Deeper down, are coral reefs holding up better?

The next time you see a picture of a coral reef bleached ghost-white by warming seas, remember that there’s a good chance it was taken in the photic zone: the brightly lit layer of water that extends about 50 meters below the surface.

Australian marine biologist Tom Bridge wants to shift our focus deeper. Speaking at the World Science Festival in Brisbane, Australia, on Friday, he pointed out that two-thirds of all coral lives in the 50- to 700-meter (165 to 2,300 feet) range. That’s a habitat that reaches deeper than the height of New York’s One World Trade Center.

In particular, he wants to call our attention to the “mesophotic zone,” between 50 to 150 meters (165 to 492 feet), where enough sunlight reaches to sustain many of the same corals found higher up. “We have this sort of intermediate zone between the 50 to 150 meter depth range that’s really been ignored for a long period of time,” Dr. Bridge, the senior curator at Queensland Museum in Brisbane told the World Science Festival audience.

Studying this zone could do more than just fill a gap in scientific knowledge. The mesophotic’s greater depth and colder temperatures provide a buffer against climate change and other well-known threats facing reefs and studying it could change scientific methods for protecting the reefs overall.

“Sometimes these deeper areas are less vulnerable to these disturbances than shallow water habitats,” Bridge explained. In oceans, a transition layer called the “thermocline” separates warmer and colder waters. During one mesophotic research dive in Hawaii, recently described in Science magazine, the team reached waters as cold as 10 degrees Celsius, or 50 degrees F.

Along with the cold temperatures, scientists have other good reasons to stay in the shallows. Standard diving protocol involves pausing at regular intervals during an ascent.

To make enough time for these pauses, divers who go deep typically use a rebreather, which re-circulates exhaled air, rather than breathe compressed air from a scuba tank. Even then, a research dive at 100 meters (328 feet) might involve 20 minutes of work on the reef, followed by two hours of stops on the way up.

Despite the challenges, Bridge thinks studying the mesophotic could offer a more holistic – and encouraging – picture of Earth’s reefs. The same temperatures that chill divers to the bone could protect the mesophotic’s corals from the bleaching that occurs closer to the surface. They’re also farther removed from other threats, such as overfishing and coastal development.

Understanding if these traits make the mesophotic stronger would take more research. “Compared to what we know about shallow coral reefs, everything in the deep coral reefs is a big question mark,” Richard Pyle, an associate zoologist at Bishop Museum in Honolulu who specializes in deep-water coral climate, told Science magazine.

Bridge wants that to change. “A lot of the time it’s out of sight, out of mind…. If you can’t see it, it doesn’t become included in conservation plans and things like that.”

 

Lawsuit Dive-Gear Sales To Libyan Militants

A diver who was with famed Canadian documentary filmmaker Rob Stewart when Stewart slipped beneath the waves Jan. 31 after ascending from a deep-water dive off Islamorada — and was found dead three days later — is a defendant in a bizarre lawsuit with his former business partner in which he’s accused of selling military-grade scuba gear to a Libyan militant last August.

Peter Sotis, a well-known name in the rebreather diving community, is being sued by Shawn Robotka, a Key Largo man who owns 20 percent of one of Sotis’ businesses called Kaizen International Solutions LLC. Robotka wants a judge to liquidate Kaizen’s assets and grant an injunction preventing Sotis from continuing to operate the business.

Among other arguments, Robotka’s attorneys wrote in a Dec. 22, 2016, complaint filed in Broward County Circuit Court that Sotis sold rebreather and underwater propulsion equipment to a client in Libya. Robotka argues that violates federal law and subjects him and Kaizen Solutions to liability. Robotka’s attorneys state in the complaint that the sale in August 2016 was executed after federal agents with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Homeland Security and FBI cautioned the transaction was against the law.

It’s unclear whether that sale actually happened or if Sotis is under any sort of investigation. His attorney, Raymond Robin, said he doesn’t know.

“They’re the ones claiming it, so I would ask them,” Robin said of Robotka’s attorneys, Robert Bernstein and John Annesser. Bernstein and Annesser declined comment.

“Unfortunately, as our case is ongoing, we cannot offer any comment at this time,” Annesser said.

In a Feb. 21 filing in court responding to Sotis’ counsel’s request for specific documents related to Robotka’s accusation of the sale to Libya, however, Bernstein wrote “any such documents cannot be produced so as not to interfere with ongoing federal investigations.”

James Marshall, an FBI spokesman, responded that it’s “FBI policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

Robin filed a counter claim in Broward County Circuit Court, accusing Robotka of emptying the bank accounts of Kaizen and several other businesses Sotis owns, taking $102,972 on Dec. 21, one day before he filed his lawsuit against Sotis.

Sotis trained Rob Stewart, a Canadian conservationist who made underwater documentaries about sharks, on rebreathing devices many divers use on deep descents. Rebreathers circulate a diver’s air, scrubbing the carbon dioxide, which allows them to stay underwater longer. The gear also does not produce bubbles that scare fish. But the complex devices also can be more dangerous than conventional compressed-air tanks.

Stewart, 37, and Sotis were using rebreathers when they were diving in more than 220 feet of water on the Queen of Nassau wreck about 6 miles from Alligator Reef off Islamorada Jan. 31 while filming the latest installment of Stewart’s “Sharkwater” documentary series about shark conservation.

Sotis surfaced first and showed signs of breathing difficulties. Initial reports said he lost consciousness, but he denied this in a posting on the Facebook page of one of his companies, Add Helium. Crew members on the Pisces dive boat administered oxygen to Sotis. When they turned around to retrieve Stewart, he was gone. Sotis did not respond to request for comment on the incident sent to him in February and an attempt to contact him this week was not successful.

A massive three-day, 6,000-square-mile search was conducted for Stewart that included numerous assets from the U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department’s dive team. When the official search was called off late Friday afternoon, Feb. 3, Key Largo divers, using an remotely operated underwater vehicle, found Stewart’s body 200-plus feet down on the ocean floor, about 300 feet from where he was last seen on the surface.

 

James Bond Breathe Like A Fish Gadget

It’s the James Bond gadget on everyone’s wishlist.

The rebreather, a system that lets you breathe underwater, has got Mr Bond out of some tricky situations.

Now one South Korean designer Korea has taken inspiration from the spy’s device to create a concept gadget that claims to instantly transform the user into a human fish.

The mask, dubbed Triton, acts like a fish gill to extract oxygen from water so that the user can keep on breathing while under the sea

The mask, dubbed Triton, acts like a fish gill to extract oxygen from water so that the user can keep on breathing while under the sea

HOW TRITON COULD WORK

To use Triton, swimmers would bite
down on a plastic mouth piece.

Two arms, which branch out to the sides
of the scuba mask, have been developed to function as gills.

The scaly texture on the arms conceals small holes in the material where water is sucked in.

Chambers inside separate the oxygen and release the liquid so that the user can breathe comfortably in the ocean.

Using a very small but powerful micro compressor, the system compresses oxygen and stores it in tanks.

The gadget is powered by micro battery around 30 times smaller than a battery.

The device, however, is only a concept and questions remain over whether it would be technically feasible to recreate.

The mask, dubbed Triton, acts like a fish gill to extract oxygen from water so that the user can keep on breathing while under the sea.

While it may not be as slick as a rebreather, designer Jeabyun Yeon, who came up with the concept, believes it will change the way people approach water.

To use Triton, swimmers would bite down on a plastic mouth piece.

Two arms, which branch out to the sides of the scuba mask, can then function as efficient gills to deliver oxygen.

The scaly texture on the arms conceal small holes in the material where water is sucked in.

Chambers inside separate the oxygen and release the liquid so that the user can breathe comfortably in the ocean.

Using a very small but powerful micro compressor, the concept system would compress oxygen and store it in tanks.

The entire gadget is powered by micro battery which is around 30 times smaller than a current battery that can quickly charge 1,000 times faster.

But you may have to wait a little longer before placing an order as the product is still at concept stage.

Mr Yeon describes it as ‘a future product’ that could one day replace complicated scuba equipment.

A more radical design was recently unveiled by a South Korean designer Korea which claims to instantly transform the user into a human fish

A more radical design was recently unveiled by a South Korean designer Korea which claims to instantly transform the user into a human fish

The mask, dubbed Triton, acts like a fish gill to extract oxygen from water so that the user can keep on breathing while under the sea

The mask, dubbed Triton, acts like a fish gill to extract oxygen from water so that the user can keep on breathing while under the sea

James Bond
Triton

A designer in South Korea has taken inspiration from James Bond’s rebreather (left) to create the Triton gadget that claims to instantly transform the user into a human fish

Chambers inside separate the oxygen and release the water so that the user can breathe comfortably

Chambers inside separate the oxygen and release the water so that the user can breathe comfortably

Mr Yeon describes Triton as 'a future product' that could one day replace complicated scuba equipment

Mr Yeon describes Triton as ‘a future product’ that could one day replace complicated scuba equipment.  Let’s wish them the best in development!

Dailymail.com Reporter

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