401 - Deep Pool and Le Griffon Again

**Jaws Turns Up in Florida**

Sharks are the reason why many people won’t go in the water, but Amber and Tommy Allore, a couple of free-divers from Stuart, FL, were thrilled to get some photographs of a great white, a rare visitor to that stretch, while spearfishing with friends off Jupiter last month. They estimated the shark to be around 12 feet long. Meanwhile, Florida’s legislature is preparing a statewide ban on the practice of fishermen dumping fish guts in the ocean to lure sharks closer to beaches and, too often, to swimmers and ocean dippers.

**Cyprus fines US and Norwegian men for illegal shipwreck search**

**Did You Hear a Fish Bomb?**

Reef Check Malaysia has decided to put a spotlight on marine debris in this International Year of the Reef, because they are seeing alarming amounts of plastic and other trash on Malaysian beaches, and they’ll kick off their campaign with beach cleanups on 3 areas and other islands. However, fish bombing is still a problem in the area, the organization state. If you are diving in Malaysian waters and hear dynamite fishing in action, you can report it by emailing [email protected] with date, time and location.

**The World’s Deepest Swimming Pools**

The 148-foot-deep DeepSpot, is set to open this fall in the Polish town of Msxczonow, 25 miles from Warsaw. Visitors can freedive and scuba in water temperatures of 90-93°F, and cave diving beginners can train in underwater caves. But DeepSpot won’t hold the world record for too long. Blue Abyss, currently under construction in Colchester, England, will be 164 feet deep. Those two are following on the success of diver-friendly pools Y-40 Deep Joy in the northern Italian town of Montegrotto Terme (138 feet) and Nemo 33 with divers in Brussels, Belgium (113 feet).

**World's deepest pool to open in Poland**

**Key West Bans Popular Sunscreens**

Following in Hawaii’s footsteps, City Council members in this Florida Keys town voted 6-1 last month to ban sales of sunscreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemicals shown to damage coral. The U.S. National Park Service issued a statement after the Key West vote, recommending people buy skincare products containing titanium oxide or zinc oxide, which are considered natural alternatives to those two banned chemicals.

**Tracking the sunscreen crackdown**

**A Pretty Weird Poop Story**

Scientists often get excited about the animal excrement they find. But one research team also got a surprise when they found a USB memory stick inside the frozen poop of a leopard seal on New Zealand’s Oreti Beach. It was in good condition, so they decided to search for the owner with the help of social media and news outlets. That’s how Amanda Nally, a self-proclaimed seal enthusiast, was shocked to see some of her footage of playful sea lion pups in nearby Porpoise Bay appear on the nightly news. The story gets even more bizarre – turns out the memory stick was found enmeshed in feathers and bones, indicating it was inside a seabird the leopard seal had preyed upon. Nally says she must have dropped the memory stick while beach walking.

**TV special on Le Griffon shipwreck to air in May**

**Search for lost sea containers leads to discovery of 16th-century Dutch shipwreck**