Scuba Diver Australasia Magazine + ALERTDIVER Issue 03/2016 | Page 7

Justin Gilligan

conservation
the brink
24 On
CORAL REEFS
line
26 Front
CENTRED ON CORAL
hour hero
28 11
RILI DJOHANI
th

scuba101

79 Ask the experts
timers
83 First
DRIFT DIVING
87 Health
ISLAND AID

sealife

Stephen Frink

Ricard Buxo

51

MOLA MOLA
20 MAGNIFICENT
Outlandish, mysterious and
very, very big; meeting these
massive denizens of the deep
is a rare treat

84

Stephen Frink

42
FROM THE EDITOR

Island. The word conjures up images of palm-bedecked beaches, gleaming
sand, pellucid turquoise water, birds twittering in the trees and fish swirling on
dazzling reefs – in short, paradise.
But islands are so much more than dream holiday destinations: These are
fragile ecosystems and, unfortunately, many are under threat – subjected to
pressure from runaway tourism and pollution, but also by rising sea levels.
Island nations like the Maldives and Kiribati are already making plans to
relocate their people in the coming decades.
Importantly, islands are vital oases in (generally) nutrient-poor expanses
of ocean. They may appear to be isolated pockets of life, but the coral reefs
surrounding them are the living, pulsing heart of the interconnected seas,
and are often havens to which the waters’ wildlife comes to feed, breed and
be cleaned.
As the poet said, “No man is an island”; all are interconnected. Well,
judging by the way life works in the waters off these tiny specks of land,
perhaps we can say that no island is really an “island”, either…?

On the cover

55

Alert Diver

From DAN Asia Pacific

www.uw360.asia/SDAA

Blue dragons, Glaucous
atlanticus, are pelagic
nudibranchs with an effective
sting, that drift under the oceans’
surface, preying on creatures
like the Portuguese Man O’ War.
Image © Matthew Smith