The NOAA Diving Program, one of the leading authorities on scientific diving and undersea technology, has completed the Fourth Edition of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology.

Jim Joiner, the book’s editor, stated, “this new fourth edition has been greatly expanded and completely revised to reflect the diversified tasks NOAA divers carry out under water. Because these tasks are as varied as those of any group of worldwide underwater workers, this new manual contains instructions, recommendations, and general guidance on the broadest possible range of underwater conditions and diving situations.”

This edition is even more useful than previous editions for both working and recreational divers. It includes various technologies and innovations, including special new chapters on Nitrox Diving and Rebreathers, Mixed Gas and Oxygen Diving, and the first publication of NOAA’s Nitrox Table II.

More than 100 well-known experts from the diving community have contributed to this latest edition. Divers from all venues of diving, as well as those who work in related fields, will find information to increase their knowledge, skills and safety.

The NOAA Diving Manual, 4th Edition is 668 pages, with charts, tables, diagrams, illustrations, and full color photos

For more information, contact Best Publishing Company, phone 800-468-1055 or e-mail divebooks@bestpub.com.

Diving Into Darkness:
The Elements of Safe Night Diving

Scuba diving into the darkness has a sweet allure; we never know what we will find, and the mystery is tantalizing. Every night dive is rich, dark and different. However, the advances in the technology, techniques and training are significant, yet they help to make night scuba diving now more pleasurable and safer than ever before.

There is much more to night diving than simply flipping the switch on a new, high-tech dive light. The night environment, like any other new scuba dive environment, demands the requisite knowledge, skills and experience to be accomplished with safety. The purpose of the new book Diving Into Darkness: The Elements of Safe Night Diving By Robert N. Rossier is to lay out, in a logical and thorough manner, the many factors that separate day diving from night diving, and outline the procedures used to make night diving as safe as possible.

Diving Into Darkness: The Elements of Safe Night Diving By Robert N. Rossier is published by Best Publishing, phone 800-468-1055 or e-mail divebooks@bestpub.com.

Deep Blue

Deep Blue: Stories of Shipwreck, Sunken Treasure and Survival, is the latest in the highly popular Adrenaline Books series, offering readers 13 tales of the ocean and the adventurers who have risked its wrath. Editor Nate Hardcastle has searched out the best writing available for this new title—the contributors include Patrick O’Brian, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Edward L. Beach, Stephen Crane, and eight others whose writing evokes the danger, excitement, isolation, and vastness of the sea.

Selections include: Journalist Bucky McMahon’s account of the SCUBA enthusiast’s dream, a dive to the shipwrecked Andrea Doria in “Everest at the Bottom of the Sea”. A selection from Robert Louis Stephenson’s well-loved classic, Treasure Island. The true story of the Nantucket whaleship Essex in In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick’s description of the events that inspired the climactic scene of Melville’s Moby Dick. An excerpt from Edward L. Beach’s best-selling novel, Run Silent, Run Deep, in which his career as a naval officer helps him to create a realistic tale of submarine combat.

There are many other treasures to explore, both fiction and non-fiction, in the compilation. Captured at 19 years old, in 1731, Philip Ashton shares with us his adventures with the dreaded pirate, Ned Low, in “Philip Ashton’s Own Account.” Nobel Laureate William Golding uses his experience in Great Britain’s Royal Navy during World War II to create the fictional Pincher Martin, in which he explores the human reaction to danger at sea. And Rockwell Kent tells of “achiev(ing) soundless immortality” in an excerpt from N by E, as he sails his 33-foot cutter, Direction, from New York to Greenland in 1929.

The collection of stories highlights the frightening frailty of humanity in the face of the sea’s intensity. The ocean has captivated us for as long there have been boats to sail, fish to catch, shipwrecks to explore, and pirates to evade. The heart-stopping stories in this book will fulfill the diehard seafarer’s need for adventure, and even the landlubbers among us will find wonderful tales of courage and excitement to enjoy.

Deep Blue is published by Adrenaline Books and distributed by Publishers Group West. It is available at bookstores and bookstore websites.

Diving & Snorkeling Bahamas

With 25 island groups strewn across miles of transparent blue seas, the Bahamas offers an extensive variety of marine adventures. Dive with sharks, swim with dolphins, and explore sunlit reefs, mysterious blue holes, natural wrecks and vertigo-inducing walls. Highlights include Shark Rodeo at Walker’s Cay, wild dolphins at Little Bahama Bank and New Providence’s movie-set wrecks. Topside, indulge in great dining and nightlife on the main islands, or take off for the pristine beaches and rich culture of the Out Islands. This guide describes 108 of the archipelago’s top sites, with full color photos throughout.

Author Michael Lawrence delivers specific information on dive site depth range, access and conditions, common and hazardous marine life, topside activities and attractions, diving services and live-aboards, and 15 easy-to-read maps.

For more information on this dive guide or any of the books in Lonely Planet’s dive guide series, visit their website at www.lonelyplanet.com.

Reefscape

Located off Australia’s eastern coast, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world. It is home to an incredible diversity of plant, animal, and sea life. It is the ideal environment for coral, making it a diver’s paradise. Indeed, some 200 million tourists visit the reef each year. Looking beyond the sheer beauty of the place, we learn that is also a region rich in history, fateful shipwrecks to exotic aboriginal myths.

In Reefscape: Reflections on the great Barrier Reef, Australian writer Rosaleen Love explores the reef from all these angles, allowing us to see this stunning geography anew. Part travelogue, part eco-history, Reefscape represents multiple views of the reef as seen through the eyes of mariners, pearl divers, naturalists, filmmakers, pirates, industrialists, and tourists alike.

Told in a reflectively poetic voice, Love writes evocatively of the ecological, biological, and geological significance of the reef’s unique habitat. Woven throughout is the intriguing history of the area. This two-fold approach provides a rich perspective on the reef as both an ecosystem, as well as a natural resource for its inhabitants. By recounting both tales, Reefscape provides a window on the past and foreshadows the future of this extraordinary environment.

Reefscape is published by Joesph Henry Press. Look for it at your local dive store, at your favorite book store or at your favorite on-line bookstore.