News
Scubaverse.com’s NEW Monthly Underwater Photo and Video Contest Prizes worth more than £500 each!
We are delighted to announce that Scubaverse has teamed up with some of the biggest and best names in diving to deliver some truly amazing prizes to those who win our monthly underwater photo and video contests.
As part of a brand new partnership with our good friends at PADI, Mares, Fourth Element, O’Three, Northern Diver, Nautilus Diving, Liquid Sports UK, Diving Distribution, Scuba Travel and Vivid-Pix, we will now be giving the winners of our two monthly imaging contests over £500 worth of diving goodies each!
Every month, our underwater photo contest winner AND our underwater video contest winner will receive the following prizes:
- Mares Pure Wire Mask
- O’Three Classic Semi Hood
- Fourth Element OceanPositive Ocean Debris Bag
- Sharkskin Rapid Dry Rash Guard from Liquid Sports UK
- Pandora-Lab ‘O’ Ring Set from Diving Distribution
- Leak Insure Sachet Pack from Nautilus Diving
- Northern Diver Wallet
- PADI eLearning Course
- £100 Voucher for one of Scuba Travel’s Worldwide Guided Underwater Trips with either Martyn Guess or Mario Vitalini
- Vivid-Pix Land & Sea Imaging Software (photo contest winner only)
In addition to these awesome prizes, the Photo of the Month winner will have their winning image displayed on the Scubaverse homepage, added to Scubaverse.com’s Underwater Photo Contest Winners’ Gallery, and set as the background to Scubaverse’s Facebook and Twitter pages for one whole month.
New for 2021: The Photo of the Month winner will also be offered the opportunity to have their own dedicated Underwater Photo Gallery published on Scubaverse.com which can feature as many as ten of their images and will be shared multiple times throughout the year on Scubaverse.com’s social media.
The Video of the Month winner will also have their winning entry displayed on the Scubaverse homepage. In addition to being added to Scubaverse.com’s Underwater Video Contest Winners’ Gallery, their winning video will also be shared multiple times on Scubaverse’s social media throughout the month following their well-deserved victory.
So what are you waiting for? If you want to be in with a chance of winning these awesome prizes, enter now!
You can enter February’s Underwater Photo Contest here:
Please note that in order to ensure your photos upload successfully they need to be no larger than 1MB.
And you can enter February’s Underwater Video Contest here:
Please note that in order to enter a video you must first upload it to either YouTube or Vimeo.
You can enter as many as 3 photos or videos into each respective contest.
At the end of the year, Scubaverse.com’s Photo of the Year and Video of the Year will be chosen from the 12 monthly winners of each respective contest by a panel of judges selected from the world of underwater photography and videography. And that is where things get even more interesting, because we are in the process of putting together some incredible prizes for our annual winners which we will reveal very soon, so stay tuned!
We can’t wait to see your winning entries in February – good luck!
News
Euro-Divers to close dive centre at NH Collection Maldives Havodda
Euro-Divers have announced that as of 15 April 2024, they will no longer be operating the dive centre at NH Collection Maldives Havodda (formerly known as Amari Havodda).
The popular dive centre chain released this statement regarding the closure:
Dear valid customers, business partners and friends,
We are leaving NH Collection Maldives Havodda – former Amari Havodda as of 15th of April 2024.
Unfortunately, the information reached us on short notice that we are no longer operating the dive centre at the resort.
It was a great pleasure to work with the Amari Hotel group and continue to work with the NH Hotel group.
We wish our partners great success with all their new changes.
Thanks a lot for cooperating during our time at the resort. We wish everyone with whom we have worked a good and hopefully successful future.
Euro-Divers continue to operate in several other dive resorts throughout the Maldives in addition to other locations.
To finds out more about Euro-Divers, visit www.euro-divers.com.
Marine Life & Conservation Blogs
Creature Feature: Undulate Ray
In this series, the Shark Trust will be sharing amazing facts about different species of sharks and what you can do to help protect them.
This month we’re looking at the Undulate Ray. Easily identified by its beautiful, ornate pattern, the Undulate Ray gets its name from the undulating patterns of lines and spots on its dorsal side.
This skate is usually found on sandy or muddy sea floors, down to about 200 m deep, although it is more commonly found shallower. They can grow up to 90 cm total length. Depending on the size of the individual, their diet can range from shrimps to crabs.
Although sometimes called the Undulate Ray, this is actually a species of skate, meaning that, as all true skates do, they lay eggs. The eggs are contained in keratin eggcases – the same material that our hair and nails are made up of! These eggcases are also commonly called mermaid’s purses and can be found washed up on beaches all around the UK. If you find one, be sure to take a picture and upload your find to the Great Eggcase Hunt – the Shark Trust’s flagship citizen science project.
It is worth noting that on the south coasts, these eggcases can be confused with those of the Spotted Ray, especially as they look very similar and the ranges overlap, so we sometimes informally refer to them as ‘Spundulates’.
Scientific Name: Raja undulata
Family: Rajidae
Maximum Size: 90cm (total length)
Diet: shrimps and crabs
Distribution: found around the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean Sea.
Habitat: shelf waters down to 200m deep.
Conservation Status : As a commercially exploited species, the Undulate Ray is a recovering species in some areas. The good thing is that they have some of the most comprehensive management measures of almost any elasmobranch species, with both minimum and maximum landing sizes as well as a closed season. Additionally, targeting is entirely prohibited in some areas. They are also often caught as bycatch in various fisheries – in some areas they can be landed whilst in others they must be discarded.
IUCN Red List Status: Endangered
For more great shark information and conservation visit the Shark Trust Website
Image Credits: Banner – Sheila Openshaw; Illustration – Marc Dando
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