For the months of April, May and June 2007, AquaMarine Diving is offering a special price of US$55/ person for ALL day trips to ALL dive locations, exclusively for FiNS Online readers. In addition, trips to Tulamben will be discounted a further 10%, which means an incredible price of US$49.50/ person.

See details in the FiNS Forum Classified Section. Email AquaMarine Diving by clicking here.

Kota Kinabalu: Marine police on Monday arrested 19 Chinese nationals who had been poaching Green and Hawksbill turtles near Mantanani Island, off Kota Belud, for over a week.

Although the police only found 78 turtles, all dead except for six, on the boat, it is believed that the fishermen, from Hainan, China, had caught more as they were seen chucking several turtles overboard when being chased by the marine police team. Read more…

A memorial fund has been established for Dewi and Breezy, Larry Smith’s wife and daughter. The Benefit of the Larry Smith Family honours Larry’s dedication to his family, friends, and marine world.

To donate to the fund, please visit this Wetpixel page for details.

We received this request for help from Lance Ferris of Sea Bird Rescue, concerning an impending release of 2,000 helium-filled balloons, which have a high probability of ending up in the sea, where they can be mistakenly consumed by sea turtles and other animals, which may lead to their deaths. Read more…

In many places in Asia, eager diners can select live reef fish from tanks, which chefs then prepare to order. Steamed with ginger perhaps, or how about with black bean sauce? As appetizing as these dishes are, unfortunately, this practice is literally obliterating reef fish populations worldwide, as demand escalates with increasing wealth in Asia. Read more in this account from Nano Nakanishi of Reuters. Read more…

Named for the 17th century Italian scientist Galileo, whose works and insights revolutionised several fields of human knowledge, UWATEC’s new Galileo dive computer features a number of innovative technologies.

First, the Galileo computer incorporates a heart rate monitor developed in tandem with Polar, the world’s leading manufacturer of heart rate monitors. The monitor records your heart rate during your dive, and more importantly, takes the your level of exercise intensity into consideration while calculating remaining NDL time, providing an extra measure of safety. Read more…

Larry Smith, one of the pioneers of diving and critter-hunting in Asia, passed away recently in Sorong. Along with the rest of the global dive community, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Larry’s family and friends, and mourn the loss of such a wonderful person and beloved member of the dive fraternity.

There’s a thread in the FiNS Forum, and our friends at Wetpixel have put together a touching tribute to Larry, with contributions from a number of people. For each one of the comments in the tribute, we’re quite sure there are literally thousands more around the world who share the sense of loss.

Only a few months earlier, researchers declared the Baiji, a river dolphin found in China’s Yangtze River, extinct. River dolphins are relatively rare to begin with, and now the spotlight is on the Irrawaddy river dolphin, which also appears in danger of extinction. Read more via National Geographic.

Issue 6.2 of FiNS is out on the newsstands and in the mail to subscribers!

What do a flying spider and you have in common? Find out in our new Gadget Guru column, a series of offbeat and entertaining gear/ gadget tests by our very own Gadget Guru.

Also in this issue, FiNS Celebrity Diver Khun “Plub” Sutida goes through the paces to earn her Advanced Diver certification in our Dive Diary column, and we feature diving in Puerto Galera, the Bandos Sea, and Milne Bay, as well as encounters with dugongs in the Philippines and walking sharks in West Papua, Indonesia.

Don’t miss out on these stories and much more! Grab a copy of FiNS now, or download these PDF files for a quick preview.

Visit Hotel Sedona Manado, the area’s newest dive resort and only 5-star hotel, and enjoy luxurious accommodations and diving in style with Euro-Divers, which manages the hotel’s full-service dive shop.

With operations in the Maldives, Egypt, Thailand, Spain, Oman and Indonesia, Euro-Divers caters to divers of all levels. And if you’re not a diver yet, or if you bring along a non-diver for a relaxing vacation, Euro-Divers offers daily complimentary scuba introductory sessions in the spacious hotel pool.

In charge of the Euro-Divers team is Mulwardi (Moel) Tjitra, who speaks fluent English, French and Bahasa Indonesia, and was previously in charge of Euro-Divers’ Club Med Bintan dive centre. Most of the divemasters working with Moel are from the Manado area, and will be delighted to show you the wonders of one of the world’s top marine destinations.

And of course, don’t forget that if you want a bit of pampering between dives, there’s no better choice than Hotel Sedona Manado.