Divers are plundering the wrecks of vessels sunk during the Second World War in an area known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic". The stretch of seabed off North Carolina and Virginia contains up to 90 wrecks, most lying at relatively shallow depths, offering divers and maritime historians unique opportunities for exploration. However, experts have warned that the wrecks are increasingly being disturbed by divers, some of whom are removing items to keep as souvenirs. Weapons and other artefacts have been looted and divers are even said to have removed the skeleton of a German sailor from a sunken U-boat in the area.

Using satellite-linked and underwater listening tags to monitor movement and behavior, NOAA and partnering scientists tagged more than thirty individual marine mammals of four different species. They measured how deep-diving marine mammals feed, interact with one another, dive and respond to sounds in their environment in this pioneering pilot project carried out in conjunction with the Navy's Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2008 exercises.

The Governor of the Red Sea in Egypt has decreed that the Red Sea will be the first plastic bag free Governorate with effect from 1st January 2009. This decree represents a considerable step forward in tackling the issues caused by excess rubbish and in particular plastic bags in the Red Sea. Plastic bags pose a massive hazard to birds, turtles, dolphins and other marine creatures that are killed in alarming numbers each year after swallowing or becoming entangled in plastic bags blown out to sea. Turtles easily mistake plastic bags for yummy jellyfish. Once in the stomach, the indigestible plastic wraps itself around the intestines of the creature and it slowly starves to death.

More on the diving around India, especially the Lakshadweep Islands, is now on the SCUBA Travel site. Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 36 islands, 200-300 miles off the west coast of India in the Arabian Sea.

Atlantic molly fish go for less fertile females if another male is present, in a bid to trick the other male into choosing a poorer-quality mate.

When I travel, I like to meet up with local Wetpixel members to dive with. It’s great because I get to connect faces with names. Plus, the locals always know the most about the local reefs. In order to facilitate divers meeting divers, I’ve set up a new forum called Divers Seeking Divers. If you’re looking for a new local dive buddy, or are traveling somewhere and want some local expertise, head on over there and start posting!

Wetpixel publisher and editor Eric Cheng (that’s me) is speaking at the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) this coming Friday, August 8, 2008. I will be presenting some of my favorite images and talking about how and where they were taken. In addition, I’ll show the RAW files behind the final images so you can see what goes into a typical image’s post-processing. Location: New Vision United Methodist Church, 450 Chadbourne Avenue, Millbrae, CA.  94030. Doors open at 7pm for a pre-talk seminar. Eric’s talk starts at 8pm.

Today, Olympus and Panasonic announced a new mirrorless format based on Four Thirds. Sensors in the new system are the same size as they were in the original Four Thirds specification (18 x 13.5 mm), but Micro Four Thirds cameras will be considerably smaller due to the removal of the mirror. In addition, lenses for the new lens mount will also be smaller. The drawback is that without a mirror, optical viewfinders are not possible, and framing will have to done via Live View or electronic viewfinder. Micro Four Thirds is compatible with Four Thirds lenses through the use of an adapter. This is particularly exciting for underwater shooters. A large sensor in a small package will allow us to maintain low noise in images while minimizing the size of a housed camera!

Alex Mustard leads a discussion about the underwater mode featured on some compact digital cameras. On my last compact, a Fuji F40, it was a very useful feature down to 5-6m or more (say 15-20ft). But on my latest compact, a Fuji F50, it is useless - even at much shallower depths. Quite to my surprise. ...this leaves me confused as Underwater Mode is a software image processing feature, so you’d think it would be pretty consistent between two consecutive models from the same manufacturer. Do you have any experiences with underwater mode on your compact digital camera?

There have been some reports of a mysterious D2X syndrome whereby photos would inexplicably go missing. Apparently it only happened underwater, and the situation was that an image would shoot, appear on the LCD, but never write to the CF card.

PADIs future is digital. That's how the world's largest training organization for divers sees things at any rate; it is to launch its new PADI digital underwater photographer specialty at the...

Fantasea Line released the FP-1 housing today. The housing for the P1 and the...

Today we received the announcement from Fantasea Line that their new FD-50 housing is available. It will house the...

The first Digideep European Open shootout took place in the lovely little town Hamburgsund on the west coast of Sweden from the 22nd till the 25th of September. Digideep teamed up with the

Digital cameras are the gadget that baffle most Britons, according a consumer survey by Reevoo.com. The research revealed that more than a quarter of us have no idea how to use our cameras properly and do not bother to read the manuals either. Hmm...

Nikon has announced four new Coolpix S-series ultra compact cameras. The S560, S610, S610c and S710 offer a variety of zoom ranges and megapixel counts. The S710 offers a 14.5 megapixel sensor and an optically stabilized 3.5x zoom starting at 28 mm equivalent. The S610 offers 10 megapixes and 4x stabilized zoom, while the 'C' version is the world's first to boast the easy-connect WiFi Protected Setup certification. All are available in a variety of colors such as "Urban Black" and "Sakura [cherry blossom] Pink."

Nikon has launched the Coolpix S60 in addition to the four S-series compact cameras. This 10MP digital camera with 3.5" touch-panel LCD and 5x zoom lens, has Vibration Reduction along with features such as time-lapse movies, in-camera retouch and HDMi output.

Nikon has announced its flagship compact, the Coolpix P6000. Built around a 13.5 megapixel, 1/1.72 inch sensor (roughly 0.41 square cm), the camera has a 4x zoom starting at a respectably wide-angle - equivalent to 28mm. It also records RAW files in a new NRW format that can be converted in-camera or with the forthcoming Windows version of View NX or Windows Imaging Component compatible applications. The other stand-out feature is the inclusion of built-in GPS logging of the locations at which images were recorded. It is expected to start shipping in September for around $500/£429.99/€575.00. Now with added product images.

Sony has launched the Cyber-shot DSC-T77 and DSC-T700 ultra-compact digital cameras. Replacing the DSC-T70 and T300 respectively, both maintain the 10-megapixel sensor of their predecessors. The T77 is Sony’s thinnest model and has a 3-inch touch panel LCD screen. The T700 has all the features of the T77 plus 4GB of internal memory and a hi-resolution 3.5-inch wide touch panel. The T700 has a photo album-like database and is aimed at enthusiasts who want to store, display and share their images easily with others.