David from Scubacam visited Bangkok in April to attend a dive show. Arriving late at night with a couple bags filled with prototype video housings intended for display at the show, David was stopped by airport Customs officials and held late into the night, grilled for hours on end about why he was bringing nice, shiny, metallic, expensive-looking things into the country. In the end, all of his gear was confiscated.

What make this experience of David’s particularly ironic is Read more…

Two Fish Divers has just been approved as a PADI IDC Resort, meaning they can run the 9-day Instructor Development Courses (IDCs) required for anyone wanting to become a PADI Instructor.

Two Fish is planning to run two to three IDCs a year, the first of which is already scheduled for September 2007. Owner/ managers Nigel and Tina Thomas will personally be involved in teaching the IDCs, which will be led by experienced Course Director Brendon Sing from Lanta Diver on the island of Koh Lanta in Thailand’s Andaman Sea.

Two Fish has also hired a new instructor to conduct recreational courses such as Open Water, Advanced and Rescue Diver. And Two Fish Divers is also currently offering a range of Specialty Courses for only US$10 each!

To find out more about the IDC program, visit the Two Fish Divers website or contact

Did you know that clownfish talk to each other? Well, perhaps not exactly “talk” like Nemo in the movie, but they make sounds to communicate among themselves, and maybe to other marine life too. This was demonstrated recently by Eric Parmentier at the University of Liege in Belgium, who is a fish-behaviour specialist.

According to his research, published in the journal Science, Eric and his colleagues determined that clownfish use their jaws to make clicking and knocking sounds…essentially snapping their jaws shut, producing a sound similar to the chattering our teeth make when we shiver.

Perhaps clownfish can’t engage in deep discussions about the meaning of life, but it seems that they’re much more talkative than most of us imagined.

Here’s a sample of clownfish chatter:

Here’s an interesting update we received from FiNS Magazine Associate Editors Andrea and Antonella Ferrari:

Recent research by cephalopod specialist Mark Norman has shown that the colourful displays put on by flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) are for a specific purpose…to warn would-be predators of potential danger. In the case of this cryptic cuttlefish, it’s not the bite which is venomous (which is the case for blue-ring octopuses), but it’s the cuttlefish’s flesh which is poisonous. In other words, flashing bright colours warn predators to stay away from what would be a toxic meal.

The Ferraris report encountering many of these fascinating critters in both Kapalai and Lembeh.

Tony Wu just posted a link to a video from an aquarium in Japan of a manta ray giving birth…a world’s first. Check out the video.

FiNS Contributor Eric Cheng is in Bonaire (a small island in the Caribbean) for a digital shootout. Check out live updates on Wetpixel.

A big thanks to Khun Vie Panyarachun from Thailand who was the first person to send us an answer for our mystery clownfish. Khun Vie recalled an article he had read previously in Asian Diver that had a photo similar to this fish, which was identified by Gerald Allen of the Western Australian Museum as a juvenile Clark’s anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii).

After many subsequent emails zipping around the world and many possible IDs bandied around, we received independent confirmation from Dr. Luiz Rocha, who works at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and is an avid underwater photographer and a moderator on Wetpixel.

He sent us this photo of a juvenile A. clarkii in Guam taken by renowned ichthyologist Dr. Jack Randall Note the elongated dark pelvic fins, which match the ones in our little video.

Gerry Allen was also kind enough to drop us a note from the Philippines to confirm that juvenile clownfish of this species can have greatly exaggerated pelvic fins.

It’s amazing that so many people dive, yet so few recognised this as a normal juvenile fish.

Update: As of now, we’ve received feedback with several possible explanations.
(a) This is a juvenile Amphiprion clarkii,
(b) this is a genetic anomaly of Amphiprion clarkii,
(c) this is a genetic anomaly of Amphiprion sebae,
(d) this is a genetic anomaly of a juvenile Amphiprion polymnus
…so we’re still trying to get to the bottom of this.

We think the fish in this video is a normal Clark’s anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii), but we can’t figure out what the long things hanging down from the fish are. We took the video with a compact digital camera while on a dive recently at Roach Reefs Resort in Sabah, Malaysia.

Can anyone help us figure out what this is? If you know, please email us here.

Though the Solomon Islands government banned exports of live dolphins in 2005, recently, the Pacific island nation has taken steps that suggest it may be doing a U-turn. Read more…

CDEX 2007, affiliated with the CUA (China Underwater Association), recently announced its extensive marketing campaigns during a press conference at DSJ department store in Beijing.

With full attendance by many of the exhibition’s partners and supporters, including a number of local dive clubs, one of the highlights of the press conference was launching the CDEX 2007 Beijing Scuba Tour…a series of recreational diving try-outs conducted in a movable swimming pool throughout Beijing’s key business and commercial areas.

CDEX will be held in Beijing for the first time this year from 25-27 August. As the capital city of China, Beijing has developed and transformed rapidly into a modern, prosperous urban center, with an affluent middle- and upper-class. In this context, diving is emerging as a new, cool sport.

Join us this summer in Beijing for China’s first and only dive exhibition!