Asian Diver and Scuba Diver Issue 02/2017 (108) | Page 7

conservation
On The Brink
32 MANGROVE
FORESTS

Front Line
34 MIGHTY
MANGROVES

scuba101
Ask The Experts
79 WHY
IS THE SEA BLUE?

First Timers
80 DIVING
IN AN MPA

Health
81 GREEN
AND BLUE IS GOOD

FOR YOU!
sealife
32
SPONGES
28 SEA
An animal that rarely gets
the recognition it deserves:

Sponges are revealed as
the super-critters they are –
filtering the water to keep the
oceans healthy!
28
FROM THE EDITOR
There are many reasons why people are fascinated by the search for other
life–supporting planets: the thought of outlandish alien life forms, the idea of
intergalactic travel, spacesuit fetishes… But the primary reason why this search
is so tantalising is that planets that harbour complex life are, most probably,
rare. Yet here we all are, living on one.
For me, the most profound image in this issue is NASA’s “Blue Marble”,
featured on page 112. This picture touches something deep in our psyche,
waking us up to the unique and complex beauty of our Mother Earth.
From this remarkable blue and green planet, many millions of
interconnected species have been brought into existence; so many are as yet
unknown to science, and a lot of them are more wild and exciting than anything a
science fiction writer could conjure up.
We are spending vast resources on investigating ways to get to and colonise
Mars, but wouldn’t these efforts be better directed towards protecting the rare
life-support system that we already call home?
55
On the cover
Alert Diver
From DAN Asia-Pacific
104
www.uw360.asia/SD
Green kelp reaches towards
the blue water’s surface in
California’s Channel Islands
marine protected area
Image ©️ Antonio Busiello