Inside Scuba Issue #40

AuthorAuthor

Byron Conroy & Andy Deitsch
August 10, 2025

Welcome to Issue #40 of Inside Scuba

Welcome to Issue #40 of Inside Scuba, where we dive deep into the wonders—and challenges—of our underwater world. This edition spans urgent conservation issues, cutting-edge gear reviews, and creative inspiration for photographers. We explore the peril facing coral reefs worldwide, debut an exciting new feature in collaboration with The Underwater Photography Show where we take a first look at Nauticam’s innovative MFO-3 wet lens, and share practical advice for building a versatile underwater photography portfolio. We also review Shearwater’s new Peregrine Tx and Swift transmitter and catch up on breaking dive news from around the globe. Whether you’re here to learn, get inspired, or plan your next dive, there’s something in these pages for every diver and ocean enthusiast.

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What’s happening in this edition?

Coral Reefs in Peril: Diving, Photography, and the Fight to Save Them

I live in Iceland, a unique and special place with incredible scenery and topography. The diving here is equally unique, with special species such as wolffish, incredible ice diving, and even the world’s first dive sites like the hydrothermal vents of North Iceland. But it’s also a tough place to stay motivated to dive. Water temperatures are rarely above 7 °C (45 °F) anywhere on the island, even in summer, and ocean visibility can often be poor. To keep my passion for diving alive, I dream of the tropical seas—particularly coral reefs. The bounty and life of those waters are like nothing else; a healthy coral reef is truly the Hollywood blockbuster of the dive world.

I’ve been fortunate to spend the better part of the past 12 years diving the world’s most iconic coral reef systems—photographing, studying, and simply being awestruck by them. From the incredible hard corals of Raja Ampat to the walls of the Red Sea and the fading giants of the Caribbean, coral reefs have shaped my work, my expeditions, and my photography. But the simple truth is this: the reefs are changing, and not slowly. In some cases, they are disappearing right before our eyes. For those of us who dive, photograph, obsess over, and dream of coral reefs, this isn’t just a change in scenery—it could mark the end of the pinnacle of diving.

Diving doesn’t get any better than a healthy reef such as Melissa’s garden, Raja Ampat 2023

Over the past two years, the fourth global coral bleaching event—the most widespread and severe ever recorded—has swept across 84% of the world’s coral reefs. Just take a second to think about that: eighty-four percent. Nearly every coral system that divers know and love, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, has been affected. Global coral cover has already declined by more than 50% since the 1950s, and the rate of degradation is accelerating. For photographers like myself, who rely on vibrant coral to bring color, composition, and storytelling into our work, this isn’t just sad—it’s disorienting. A location I photographed five years ago might now be unrecognizable: bleached, barren, and lifeless. The creative energy that coral reefs provide is disappearing with them.

In each issue of our newsletter, we will curate some top dive news from around the world. Links to each of the original articles are available.

Phys.org: “Discovery of sea star wasting disease cause sheds light on kelp forest collapse and recovery. In Nature Ecology & Evolution, a group of researchers reveal the cause of sea star wasting disease (SSWD). This discovery comes more than a decade after the start of the marine epidemic that has killed billions of sea stars—representing over 20 different species from Alaska to Mexico. SSWD is considered the largest marine epidemic ever documented in the wild.”

Dive Magazine: “Diver suffers serious decompression injuries at Germany’s Kreidesee. Two scuba divers were hospitalised, one with a serious case of decompression sickness (DCS), following a dive at the Kreidesee, a flooded quarry located in Hemmoor, Germany. The incident reportedly occurred on Sunday, 27 July, when a 56-year-old male diver surfaced rapidly after suffering a medical emergency at a depth of around 24m.”

Divernet: “Divers find 1700s Spanish privateer among 4 shipwrecks. ‘The visibility is consistently pretty low in the Cape Fear River,’ says University of East Carolina (ECU) maritime studies graduate student Cory van Hees who, with dive-buddy Evan Olinger, had been trying to measure the width of an 18th-century wharf. Later that day, Dr Jason Raupp was able to confirm that what van Hees had seen was part of a shipwreck, thought likely to be that of the Spanish privateer La Fortuna from 1748.”

Deeper Blue: “Research Finds CESAs Can Cause Hidden Stress In Divers. New research has shown that Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascents (CESAs) can induce hidden lung stress in divers, even when they present no symptoms. CESAs are typically taught as part of most open-water diver training. They aim to prevent lung over-expansion during out-of-airway emergency ascents. However, to this day, their pulmonary risks have remained poorly documented.”

Dive Magazine: “Wreck of WWI cruiser HMS Nottingham found 110 years after her sinking. An international team of technical divers has located the wreck of Royal Navy warship HMS Nottingham, 110 years after she was sunk by a German U-boat during the First World War. Nottingham, a Town-class light cruiser, was sunk on 19 August 1916 during an encounter with elements of the German High Seas Fleet.”

Divernet: “Wreck-diver Mazraani dies on Atlantic expedition. Well-known US technical diver Joe Mazraani has died following an Atlantic wreck-dive more than 300km off the USA’s north-eastern coast. Mazraani, 48 and based in New Jersey, was diving with a group from his boat Tenacious on 29 July when he reportedly underwent a medical emergency. Other divers assisted him back to the boat and attempted life-saving measures, but were unable to revive him.”

Deeper Blue: “US Coast Guard Report Slams OceanGate’s Dead CEO For TITAN Implosion. The US Coast Guard this week released its report on the OceanGate submersible disaster, heavily criticizing the company’s CEO for failing to follow established engineering safety, testing and maintenance protocols as well as fostering a toxic work environment. In June 2023, five people — including OceanGate Founder and CEO Stockton Rush — perished when the Titan submersible imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic.”

Dive Magazine: “AIMS developing technologies to monitor reef health by its sound. A noisy reef is a healthy reef – and many divers will be familiar with the constant sounds of popping and clicking as its denizens go about their business. A recent study by scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has found that listening carefully to those sounds can help us understand the details better, such as changes in reef diversity and the distribution and abundance of species.”

Divernet: “Philippine Navy divers die while taking a break. Two Philippine Navy personnel died during a recreational dive in the Celebes Sea some 2km off Barangay Mindupok, Sarangani on 4 August, prompting the service to launch an investigation. The experienced divers, men aged 48 and 50, had reportedly gone diving while off-duty with two other individuals, but went missing for more than an hour before both were found floating unconscious at the surface.”

This issue we are introducing a new exclusive feature at Inside Scuba, where Alex Mustard and Matthew Sullivan, co-hosts of The Underwater Photography Show take an episode from their show and write an article summarizing the most important points. The article has links throughout, indexed to specific parts of the episode for those who want to hear more details, and of course the entire episode is also linked at the end of the article. We are excited to add this feature to Inside Scuba and we hope you enjoy it.

Shooting Nauticam's Forthcoming MFO-3: A Field Review in the Red Sea

As underwater photographers, we're always on the lookout for that one piece of gear that can elevate our work, and every once in a while, something truly special comes along. In a recent episode of The Underwater Photography Show, Alex Mustard and co-host Matthew Sullivan discuss Alex’s recent experience with Nauticam's latest innovation: the Midrange Focus Optimizer, or MFO-3. This isn't just another lens; it's a creative tool that fundamentally changes how you can approach macro photography.

The MFO-3: A New Way to See Macro

The MFO-3 is a wet lens that attaches to the front of your macro lens underwater. Its most compelling feature is its ability to transform a traditional long macro lens (think a 90mm, 100mm or 105mm) into roughly a 50mm equivalent. This is particularly relevant for full-frame mirrorless cameras, where shorter macro lenses are often not available. This lens allows you to get incredibly close to your subject while maintaining a broader field of view, giving you the best of both worlds. The result is wide-angle macro shots with a sense of place and context that a typical macro lens simply can't achieve [1:50].

The MFO-3 attached to a flip-diopter holder makes for easy switching between macro focal lengths during a dive.

First Impressions and Practical Tips

My time shooting with the MFO-3 in the Red Sea was eye-opening, discovering that this lens gives you the flexibility of effectively having two macro lenses with different focus lengths on the same dive [5:05]. I lent the lens around to several people on my workshop and everyone got along with it straight away with no learning curve. The lens’s optical quality is top-notch, delivering razor-sharp images even at the edges.

An initial concern when first seeing the lens was its substantial size. However, we show in the video, the weight distribution is excellent. All the weight sits at the back of the lens, with a large air space toward the front element. This makes it nearly neutral underwater and surprisingly comfortable to handle.

How to Build a Powerful Underwater Photography Portfolio: Skills, Adventures, and New Challenges

In underwater photography, the term portfolio can mean different things to different people. For some, it’s a carefully curated collection of their very best images, ready to impress competition judges or magazine editors. For others, it’s a series of shots of the same subject or scene, captured using different techniques.

For me, building a wide and diverse portfolio comes down to two key factors. First, it’s about traveling to a destination and returning with images captured using a variety of techniques — all focused on similar subject matter, but approached in multiple ways. This variety allows you to tell the full story of what you saw, using your skills to create a visual record from A to Z.

Second, your portfolio will be shaped by the locations you visit and the types of diving you do. If all your trips are to Lembeh, Bali, and Anilao because you prefer macro, your body of work will inevitably have limited diversity. By pushing yourself to explore new destinations and different diving environments, you’ll naturally expand the range of your portfolio and bring a new dimension to your photography.

A portfolio requires you to dive outside of your comfort zone in new and challenging environments such as Ice diving

Whichever way you look at it, building a strong portfolio is about far more than collecting pretty pictures. It’s about developing versatility, sharpening your skills, and preparing for the moments that matter so you can make the most of every opportunity.

A New Horizon for the Recreational Diver: Shearwater Peregrine Tx and Swift Transmitter Review

For many divers, a dive computer isn't just a piece of equipment—it's a trusted companion. For the last 14 years, my trusted companions have been a pair of UWATEC Galileo Lunas, one on my wrist and a second on my camera housing for redundancy. They served me faithfully, dive after dive, but like all good things, they came to an end when the batteries were discontinued a couple of years ago. This set me on a journey to find a suitable replacement, one that could offer the same level of reliability and perhaps even a few modern upgrades.

This search led me to the Shearwater Perdix, and I was immediately impressed with its bright, colorful display and the convenience of its user-replaceable AA battery, which can be found almost anywhere in the world. Now, with Shearwater’s introduction of the Peregrine Tx and its accompanying Swift transmitter, the brand is offering a more accessible option for recreational divers with many of the same key features found in the more advanced Perdix.

This review will explore whether the Peregrine Tx is the perfect evolution for divers seeking a powerful yet intuitive computer to replace a long-serving favorite. We’ll explore its key features, and weigh the pros and cons to help you decide if it's the right choice for your next underwater adventure.

Summary

This issue covers critical developments in coral reef conservation, practical gear insights, and strategies for expanding your underwater photography. The ocean continues to change rapidly, and staying informed and adaptable is essential for any diver or photographer. We hope these articles provide useful perspectives and tools for your next dive or shoot.

Until next time, dive safe and happy bubbles!

Andy & Byron

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