Editorial desk

Outspoken Digest Diving Desk

Covers freediving, recreational and technical diving, dive medicine and the incidents the sport learns from.

Stories by Outspoken Digest Diving Desk

Diving

Bleached Corals Recovered After Touching a Healthy Clone, Stanford Lab Study Finds

Fragments of one coral species regained their algae within days or weeks of contact with a genetically identical healthy partner, though the trick is unlikely to work on whole reefs.

Oct 15, 2026/2 min read

A bleached pale brain coral on a reef in the Florida Keys, photographed in 2023, a NOAA file photograph illustrative of coral bleaching and not of the Stanford laboratory experiment

Diving

Black Swallower Filmed With a Hugely Swollen Belly 1,259 Metres Down Off Trinidad and Tobago

Footage from a remotely operated vehicle shows a deep-sea fish carrying a meal far larger than itself, one highlight of the first Caribbean-led deep-sea expedition in the country's history.

Oct 13, 2026/2 min read

A preserved black swallower, Chiasmodon niger, with its stomach distended, photographed in September 2018, a file photograph of the species and not of the animal filmed off Trinidad and Tobago

Diving

Playing Recordings of a Healthy Reef Drew More Coral and Fish Larvae to Artificial Structures Off Hawaii

Two Scripps studies in Kaneohe Bay found coral larvae settled most near an underwater speaker, and fish larvae arrived four to 14 times more often than at an identical silent site.

Oct 9, 2026/3 min read

An aerial view of Coconut Island and the reefs of Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, where the experiments took place, photographed on 18 May 2017

Diving

Blacktip Sharks Can Hear a Sound From Nearly 250 Feet Away and Swim Straight Toward or Away From It

A Florida Atlantic University study of free-swimming blacktip sharks off Palm Beach County found the animals could detect low-frequency underwater sounds from 74 metres away and change course in response, the clearest field evidence yet of shark hearing range.

Oct 1, 2026/2 min read

A blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, the species studied off Palm Beach County, photographed in the Bahamas in March 2007 and not one of the sharks tested by Florida Atlantic University

Diving

A Sea Turtle Species Never Recorded Nesting in the United States Laid Eggs on a Southern California Beach

An olive ridley sea turtle, a tropical species whose nearest known nesting ground is in Baja California, dug a nest near Seal Beach in September, the first confirmed sea turtle nest ever recorded on the US West Coast.

Oct 1, 2026/2 min read

An olive ridley sea turtle, the species that nested near Seal Beach, photographed in March 2023 and not one of the animals involved in the California nesting event

Diving

Marine Surveyors Confirmed Living Coral Off Benin, More Than Sixty Years After the Reef Was Presumed Dead

Sonar and underwater video surveys of the Benin continental shelf found octocorals and reef fish thriving 54 metres down, the first confirmed living mesophotic coral community documented anywhere on the Gulf of Guinea shelf.

Sep 29, 2026/2 min read

Gorgonian sea fans on a reef, illustrative of the octocoral group confirmed off Benin and not the Benin site itself, via CSIRO

Diving

Divers Pulled 1,400 Metres of Abandoned Fishing Net Off an Oman Beach After Six Sea Turtles Were Found Dead in It

Environment Authority divers working with volunteers from Divers Planet reached the site near Bimmah Beach at 7.30am on 23 September to find six turtles already dead, then spent hours retrieving two nets spanning 1,400 metres combined.

Sep 27, 2026/3 min read

A green sea turtle swimming near a pier, illustrative of the species affected and not one of the turtles found near Bimmah Beach, photographed in October 2019

Diving

Scuba Divers Find Two New Sea Spider Species in the Salish Sea, the First Described There in Almost a Century

University of British Columbia researchers combined dive surveys with genetic analysis to describe a red-eyed, three-lipped species that grooms itself with comb-like legs, and a second with an hourglass abdomen and black eyes.

Sep 26, 2026/2 min read

A sea spider of the genus Pycnogonum, illustrative of the group and not one of the two newly described Salish Sea species, photographed in March 2020

Diving

Tides for Divers, Swimmers and Beachgoers: Springs, Neaps, Slack Water and Why the Sea Moves When It Does

Tides follow the moon, not the season. Spring tides are the big ones, slack water is not always at high or low tide, and the hour that matters for a dive or a swim is the one the tables show for your own coast.

Sep 23, 2026/4 min read

A fishing boat resting on the mud at low tide in Halls Harbour, Nova Scotia, on the Bay of Fundy where the tidal range is among the largest in the world, photographed in July 2017

Diving

The Dive Briefing Questions Worth Asking Before You Get in the Water

A good briefing answers most of what a visiting diver needs. A great diver asks the rest: current, exit, turn pressure, lost-buddy plan and what happens if the boat cannot find you.

Sep 18, 2026/3 min read

Scuba divers in wetsuits and kit preparing for a morning dive from a boat in Egypt, photographed in April 2008

Diving

Nitrox Buys You Bottom Time and Costs You Depth, and It Will Not Make You Less Tired

Enriched air extends no-decompression limits at recreational depths by reducing the nitrogen you take on. It also imposes a hard ceiling on how deep you can take it, and the claim about post-dive fatigue has never held up.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

Nitrox and trimix blending equipment plumbed into a high pressure compressor intake, with the oxygen analyser inline

Diving

Almost Every Skill Problem in Diving Is a Weighting Problem Wearing a Disguise

Divers who silt the bottom, burn through gas, struggle to hold a safety stop and finish cold usually share one cause. They are carrying too much lead, and every other symptom follows from it.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A diver holding position alongside a rock face covered in yellow soft corals, close to the structure without touching it

Diving

The Ear Problem Nobody Teaches You Is the One That Happens on the Way Up

Descent equalisation is drilled into every open water student. Reverse block, where expanding gas cannot escape the middle ear or sinus on ascent, gets a sentence in the manual and is considerably harder to manage.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A diver hanging mid-water on ascent in clear blue, with a seal passing in front of them

Diving

In a Current You Are Not Swimming Anywhere, and the Skill Is Knowing That Early

Drift diving turns a dive from a route into a ride. The techniques that make it safe are mostly about the surface and the boat, and the mistake that kills people is trying to fin against water that is stronger than they are.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A diver moving beneath an enormous school of silver baitfish in open blue water

Diving

Solo Diving Is Either Reckless or Honest, Depending on What You Think a Buddy Actually Does

Two agencies now certify divers to dive alone, with redundant gas and a long list of prerequisites. The case for it rests on an uncomfortable observation about how often the buddy system already fails in practice.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A single scuba diver in silhouette against bright water above, with nobody else in the frame

Diving

The SMB Is the Only Piece of Kit That Talks to the Boat, and Almost Nobody Practises With It

A delayed surface marker buoy is what turns a diver in open water from invisible into findable. It is also the item most divers buy, clip on, and deploy for the first time in the situation where they actually need it.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A scuba diver preparing to deploy a delayed surface marker buoy at depth, beside the boiler of a wreck

Diving

Aluminium or Steel Decides How Much Lead You Carry, and Almost Nobody Is Told Why

The standard aluminium 80 is negatively buoyant full and positively buoyant empty, which is why safety stops go wrong at the end of a dive. Steel behaves differently, and the valve and testing rules differ too.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A scuba cylinder valve in close up, showing the threaded outlet, the handwheel and the pressure rating stamped into the body

Diving

Lumens Are the Number on the Box and the Least Useful Thing About a Dive Light

Manufacturers compete on brightness because it is a single large number. Underwater, beam angle, burn time at full output and the switch you can operate in gloves decide whether a torch is any good.

Sep 5, 2026/3 min read

A diver holding a torch in green low visibility water on a wreck, the beam scattering off particles in front of them

Diving

The Sting Will Not Kill You, and the Wrong First Aid Might Still Ruin the Trip

Lionfish, stonefish, stingrays and most jellyfish deliver venoms that heat breaks down. The standard measure is immersion in fresh water as hot as you can stand without burning, capped at 45 degrees, for thirty to ninety minutes.

Sep 2, 2026/4 min read

A common lionfish, Pterois miles, hanging over coral at Shaab El Erg reef in the Egyptian Red Sea, venomous spines fanned out

Diving

Most Divers Who Cannot See Solve It the One Way an Eye Doctor Would Not

Glasses do not fit under a mask, so the default answer is contact lenses. Eighty-five per cent of cases of a rare blinding corneal infection occurred in lens wearers who swam or dived in them, and there is a better option most divers never price.

Aug 20, 2026/5 min read

A diver underwater looking through a half mask