cultural draws: The island is dotted with fishing villages along its shorelines.

Stay at Kaya Mawa Resort, he told us, where “each room was individually designed in partnership with a local workshop set up to empower single mothers, and the whole staff comes from neighboring villages,” for a mix of social consciousness, authenticity, and intimacy. How to get there? Fly to Johannesburg first, then onto Lilongwe, Malawi, where a light aircraft can take you to Likoma Island. It’s a hike-but worth the commitment.

https://youtu.be/zztF5oRp4vQ

AirBuddy is the smallest and lightest dive gear ever created – Digital Trends

Why it matters to you

This lightweight and compact dive system doesn’t require a tank and can be carried with you anywhere you want to go.

If you’ve always wanted to try scuba diving but have been put off by the high cost of gear and the prolonged certification process, a new Kickstarter campaign just might be a dream come true. The AirBuddy, which launched today on the crowdfunding site, promises to deliver a full diving experience that offers the ease and simplicity of snorkeling, making it more accessible to everyone.

Weighing in at just 17.2 pounds, the AirBuddy claims to be the smallest and lightest dive gear ever created. The unit is able to cut a considerable amount of weight by doing away with a traditional scuba tank altogether. Instead it employs a unique design, which includes an air compressor that floats on the surface above the diver, pumping fresh air through a flexible tube that is connected to a mouthpiece regulator. The device can reportedly run for up to 45 minutes on its rechargeable battery, allowing the diver to descend as far as 40 feet below the surface without being encumbered by heavy equipment in any way.

The designers of the AirBuddy are quick to point out that their gadget bridges the gap between snorkeling and scuba, delivering some of the best elements of both activities. For example, because the device is so lightweight compared to traditional dive gear, users can take it with them just about anywhere, allowing for more spontaneous adventures. And while renting and refilling a scuba tank can cost upward of $50 each time you want to use it, the AirBuddy only needs to recharge its batteries between dives. And unlike snorkeling, which keeps you relatively close to the surface most of the time, this device actually allows divers to stay submerged for extended periods of time. Best of all, the AirBuddy doesn’t require any kind of scuba certification to begin using it either.

Built specifically with reef diving in mind, the AirBuddy can be put to use in other ways too. For instance, it is a great option for dive training, as well as performing routine maintenance on a boat. Underwater photographers will also appreciate its ease of use and quick set-up time, allowing them to get in and out of the water quickly to capture a shot. The device will also likely prove very popular with beach resorts, which can offer guests an affordable and safe alternative to a traditional scuba experience. The AirBuddy can even be shared by two users at the same time with a reduced dive depth, or two units can be used in tandem as well.

The team behind the AirBuddy are hoping to raise about $128,000 to get the device into production. If successful, it is expected to ship in June of 2018 with a price tag of about $1,400. Early bird Kickstarter supporters can order one now for just $983 however, which makes the initial investment about on par with good scuba gear and lessons. The savings comes later on tank rentals and refills.

https://youtu.be/GHqcxFB_DCg

 

Rebreathers have plusses, but know before you go – FlKeysNews.com

The diver silently was hovering in the hazy distance — no apparent movement — no bubbles coming from his regulator.

The image came into focus as the group of newer divers I was guiding got closer.

The diver was Carsten Huppertz, head captain at Florida Keys Dive Center, who holds an impressive list of diving instructor ratings, decked out in a rebreather, shiny “bailout” bottle and stylish black dry suit.

My thoughts leapt to a scene from a secret agent movie where the hero climbs out of the water, sheds his scuba gear and dry suit and then walks into the bad guy’s cocktail reception with his hair perfectly in place and not a wrinkle on his tuxedo.

After the theme from the James Bond movies finished playing in my head, I checked on my divers flapping through the water and made the underwater turn back to the dive boat.

“Who knows, maybe I will get to see Halle Berry climb out of the ocean,” I thought.

In 1943, Jacques Cousteau and his partner Emilie Gagnan co-invented a demand valve system that supplies divers with compressed air when they breathe. The exhaust gas is discarded in the form of bubbles; this is called an “open-circuit” system, and has become synonymous with what many know as SCUBA, an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

The standard scuba setup has worked well since the advent of recreational diving.

It turns out, however, that rebreathers have been around longer than better known open circuit scuba gear. Henry A. Fleuss submitted a patent in 1878 and the rebreather was used two years later to close some crucial valves in the Severn River.

Since the days of Cousteau, most recreational scuba divers have used: a mask to enable them to see underwater; a tank containing compressed air (regular filtered air, not oxygen); a scuba regulator, which provides air at the appropriate pressure needed at different depths; fins to swim efficiently in the water; exposure protection (wet suit) to keep them protected and warm; a dive knife to be used as a tool – not a weapon; a depth gage and timing device (both of which are now available in underwater computers); and a compass for navigation.

Added to this are a buoyancy control device (BCD) to help divers float at the surface or to maintain neutral buoyancy underwater (like a fish), and lead weight to help counteract the buoyancy characteristics of their bodies and wet suits.

As Bob Dylan sang in 1964, “The Times They Are A-changin‘.”

With decreases in cost and difficulty of operation, rebreathers, once the realm of military and highly-trained specialty technical divers, are becoming increasingly popular with recreational divers.

A major benefit of a rebreather is longer dives, because a portion of the gas supply is reused, than when using open circuit scuba tanks.

Rebreathers are great for photography because they don’t frighten fish with exhaust sounds. And, they deliver warm, moist breathing gas and a more optimum gas mixture for divers on extended and deeper dives.

There are three basic types of rebreathers: oxygen rebreather, semi-closed rebreather, and closed-circuit rebreather (CCR). Some experts and manufactures differentiate the types into two or four. Halcyon, a dive equipment manufacture, lists oxygen, active addition, semi-closed passive addition and fully closed. ( http://www.halcyon.net/en/gear-up/rebreathers/rebreather-types)

The difference in the method rebreathers operate is the manner in which they add gas to the breathing loop, and control the concentration of oxygen in the breathing gas.

Generally, the breathing loop includes a carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbent canister, a way to add fresh oxygen needed by the diver, and a design to ensuring that gas circulates in one direction. A single fill of a small gas cylinder or cylinders and CO2 scrubber can last, depending on the model, from one to six hours; and, gas duration on a rebreather is nearly independent of depth allowing a diver to spend more time at the deepest portion of a dive.

Rebreathers can be more expensive to purchase and operate than a traditional regulator, BCD and scuba tank setup.

Additional training is also required to use a rebreather, even if you are already a certified diver.

Several dive organizations teach rebreather and technical diving. One of the oldest and largest is Technical Diving International (TDI): https://www.tdisdi.com/tdi/who-is-tdi/.

Another, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), is the largest trainer of recreational divers. Its site relating to rebreathers can be found at: https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/rebreathers

The PADI Rebreather and Advanced Rebreather Diver courses use type “R” units to introduce divers to rebreather diving within recreational dive limits. These units are electronically controlled and provide a backup for all the major systems, which simplifies training and use.

According to PADI, type R rebreathers, which specifically are “suited for recreational diving”: will not operate or will warn the diver if the canister is missing; provide electronic prompts for the predive check; provide automatic set point control; estimate scrubber duration; and, have warnings for low or closed gas supply.

They also display low battery life and high or low PO2 (percentage of oxygen); include a “black box” data recorder functions in the electronics; and; have a display warning system in line-of-sight during normal diving.

PADI’s more advanced Tec CCR courses teach technical divers how to use type “T” closed circuit rebreathers beyond recreational dive limits. (For a list of requirements for type “T” rebreathers see: https://tecrec.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/type-t-rebreather-specifications-v1-4.pdf

The Keys is fortunate to be home to Georgia Hausserman, an expert in the field of rebreather training. Georgia is a member of PADI’s Technical Diving Division and Rebreather Advisory Team, and has helped develop an instructor and instructor trainer base for PADI’s rebreather and CCR programs.

Gary Mace, who with his wife Brenda own and operates Conch Republic Divers, holds rebreather instructor certifications with PADI and the International Association of Nitrox and Technical divers (IANTD).

According to Mace: “Rebreathers are a wonderful tool when used properly within a diver’s certification level and experience. I’ve got friends who have explored shipwrecks down to 340 feet for up to an hour using this technology, which would be very difficult or impractical on open circuit.”

As with any type of diving, when diving with a rebreather, you should make sure your gear is in good working order and properly checked before each dive. You only should dive to the limits of your training and be conservative in your dive(s). Don’t let the pressure of “getting one more dive” or another person’s urging influence your decision to dive.

Upper Keys dive shops providing rebreather training include Conch Republic Divers (http://conchrepublicdivers.com/) Rainbow Reef Dive Center ( http://www.rainbowreef.us/) and Horizon Divers (http://www.horizondivers.com/).

A comprehensive list of diver certification agencies is available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diver_certification_organizations#Technical_diving_certification_agencies

Don Rhodes, in addition to a career in government affairs, has taught scuba for 30 years. He and his wife retired to Tavernier five years ago, where he works as an instructor for Conch Republic Divers. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

https://youtu.be/TIzgbPF3lb0

Maui History Underwater

A nearly intact Curtiss SB2C-1C Helldiver rests just outside Maalaea Harbor. The plane crash-landed after a training exercise gone wrong in 1944, though both the pilot and radio operator emerged safely. -- ED ROBINSON photo

A nearly intact Curtiss SB2C-1C Helldiver rests just outside Maalaea Harbor. The plane crash-landed after a training exercise gone wrong in 1944, though both the pilot and radio operator emerged safely. — ED ROBINSON photo

MAALAEA — As the scuba divers slip farther into the depths of Maalaea Bay, the hulking shape of a seven-decade-old, coral-encrusted airplane looms into view. The wreckage is almost completely intact, its wings stretched wide across the ocean floor, its underbelly lodged in the sandy bottom.

It’s been sitting there since its pilot and radio operator ditched it during a botched training exercise in 1944.

“I get very excited finding these types of sites,” said Hans Van Tilburg, maritime heritage coordinator with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “As archaeologists, we’re always seeing something in the present, and then in our mind’s eye doing some time travel.”

Above water, traces of Maui’s World War II history are visible around the island. In Haiku, 4th Marine Division Memorial Park reminds visitors of Camp Maui, where Marines relaxed and trained for warfare. In an empty field alongside Mokulele Highway, a two-story concrete communications building stands alone in what was once the bustling site of the Puunene Naval Air Station. But several remnants of Maui’s role in the global conflict are underwater — rarely seen by residents or visitors.

For the past three years, a team of divers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii has been documenting underwater wreckage around the islands, the first inventory of its kind in the state. To find the sites, researchers have relied on Navy records, newspaper clippings, local divers and underwater surveys.

The engine of a F6F Hellcat sits at the bottom of Maalaea Bay. Hellcats accounted for 75 percent of U.S. Navy air victories in the Pacific, but some ended up in the waters off Maui during training. -- ED ROBINSON photo

The engine of a F6F Hellcat sits at the bottom of Maalaea Bay. Hellcats accounted for 75 percent of U.S. Navy air victories in the Pacific, but some ended up in the waters off Maui during training. — ED ROBINSON photo

They count 404 confirmed wreckage sites of planes, ships or major parts around Hawaii. All told, there are 2,120 confirmed and possible sites that have yet to be found but are detailed in historical records. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management funded the study and plans to release it soon, Van Tilburg said during a presentation at the Maui Ocean Center on Thursday.

Once home to a major air station and training grounds, Maui has its share of underwater wreckage. Most sites are along the South Maui coast, with a handful off West Maui and the north shore.

Troops preparing for combat in the South Pacific used the island to rehearse operations. Barbed wire was strung up and down the Kihei coastline to simulate the shores of Iwo Jima. Keawakapu Beach had an amphibious training pier where Navy personnel learned embarkation techniques like climbing rope ladders.

“Amphibious tactics, that strategy, was really developed in the ’30s and came to fruition during the war, and is the reason we were successful in the Pacific, I believe,” Van Tilburg said.

Meanwhile, the Puunene Naval Air Station grew to become one of the major flight training stations in the country, excellent for hosting large numbers of squadrons and for practicing night combat tactics. From this base, countless aircraft launched — and some ended up at the bottom of the ocean.

Hans Van Tilburg, maritime heritage coordinator with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, talks about crashed planes and shipwrecks in Maui waters Thursday night at the Maui Ocean Center. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii’s Marine Option Program have documented wreck sites around the islands to create the first inventory of its kind in the state. -- The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photo

Hans Van Tilburg, maritime heritage coordinator with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, talks about crashed planes and shipwrecks in Maui waters Thursday night at the Maui Ocean Center. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii’s Marine Option Program have documented wreck sites around the islands to create the first inventory of its kind in the state. — The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photo

Just outside Maalaea Harbor, the wreck of a Curtiss SB2C-1C Helldiver sits submerged. Local fishermen and dive operators knew of the site and, to the delight of researchers, the wreckage is mostly intact, with a visible serial number that helped pinpoint “the exact incident that led to its demise.”

“Helldivers were dive bombers. It was their job to climb really high and plummet toward their target, release the bomb and then pull out at high G’s,” Van Tilburg said. “They were heavy and they splashed in quite frequently. This was perilous business.”

On Aug. 31, 1944, pilot William E. Dill and radio operator Kenneth W. Joe were doing combat exercises. As they were pulling out of a second steep dive, mounting pressure twisted the plane’s vertical tail assembly, “resulting in complete loss of rudder control,” according to the U.S. Navy’s crash report. They tried to fly back to Puunene but realized they weren’t going to make it and had to ditch the aircraft in the water. Both climbed out to safety.

In a shallower section of Maalaea Bay, an F6F Hellcat is broken up along the ocean floor, where diver Roger Pannier stumbled upon it around 1983, longtime Maui diver Ed Robinson said. F6F Hellcats were “excellent fighter aircraft” that accounted for 75 percent of U.S. Navy air victories in the Pacific, Van Tilburg said. Over time, the wreckage of the Hellcat has fallen apart under restless ocean movement, though the three-blade radial engine and steel landing gear are still fairly intact.

“Often the only things we find on really heavily impacted aircraft wreckage sites is the engine, maybe the prop and the landing gear,” Van Tilburg said.

In 1945, upward of 540 aircraft were lost in Hawaiian waters.

“That averages out to one or two splashing in every day for the entire year,” Van Tilburg said. “That is a tremendous statistic. That is the commitment in material, in production and sometimes in lives that we made just for training in Hawaii.”

Planes aren’t the only sunken military vessels off Maui. In Makena Bay, the hulls and tracks are what remain of an LVT-4 (landing vehicle tracked). The amphibious vehicle was an innovation for its time because it allowed troops to unload onto the beach via ramp, instead of climbing over the sides and further exposing themselves to enemy fire. While not as “glorious” as a battleship or cruiser, “this was the meat of the game,” Van Tilburg said.

All of the known wreckage around Maui was due to training accidents, though researchers don’t have information on how many resulted in casualties, Van Tilburg said.

The wrecks aren’t too eerie, he added. They’re mostly just peaceful fish habitats.

“One thing about these wreck sites is that they’re always home for fish,” he said. “I’ve always told students, ‘Fish love their history.’ But I think what the fish actually like more than that is not being eaten by bigger fish.”

Unfortunately, some sites have been disturbed, like the PB4Y-1 Liberator that Doug Niessen found in more than 200 feet of water off Olowalu around 1985. When Robinson photographed the wreck of the long-range naval patrol aircraft in 1987, the plane boasted twin .50-caliber machine guns. In 2006, only one was left, and it wasn’t due to natural deterioration.

“Those are divers that came and took that machine gun out of this historic property,” Van Tilburg said.

State and federal laws protect historic properties, he explained. The Sunken Military Craft Act says that military aircraft and ships remain the property of the federal government unless Congress takes them off the list. Sunken wreck sites are federal property, and damaging them can lead to consequences with the Navy.

More wreckage is yet to be discovered, not only from World War II but also from the sugar plantation days of the late 1800s, but that, Van Tilburg said, is a presentation for another day.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at [email protected].

 

https://youtu.be/1yuM_WDV25M

Maldives Vacation

The world’s lowest-lying nation rises barely four-feet above sea level (at its highest point, a mere eight-feet), and fans over the Indian Ocean in wide, flat circles of blindingly white sand. The Maldives are nestled halfway between Indonesia and Africa, and attract travelers seriously committed to communing with the sparkling turquoise tides.

Made up of 26 atolls spanning 1,190 different islands (of these, less than a third are inhabited) the Maldives are like one giant jigsaw puzzle of sandbars and lagoons. An impressive number of marine species have made their homes in the surrounding reefs and, as a result, the Maldives are particularly popular among scuba divers.

The Maldives are where people come to experience island life at its most relaxed — and most beautiful. Whether you’re criss-crossing coral reefs in a glass-bottomed boat, or dozing off in your private overwater bungalow, the chances of returning home disappointed are slim to none. As noted author Adrian Neville writes, “It’s hard to have a bad holiday in the Maldives.”

Matteo Colombo/Getty Images

Getting around the Maldives

Within each of the island chain’s ring-shaped atolls — North Ari Atoll, South Ari Atoll, Laamu Atoll, and so on — is a group of different islands typically anchored by a small airport. In the case of Kaafu Atoll, it’s home to Velana International Airport, which is the main entry point for all travelers. From here, you’ll need to arrange a separate flight or speedboat transfer to get to your individual hotel.

WIN-Initiative/Getty Images

Vacation during the dry season

December through April is the dry season, and the most popular time to visit the Maldives. This can make hotels slightly more expensive, but it’s also when you can enjoy a guaranteed streak of gorgeous, storm-free days. Moreover, dry season makes for better visibility (think: crystal-clear snorkeling and underwater diving). No matter what time of year, travelers can expect balmy temperatures in the mid-80s.

Sakis Papadopoulos/robertharding/Getty Images

Visit multiple islands

The Maldives are full of dreamy, relatively untouched islands, and one of the joys of vacationing here is venturing beyond your hotel. A typical excursion might include fishing at sunset in a 60-foot dhoni (a traditional Maldivian wooden boat). Another favorite is island hopping, when resort guests are taken to a handful of nearby islands and properties to snorkel and explore on land (a packed or barbecue lunch is almost always included). Some hotels even offer intimate escapes for couples. Just imagine being taken out to a deserted beach in a dinghy, where you’re left to enjoy the company of your significant other for the entire afternoon, equipped with only a fully stocked picnic basket and a mobile phone in case of emergencies.

Justin Lewis/Getty Images

See a whale shark

Scuba diving in the Maldives is second to none — the nutrient-rich waters here, fed by currents from the Indian Ocean, are like a Whole Foods for marine life. Brightly colored tropical fish, manta rays, reef sharks, whale sharks, eels, sea turtles, and more are attracted to the waters of the Maldives. Start at the South Ari Atoll, where you’ll find popular dive sites like Broken Rock (split in half by a deep canyon) and Kudarah Thila.

Check into one of the new hotels

With four crisp new properties just added to the docket in 2016, the Maldives’ reputation for over-the-top accommodations is as strong as ever. At the Shangri-La Villingili, for example, guests can practice their swing at a dazzling 9-hole golf course. The new Soneva Jani, on the other hand, has waterslides that loop down into a private lagoon. (Another highlight: retractable ceilings in the master bedroom, which slide back at the touch of a button.) Way down on the archipelago’s southern tip, the all-suite Jumeirah Dhevanafushi requires a 55-minute flight from the capital, followed by a 20-minute speedboat ride — but the private villas (with infinity pools) and 24-hour butler service are well worth the trek.

Courtesy of Conrad Hotels & Resorts

Dine underwater

In 2005, Ithaa became the world’s first all-glass, undersea restaurant. Though the trend has spread, travelers can still enjoy a seafood feast at the intimate, 14-seat restaurant. Everything on the menu is sustainably caught. To eat here, however, you must be a guest of the Conrad Rangali hotel, and reservations are required well in advance.

 

 

Ray Tried To Murder Laudineia

A spotted eagle ray jumped from Florida Keys waters and hit a Fort Myers woman who was operating a personal watercraft April 11.

Laudineia G. Neves, 33, suffered a “deep laceration” to her face that required surgery, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports.

“She’s recovering at home and doing much better now,” Rui Leite, her husband, said Tuesday. “They say it was a one-in-a-million thing.”

FWC Investigator Racquel Daniels reported that Neves was cruising on an 11-foot Bombardier watercraft in Lignumvitae Channel near Lower Matecumbe Key “when a spotted eagle ray jumped from the water and struck the operator in the face” around 1:45 p.m.

Neves received initial treatment at Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, then was taken by ambulance to South Miami Hospital for surgery.

Such incidents are rare but in March 2008 a leaping eagle ray struck and killed Judy Kay Zagorski, 57, of Michigan, who was on a moving boat off the Middle Keys. The 75-pound ray knocked Zagorski to the deck, causing a fatal head wound, the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office reported.

“I would call these types of incidents an unfortunate accident,” said Kim Bassos-Hull, senior biologist with Mote Marine Laboratory.

“Spotted eagle rays tend to be very shy,” she said. “They’re not going to come and attack people.”

Eagle rays are well known for their ability to suddenly burst out of the water and soar several feet into the air before crashing back to the surface.

“They jump a lot, for a variety of reasons,” said Bassos-Hull, the lead author on a 2014 peer-reviewed study of eagle rays. “They can be escaping predation attempts by hammerhead sharks, or trying to shake off parasites or remoras.”

“If a swimmer or diver enters the water, an eagle ray tends tends to move away. They’re not curious,” she said. “Most divers have a tough time getting close.”

Spotted eagle rays, which can grow to seven feet across from one tip of its “batoid” wings to the other, are protected from harvest in Florida.

“They are lower in numbers than other more common rays like the southern stingray,” Bassos-Hull said. “They only have one to four pups a year and don’t mature quickly.”

Spotted eagle rays do have a stinger barb at the end of their tail but wield it only in a defensive reaction.

Mote Marine Lab seeks information on eagle ray sightings for an ongoing population study of their movements. File online reports at www.mote.org/eagleray.

 

Austrian scuba diver killed by a shark after disappearing in the waters off South Africa

The 68-year-old man was diving with a group in Protea Banks when he was killed by a shark. Photo / 123rf
The 68-year-old man was diving with a group in Protea Banks when he was killed by a shark. Photo / 123rf

An Austrian scuba diver who went missing off the coast of South Africa was killed by a shark, according to sea rescuers.

The 68-year-old man, who has yet to be formally identified, was diving with a group in Protea Banks in Durban, in the east of the country.

The National Sea Rescue Institute revealed he was with a charter who went out into the water at around 1.45pm on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reports.

His fellow divers said that he disappeared as the rest of the group made their way to the surface.

An NSRI spokesman said: “According to fellow divers on a charter scuba dive they had been surfacing when the man had disappeared.

“During the search‚ the remains of the body of the man‚ believed to have been bitten by a shark‚ were located by crew of a private fishing boat.

“The remains of the body were recovered from the water onto a sea rescue craft and brought to shore.

“NSRI Convey sincerest condolences to the family of a 68 year old Austrian man who died yesterday at Protea Banks, South Coast Kwa-Zulu Natal.”

Initially, the NSRI said the man was German but they today revealed that he was in fact Austrian and thanked both the Austrian and German Consulates who assisted.

Protea Banks is a reef just 6.4km off the South African coast and attracts thousands of scuba divers each year.

Diving enthusiasts typically travel to the area because of the large number of tiger and bull sharks which live there.

Daily Mail

Discovery to build US$400m theme park in Costa Rica

The US media and entertainment group’s new facility, being developed with Sun Latin America in Guanacaste province, will have facilities including a farm, a beach and scuba diving, rock climbing and a volcano. — IStock.com pic via AFP

Discovery Communications Inc. is licensing its name for a $1 billion eco-tourism park in Costa Rica as the media company seeks new revenue from fans of its cable networks, which include Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

Discovery Costa Rica, scheduled to open in late 2020, will be near Liberia, according to a statement from the company. The town is a regional hub in the northwest part of the country that tourists pass through on their way to the country’s Pacific coast beaches.

Activities will include rock climbing, hiking, scuba diving and other pursuits across four locations at the country’s beaches, parks and volcanoes, with a focus on biodiversity and conservation. Discovery Costa Rica will have a water park, along with Discovery-branded hotels and restaurants, said Richard Wirthlin, chairman of investor relations at Sun Latin America, the developer leading the project.

While media giants like Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal build and run theme parks tied to movies and shows, Discovery is taking a more low-key approach. Sun Latin America is assuming the risks associating with developing and owning the project. The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of their deal.

The media company, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, wants viewers to “live out the lifestyle of Discovery beyond the experience of a TV screen,” said Leigh Anne Brodsky, executive vice president of Discovery Global Enterprises, the company’s licensing unit.

“Millennials are interested in more than lying in a beach chair,” Brodsky said. “They want to have an experience.”

Licensing gives Discovery an opportunity to increase ancillary income at a time when its main revenue sources — TV advertising and cable subscriber fees — aren’t growing as fast as they once were.

The company has also licensed its name to an adventure park in Moganshan, China, that opened last year, and has a partnership with Princess Cruises for snorkeling and other activities tied to TV shows like “Deadliest Catch” and “Shark Week.”

Such arrangements contributed less than 5 percent of Discovery’s 2016 revenue of $6.5 billion, and the company is exploring more licensing deals, a spokeswoman said.

Animal Planet, one of several Discovery cable networks, aired “Wild Costa Rica,” a show celebrating biodiversity, in August.

 

https://youtu.be/GARPxMBIfz4

Afraid of Shark Attacks?

About 100 years ago, the general consensus was that sharks couldn’t kill people. Really: The historian Al Savolaine says scientists and doctors believed sharks’ jaws and teeth weren’t strong enough to break human bone.

Then came the summer of 1916.

Over the course of 12 days, there were six shark attacks along the New Jersey coast, and they contributed to a fear of sharks that has permeated our culture ever since.

Savolaine is a historian in one of the towns where there were attacks: Matawan, New Jersey. He says when the first attack happened, people thought it might have been perpetrated by a giant sea turtle.

That first attack happened on July 1, 1916, to a swimmer off Beach Haven, New Jersey. Just like in the movie that would build our shark obsession — 1975’s “Jaws” — officials “didn’t want to hurt local tourism, so they didn’t advertise it,” Savolaine said.

The series of attacks ended with another scene reminiscent of “Jaws,” except even more unlikely, because it took place in Matawan, which is 1.5 miles off the ocean. Savolaine says the shark swam up a tidal river and attacked one young boy in a group who were skinny dipping. The other boys ran naked through the town calling for help, and a group went down to the river to investigate.

Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, dove in, found the boy’s body, but then was attacked by the shark as well.

At the end of the 12-day streak, four people had died.

“This started the cultural fascination with shark attacks,” Savolaine said.

But after the attacks, interest in sharks eventually waned.

“Time passes and people get less concerned,” he said. “What really got people interested was the novel “Jaws” and the movie the following year. After that, a lot of people were afraid to go out in the ocean. And that got people thinking about sharks, so then they remembered that brutal shark attack in 1916 along the Jersey Shore. People started looking back and researching and it stimulated interest.”

Universal Pictures/Getty Images

It’s an interest that has held steady ever since. Rationally, however, the fear of sharks makes little sense, says David Ropeik, an expert on risk analysis and Harvard professor. He likes to point out that more people are attacked by cows than sharks.

“We take daily risks all the time, we cross the street, we use a cellphone when we drive, we have unprotected sex,” he said. “Our brain doesn’t even do a risk analysis, you just think, ‘Oh that won’t happen to me.’ You don’t wake up in the morning and think, ‘I’ll fall out of bed and hit my head.’”

That’s what Ropeik calls “optimism bias,” where the risk is far off in the distance and “we tell ourselves if we think about it at all, that won’t happen to me.”

But shark attacks don’t usually fall under the “optimism bias” category, he said. Maybe when someone first books a beach vacation, he isn’t thinking a shark attack could happen. But once he’s standing in the sand, ready to set foot in the water, “optimism bias changes to something called loss aversion, where we over weigh the downside of possibilities,” Ropeik said.

“It’s easy to be optimistic when it’s off in the future, but now your butt is on the line, now you could die, and we revert to caution,” he said. “I know I probably won’t get eaten by shark, but it would be really bad if I do, so statistics go out the window.”

Other factors that play into our irrational fear of sharks are that we dread the pain and suffering that would come with dying by a shark attack.

“The more pain and suffering along the way to getting to being dead, the scarier it is,” he said. And there’s the lack of control we feel over when a shark might strike.

“You’re on the surface of the water and it’s dark under there, you can’t see, and not knowing is powerlessness,” Ropeik said. Even if you’re scuba diving or snorkeling in clear water, he said you know a shark can swim faster than you, so you still don’t feel in control.

Ropeik also says media coverage of shark attacks is to thank for our continued obsession. He calls that “availability awareness,” meaning “the more it’s on our radar screen, the more prominence it holds on our risk radar.”

As a former television producer, he understands that rare and violent stories get more attention and media outlets know people will pay more attention to “stories about the possibility of our death.”

But, he said, there’s a downside to the overexposure. When our brains are saturated with fears about unlikely things such as shark attacks, we don’t pay as much attention to safety precautions we actually should follow — like wearing sunscreen, for example.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

“What we are aware of either from personal experience or the media is what fills up our risk radar screen, which has only so much room on it,” Ropeik said. “So when there are lots of stories about sharks, that’s going to grab up room that could have gone to something else.”

There’s another downside to the shark obsession, said James Sulikowski, a professor in the Marine Science Department at the University of New England. That is that historically, people have been less interested in the conservation of sharks because they’ve been portrayed as villains.

“Most people don’t understand sharks are like us, they grow slowly, live long lives and have very few offspring, so they’re very susceptible to fishing pressure,” he said.

However, that’s changing, Sulikowski says. Science has made people aware of how important sharks are to the entire marine ecosystem and has made them care more about protecting them.

Still, he says sharks are fighting a battle other threatened species don’t have to fight: negative publicity.

“We still need to keep getting the importance of sharks out because every time there’s a shark attack, everyone freaks out,” he said.

He hopes people can “take a step back and think about what the statistics really are.”

For example, he said, you’re more likely to be bitten by another person on a New York City subway than be bitten by a shark.

 

https://youtu.be/kgPtizbCPN0

https://youtu.be/QJ-2ZmihkqU

Cooper’s Treasure

NASA astronaut’s space treasure map sparks hunt for Caribbean wrecks

 

Astronaut Gordon Cooper was a born explorer. He broke countless NASA space flight records, like the longest single-man space flight, a 122-hour mission. But one of his greatest achievements may not have been unveiled if it wasn’t for his willingness to share a secret he had kept for more than 40 years.

During his time in space, Cooper made an incredible discovery — anomalies he believed were shipwrecks. He meticulously noted them and created what some are calling a treasure map from space.

When Cooper fell sick with Parkinson’s, his longtime friend Darrell Miklos says he gave him his maps to fulfill his explorations. Cooper passed away in 2004.

 

“I think he knew his demise was coming, so he gave me the information prior to his death and said, ‘Anything ever happens to me, you make sure you finish this,’” Miklos told Fox News.

Miklos became close with Cooper after years of sharing an office space in California, when they bonded over a shared passion for exploration.

“From the mid-’90s till his passing, we always talked about treasure, but [it was] not till 2002 that he revealed to me that he had all these files for decades,” Miklos said. “I’m privileged to be the only man with these files.”

 

Now, Miklos stars in the new Discovery Channel docuseries “Cooper’s Treasure.” The show follows Miklos as he decodes and follows Cooper’s maps in hopes of uncovering hundred-year-old shipwreck material and treasure.

The maps were created while Cooper was navigating the globe on his Mercury 9 Faith 7 flight. At the time, he was possibly on a mission to look for nuclear threats during the Cold War era, Miklos said.

“They were utilizing some kind of long-range detection equipment to look for nuclear threats. With that, his acute vision [and] possible cameras, he started identifying things that looked like shipwreck material,” Miklos said. “Once he had written all the coordinates down, he went back to earth and put together this incredible treasure map from space on a sea chart.”

 

With a detailed map and archival research files, Miklos and a crew of professionals explored parts of the Caribbean searching for the wrecks. The team used a magnetometer to identify shipwreck areas and then dived down for a closer inspection using a metal detector.

“We cherry-picked five anomaly readings, did a search and identify mission, and we are five for five for positively identified shipwrecked material — and there are hundreds,” Miklos said. “So the first five, he was exactly right on the money. He had it right from the beginning.”

Miklos described the sites as “historical shipwrecks of the colonial period.”

 

“Cooper’s Treasure” airs on the Discovery Channel on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.

 

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