July may seem like its in the distant future, but it will be here before you know it. And with it comes our annual fundraiser of Legendary Bingo. In order to participate (and make the club operating funds for the year), we are required to provide 10 prizes for the winning players. If we can get items donated for this, the club will make even more money.

If you have an item that you’d like to donate to the effort, you can reach out to use via email, or simply bring whatever you have to the club meetings in May or June. Things that remain popular are unopened bottles of wine, beer or liquor, gift cards or certificates for retail stores or services, DVDs, beauty products, music, theme park tickets or any VIP experience.

And don’t forget to save the date for us. It’s Sunday, July 29th at 6pm at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood. We’d love to have you join in the fun!

Ok, we may be a little late to the table, but we’re still SUPER excited to find out that the sequel to the BBC documentary Blue Planet is under way.

The emmy-winning original was a visually stunning introduction of the teaming biodiversity to be found in the earth’s largest natural habitat and a great introduction to all those humans who perhaps never gave the undersea world much thought. For many of us, it encouraged us to further our adventures through diving and seek out first hand experiences like we saw on the screen. For others, it was a wake up call to get involved in efforts to preserve as much of that biodiversity as possible through efforts both great and small. And for some, it was a call to finally strike out on the journey to scuba certification, after putting it off time and again. Whatever the response, it is arguably one of the most masterful examples of nature documentation produced to date.

Now we can look forward a further installment which promises even more discovery with more incredible visuals from the world’s marine environment. You can check out the link to Gizmodo.com to see an introduction of new or original footage narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough here.

Interested in a story about how man can interact in a positive way with the much maligned, elusive shark? Check out the link below for a story from GrindTv.com about a persistent lemon shark who recognized a diver as a potential ally in his plight for assistance. This lucky shark happened on just the right diver for aide and we do not recommend you try this yourself. It’s certainly interesting to note that even the most intimidating of creatures can show their need and vulnerability from time to time.

http://www.grindtv.com/wildlife/shark-appears-asking-diver-help-gets-video/

Lionfish can reduce a flourishing coral reef to a wasteland in a matter of weeks. Native fish, unfamiliar with the new arrival, do not know to avoid it, and the predator gorges to the point of obesity.

The Lionfish sits at the top of the food chain, unthreatened by any other creature. They breed rapidly, and are extremely resilient and adaptable. No solution has been found to control their advance yet, but conservationists could soon have a new tool at their disposal: killer robots. Enter iRobot CEO Colin Angle, who met with Bermudan conservationists and learned about the extent of the damage caused by lionfish.

One of the group suggested that he create a machine to kill the fish, and another offered to provide funding. Angle returned home and wrote a proposal, which swiftly became the non-profit company “Robots in Service of the Environment (RISE).” The design for a lionfish killer combines a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), using technology which iRobot had developed for the automatic vacuum cleaner Roomba, with an attached electrocution device.

       

A few years ago, divers discovered an apparent underwater “lost city” off the coast of Zakynthos in Greece. New research reveals that the site, which was thought to be the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization that perished when tsunamis hit the shore, is in actuality a geological formation—and a bizarre one at that.

Looking at the photos of these underwater formations, it’s hard to blame the divers for coming up with their initial assessment. These things look wholly unnatural, resembling paved floors, moorings, courtyards, and colonnades.

“The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea,” said study lead author Julian Andrews from the University of East Anglia. “There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life—such as pottery.”

Well, it was too good to be true. It now appears that this “lost city” never really existed. Researchers from UEA, along with experts from the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment at the University of Athens, recently conducted a mineralogical and chemical analysis of various formations found at the site. In particular, they investigated the mineral content and texture of the underwater formations using microscopy, X-ray, and stable isotope techniques.

“We investigated the site, which is between two and five meters under water, and found that it is actually a natural geologically occurring phenomenon,” said Andrews.

The researchers found that the linear spread of the cement-like structures is likely the result of a subsurface fault which never ruptured the surface of the sea bed. This fault allowed gases, including methane, to seep up from deep below the Earth’s surface.

“Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion,” explained Andrews. “In this case the cement was an unusual mineral called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments. These concretions were then exhumed by erosion to be exposed on the seabed today.”

The strange formations were created up to five million years ago, and are quite rare in such shallow waters. Similar structures, say the researchers, tend to be hundreds and often thousands of meters deep underwater.

Originally posted by George Dvorsky on Gizmodo.com