10 Talk to an expert 0845 130 6980My diving heaven and hellBy Simon rogerson, editor of 'dIVe' magazine, Britain's best-selling scuba publicationHeavenI have always been fascinated by the Galapagos Islands. The land wildlife is astounding, and the marine environment is a current-fuelled wonderland of beasts and super beasts. In 2007, I was diving around Darwin, the northernmost island of the archipelago, and the sea was thick with pelagics. I swam with turtles, eagle rays and sea lions, but the highlight was getting close to a scalloped hammerhead, a threatened species that is notoriously shy of divers. Drifting in the current, I watched a dense school of hammerheads below me, silhouetted against the white sand. Incredible!HellWeirdly enough, hell came soon after that heavenly dive. I was separated from my group, then a current caught me at the surface and blew me far off the site. I had an hour and a half wait before the boat found me, during which I was buzzed by silky sharks. At one point, some bottlenose dolphins came to check me out and the silkies fl ed. I've never been so glad to see a dolphin!travel ritualsI generally enjoy the routines of travel. I arrive early at the airport, enjoy a decent meal, mooch the shops, maybe have a massage. I always take noise-cancelling headphones, because escaping the background hum of the aircraft (and the other passengers) makes it easier to relax. Once I arrive, it's all about 'Covering the Story', and the return journey is a time to review notes and process photographs.Marine conservation has to catch up and quickly, especially when you consider that 80 per cent of global fi sh stocks are either fully exploited or depleted and that the prediction is that the world will 'run out of fi sh' by 2048. Quite simply, we're eating fi sh quicker than they can reproduce and over-fi shing, prompted by over-consumption, has become the single biggest threat to the marine environment. That's why Bite-Back is running some innovative campaigns to highlight the issues and prompt retailers to re-think the fi sh they sell in favour of the marine environment.It's a formula that's working. Already ASDA, Sainsbury's, Somerfi eld, Tesco and Waitrose have adopted some of Bite-Back's recommendations by choosing to no longer sell species including shark, swordfi sh, marlin and monkfi sh.You see, for me and millions of scuba divers around the world, sharks, dolphins, turtles and coral reefs are our lions, leopards and underwater forests and worthy of equal protection and reverence.Please join in at www.bite-back.comThe Race is on...despite some ongoing advancement it's easy to argue that marine conservation is about 30 years behind its land-based equivalents. Somehow fi sh and marine habitats simply don't have it going on for them the same way as lions, tigers, elephants and rainforests do. Have you got a fantastic underwater image that you think should be published? Well here is your chance to get your images in print and online. The winning photograph will be published in our 2011 Dive Worldwide brochure and on the web site. Win a Powergorilla laptop charger. This portable gadget will work with devices up to 24volts and will give you an extra 2 to 5 hours of power depending on your laptop specifi cation and over 20 hours on various other electronic devices from your mobile to your iPod. Perfect for travellers like yourselves! The competition closes on 3 September 2010 and all entries should be emailed sarah@diveworldwide.comPlease note. No images supplied in hard copy will be accepted, only high resolution digital fi les will be accepted. All entries must be correctly labelled with your name, contact details and the location each image was taken. Entries will not be returned. While we endeavour to publish as many photo competition entries as possible in our brochure we cannot guarantee that all will make the pages. While the photographer retains the copyright of all images submitted as competition entries, Dive Worldwide reserve the right to unlimited use of the photos for company brochures, promotion and advertising.Digital Underwater Photography Competition

Or visit us on the web www.diveworldwide.com 11Take to the high seas!If you're reading this, we assume that you love our 'Blue Planet' as much as we do, and therefore you should be among the fi rst to receive a copy of our brand new Oceans Worldwide brochure. It features expedition voyages and wildlife journeys aboard a wide variety of vessels in the Atlantic, Pacifi c and Indian oceans as well as the Arctic and Antarctic. It's an inspiring and informative read and we hope you enjoy it. To order your copy please call 0845 130 6760 or visit www.oceansworldwide.co.uk dive worldwide onlineBe the fi rst to fi nd out what's new, keep up with us online. Please visit our blog at www.diveworldwide.blogspot.com follow us on Twitter (diveworldwide), or join our Facebook group (diveworldwide). Calling all dive ClubsIn charge of organising the next holiday for your club? Please contact Sarah if you'd like us to help arrange a special trip for you all.Meet the TeamNewS:Helen learned to dive while participating in a marine conservation project in Fiji during university. Backpacking around the world after completing a degree in Tourism, Helen travelled the globe, gained her instructor's licence, and taught diving in the Great Barrier Reef, the Philippines, Palau and the Caribbean. Combining her twin loves of diving and travelling at Dive Worldwide, she has since dived in many more destinations. Kirsteen fi rst experienced the underwater world on the Great Barrier Reef. At that time a poor backpacker, she didn't have the funds to complete her PADI Open Water course so on her return to the UK she braved the chilly waters of Brixham in December and duly qualifi ed. Since then she has dived in warmer waters, including Thailand and the Cayman Islands. Her favourite destination of all time is Kenya. Sarah grew up in Indonesia and her sixteenth birthday present was a PADI Open Water course. Since then she has spent time underwater in the Caribbean, Middle East, Indian Ocean, South East Asia and Australia. Sarah enjoys taking photos but admits that she ought to sign up to a course so that she's ready when she fi nally encounters the elusive whale shark! Sarah updates our blog, Twitter and Facebook. Specialist departures laid on due to popular demand are always over-subscribed, so we want to make sure that you don't miss out. Book onto one of these liveaboard cruises before 30 July 2010 and we'll give you a £50 early bird discount per person, making these niche trips even more appealing.Don't miss the BoatShark lovers should grab the chance to join the M/Y Dolphin Dream to come face to face with tiger sharks in the Bahamas on one of three week-long liveaboard cruises leaving from Florida. Departure dates: 6, 14, 21 November 2010. Prices start from £2795 per person including fl ights.Explore new and pristine unchartered reefs in the Southern Maldives. Due to popular demand, the M/Y Sheena is offering another special two week cruise. If you have time to spare and at least 100 logged dives this is for you! Departure date: 29 August 2010. Prices start from £2640 per person including fl ights. Got a dive buddy?We're very proud of our extremely high levels of repeat business and of the number of clients who are referred to us in glowing terms by friends who've been on our holidays. We know from experience that our specialist style of diving holidays attracts like-minded people, and we would like to invite you to recommend us to your diving buddies. If you're already a Dive Worldwide client (i.e. have booked a holiday with us before), simply send us the postal address of your friend/s and we'll make sure that they receive a brochure. To show our gratitude when they book a holiday, we'll then offer you one of three 'rewards'. Choose from an unlimited £25 cash-back gift per new person you recommend, a Powermonkey recharging device (worth £64) or a deluxe Lowe Alpine daypack, retail value £75. Terms and conditions apply.To recommend your friends and to benefi t from these fantastic incentives, please email us: sales@diveworldwide.comHelen BrownKirsteen MahoneySarah Wight