Who knew Hugh could Scu?

Well, we all did actually – on his last series, it seemed old Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall used any excuse to kit up and roll off a rib.

But this time, it’s with a much more poignant purpose.

Hugh’s Fish Fight , a new series on Channel 4, highlights the shocking state of the fishing industries, where tuna nets are stripping the oceans and obliterating all sorts of species, and North Sea fisherman throw half of their catch back into the sea, dead.

It’s a subject that needs this level of publicity, and Hugh’s joined in his campaign by fellow chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay (also a keen diver) in a new series called The Big Fish Fight.

The chefs also aim to promote eating other types of fish, to try and reduce pressure on declining stocks of the three fish in greatest demand in Britain – cod, salmon and tuna.

In last night’s episode, Hugh travelled to the Maldives (jealous, much?!) to illustrate how the majestic manta rays are falling prey to the controversial and indiscriminate tuna fishing nets known as FADS.

In an interview with the Guardian, Hugh explained how he first got into diving.

“I learned to dive 22 years ago, in weekly sessions at a swimming pool in Swiss Cottage, north London,” says Hugh. “From day one I was dreaming of swimming with mantas. Since then, practically every foreign holiday I’ve taken has involved diving.

“I’ve dived in the Red Sea, in Thailand, in the Seychelles, in Madagascar, Mauritius and Tanzania, with sharks, octopus and basking sharks – not that I need the company of charismatic submarine megafauna to make a dive feel worthwhile.

“Seeing tiny wrasse busying themselves in the tentacles of sea anemones, or a velvet swimming crab waving its claws at me from its hidey-hole in a Dorset wreck is quite enough.

“But the manta itch has never been far away, and whenever I’ve arrived at a new destination, I’ve tentatively inquired whether mantas have been seen there in recent days/weeks/years/ever, often to be told, “You should have been here yesterday/last week/last month.”

But on his trip to the Maldives, Hugh struck lucky: “They were ridiculously big, and impossibly graceful. A ray came towards me, and then another. And another.

“Soon, I was in a slow-motion vortex of six of these flying paradoxes of bulk and beauty, each one the size of three big dining tables bolted together, yet each as graceful and weightless as a kestrel in a light breeze.

“Self-awareness is erased in the moment, lost in the pure pleasure of observing without influence the perfect action of a wondrous, unknowable being.”

Catch Hugh’s Fish Fight on Channel 4 this week and sign his petition to support the cause!

PS! How well do you know your fish? Take the Guardian’s quirky quiz to see if you know your John Dory from your Pollack!

Shark attacks in Sharm el Sheikh

You can’t switch on the news this week without hearing about the recent shark problem in Sharm el Sheikh, where last week a German tourist was bitten to death while she swam close to the shore.

The attack came a week after Russian snorkellers were mauled by a what could be the same shark, an Oceanic White Tip.

Divers and fishermen were sent out to trawl the waters of the popular resort, and footage has appeared on news channels all over the world showing what the Egyptian authorities thought was the captured culprit.

But just one week later, the shark attacked again and this time it resulted in a fatality.

For years, there have been reports of dive boats illegally dumping raw meat and food waste into the ocean in a bid to attract sharks for divers and snorkellers to swim with. It is believed that this activity has had an effect on the behavior of sharks.

But the Egyptian authorities insist that they have always had incredibly safe waters and cannot understand why there has been a change in sharks’ behavior towards humans, or why a deep-water species has come so close to the shoreline.

One particularly alarming accusation emerged earlier this week, when it was reported on an Egyptian news site that Egyptian authorities were ‘not ruling out the possibility that the deadly shark was placed in the sea by Mossad‘, the national intelligence agency of Israel.

Needless to say, Israeli officials retorted that the claim was ‘too ludicrous to comment on’.

So what do you think? Divers have been interacting peacefully with sharks for decades in Sharm, so what has happened to change this creator’s behavior?

Overfishing and declining fish stocks are thought to be one reason why these sharks are being driven into shallow waters – so are the authorities at fault, or are we as divers/snorkellers not taking enough precautions when we enter a marine environment?

One thing’s for sure – you certainly wouldn’t want to be confronted with this whilst diving…

I wouldn’t do that if I were you!

This week’s video, courtesy of Jane, illustrates why trying to get your kicks by snogging sharks probably isn’t the best idea in the world.

To be fair, it could have been a lot worse – this chap could’ve ended up without an actual FACE – but he got off quite lightly, considering he was, quite literally, mouth-to-mouth.

This clip is from the Discovery Channel’s recent show on crazy adrenaline junkies as part of the channel’s Adrenaline Rush Hour.

Take a look at http://www.wimp.com/sharkkissing/ - as Jane says, whatever happened to ‘look but don’t touch’? Nutters.

It’s behind you!

SSAC trips to Egypt’s blissful Red Sea always offer some spectacular diving, and June’s trip was no exception.

The lucky few descended onto the MV Gelen last month for a week-long liveaboard exploring the crystal-clear waters of the Daedalus and Elphinstone reefs.

By all accounts, one of the biggest attractions on this trip was an abundance of shark life, one of which was captured by Mark Hammond in the pictures he sent us – see them in our gallery below.

For those hankering after another Red Sea adventure, there’s another trip running to Egypt’s northern wrecks and reefs from 12th to 19th November. See Paul for booking and availability!

Amazing new discoveries of the deep

Last week, the BBC website published this spectacular picture gallery called ‘Charting the Depths’.

These pictures are the result of a 10-year project by scientists in the Census of Marine Life (CoML) to find out what lives in the world’s oceans.

The census began in 2000 and has involved more than 2,000 scientists from 80 nations.

As well as species new to science, the census also recorded abundant organisms, like the sponge brittle star. There are also some incredible snaps of deep water octopus, dragon fish, spider conch, zombie worm and a new species called ‘gastropod’.

In other news this week, a Scientist from Australia’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) is claimed to have found what may be the rarest coral species in the Pacific Ocean.

The new coral species known as Pacific Elkhorn coral bears a strong resemblance to the endangered Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) found only in the Atlantic Ocean and primarily the Caribbean.

It was discovered by Dr Zoe Richards of CoECRS while conducting an underwater survey at Arno atoll in the Marshall Islands located in the North Pacific.

Sustainable fish and chips, anyone?

Apologies if you’re already familiar with this website, but this week I spotted that the Marine Consevation Society have a great sustainability website called Fish Online.

It helps you identify which fish are from well managed sources andor caught using methods that minimise damage to marine wildlife and habitats – in other words, which fish to eat and which fish to avoid.

Each of the fish have been given a rating to enable you to quickly identify species that are considered to be sustainably and sensitively harvested, and those species which are not.

You can also find background information on the state of the world’s fish stocks as well as maps of the world’s fishing areas (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) fishing areas, and North East Atlantic stocks (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) fishing areas)), to help you identify the areas in which the fish is caught.

Especially useful is last year’s supermarket sustainability survey which shows you which supermarkets performed best in terms helping fisheries become more sustainable.