Deeper Blue

If you’re diving or whale watching off the coast of Oman, the humpback whale population there hasn’t shown signs of growth in the past 20 years, according to new research. As is the case in other parts of the world, vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement are among the top threats to this region’s whale population, according to a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Hungary’s Zsofia Torocsik nabbed the first top medal of this year’s AIDA Depth World Championships off Limassol, Cyprus. Torocsik brought home the women’s gold in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) discipline with a dive to 78m/256ft, also setting a new national record. Sanda Delija of Croatia earned the silver medal with her 75m/246ft dive as well as a national record. Ukrainian Nataliia Zharkova’s dive to 68m/223ft was enough to bring home the bronze medal.

A team of five divers from the University of Warsaw conducted 22 dives to recover artifacts from a 400-year-old wreck off Germany’s Bay of Greifswald before a gas pipeline route could bury them. The divers recovered an anchor, rope, shoe soles and a possible bilge pump at a depth of 7.6m (25ft) of water and heavy silt. Tree-ring dating puts the timber on the wreck between 1626 and 1639; charring on some timbers is unexplained and the ship remains unidentified.

Aggressor Adventures has received 118 awards in Scuba Diving Magazine’s annual “Readers Choice Awards,” surpassing the company’s total of 100 awards from last year. More than 11,000 divers participated in this year’s awards, recognizing their favorite destinations, liveaboards, resorts, dive operators, gear and other categories across the diving industry.

Freediver Marina Kazankova has announced plans to set a new Guinness World Record for the “Longest Underwater Aerial Silks Performance” on a single breath. The attempt will take place on Sunday, October 11th, 2026 at 11:10 a.m. at the pool of the Hotel Du Soleil in Torgnon, Aosta Valley — 1,500 meters/4,921 feet high in the Italian Alps.

If you’re a fan of Mares, the company has introduced the Planet 62X regulator, a new North America-exclusive configuration that combines the Planet second stage with the lightweight 62X first stage. Designed for divers who want the performance and breathing characteristics of the Planet second stage in a lighter package, the Planet 62X significantly reduces overall regulator weight compared with the Planet 88X configuration, the company claims.

Researchers have shown that solar panels can generate electricity 10 meters (33 feet) beneath the surface. The work was carried out by a team from Yunnan University and the Southwest United Graduate School, and was published in the in the journal Joule. Perovskite Panels Work Underwater During the study, field trials conducted off the Weizhou Islands in the South China Sea demonstrated that submerged perovskite solar cells produced 324 mWh of energy over a two-hour submersion window.

Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark’s National Institute of Aquatic Resources have challenged the long-standing theory that climate change is fueling a global boom in squid populations. Metabolism Leaves Squid Vulnerable Previously, scientists believed that warming seas would give fast-growing cephalopods a metabolic advantage over slow-growing finfish. However, new ecosystem modeling shows that higher temperatures actually trigger a decline in squid biomass.

The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) has published a manual that provides a practical guide to assessing animal welfare in commercial shrimp aquaculture. Evaluating  Health in Shrimp Farming As global crustacean production grows rapidly, consumer scrutiny of ethical and environmental standards has intensified. Horrible invasive hatchery practices, such as eyestalk ablation used to stimulate reproduction.

The 37th AIDA World Apnea Depth Championships open September 27th in Limassol Bay, Cyprus, with 178 athletes from 55 countries — the largest freediving depth field the sport has held. Athletes will be competing in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF), Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB), Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight with Monofin (CWT) disciplines.