Mark 'Crowley' Russell - Senior Correspondent
Crowley (known to his mum as Mark) began diving in 2000 in Sharm El Sheikh, before quitting a 10-year IT career and moving to Thailand to take his PADI IDC in 2005. He moved from Thailand to Australia and Curaçao before returning to Sharm as an instructor in 2009. He managed a Nusa Lembongan dive centre between 2013-14 before hanging up his instructor booties and returning to the UK. Crowley started writing a regular column for DIVE in 2010, and now looks after DIVE's daily online content and writes regular features for the print magazine. In his spare time, Crowley is an enthusiastic guitar player, devoted motorcyclist, dedicated gamer, and door-opening expert for two cats.
Thalassa Dive Resorts – the best of Manado and Lembeh
Thalassa’s Manado and Lembeh resorts are far from any mass tourism and home to some of the world’s most amazing…
Crew rescued after French yacht damaged by orcas in Bay of Biscay
Sailors have been warned to be on the lookout for orcas (killer whales) in the Bay of Biscay after a…
The best dive computers for 2025
Dive computers are essential kit for scuba divers, from entry-level recreational diving to deep tech and rebreathers. Here’s some of…
Garmin Descent S1 Buoy enables surface-underwater diver comms
Garmin has announced the launch of its new Descent S1 Buoy, which uses Garmin’s SubWave sonar networking technology to keep scuba…
Lost WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki discovered in Solomon Islands
The wreckage of the Second World War Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki has been discovered in the Solomon Islands, 83…
Manta Trust launches #SaveTheMantas campaign
The Manta Trust has launched a new campaign to support increased levels of protection for mobulid rays at the next…
Scuba instructor receives bravery award for 17-diver Ċirkewwa rescue
A Malta-based scuba diving instructor from North Yorkshire has been awarded for his bravery aiding with the rescue of 17…
DIVE’s Big Shot Living Together – THE WINNERS!
Check out the winning and highly commended images from our Big Shot Living Together underwater photography competition – as featured…
SeeDeep reading glasses for scuba divers
Dutch company SeeDeep Diving Optics has introduced an innovative new product to help scuba divers with imperfect vision see more…
Malta dive instructor dies after Ċirkewwa accident
A 59-year-old scuba diving instructor from Malta has died after an accident in Ċirkewwa on the morning of Sunday, 29…
Garmin launches new quatix 8 advanced smartwatch for mariners
Garmin, one of the world’s leading marine electronics manufacturers, has announced the launch of its new quatix 8 nautical smartwatch, purpose-built for…
Shark Trust’s new basking shark code of conduct
We’re in the time of year when basking sharks are most likely to be spotted off the western coast of…
World record broken for fastest time to scuba dive every continent
A mother of two from Memphis, Tennessee, has set a new Guinness World Record for the quickest time to scuba…
Survivors of Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E fire speak out – part 2
The second part of our interviews with survivors of the Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E Fire, which burned to the…
Survivors of Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E fire speak out – part 1
On 12 April 2025, the Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E caught fire on the final night of a Similan Islands…
PADI launches 2025 Master Scuba Diver Challenge
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors, PADI, has its Master Scuba Diver Challenge for 2025. This year, as an incentive…
Dive into the Great Shark Snapshot 2025
The Shark Trust’s citizen science initiative, The Great Shark Snapshot, is returning for its fourth year, giving members of the…
Body of Wales quarry diver was found 85m underwater
The body of a diver that was recovered from Dorothea Quarry in Gwynedd, North Wales, on 31 May was found…
New survey confirms wreck of San José sunken treasure galleon
A new survey of the sunken Spanish galleon, San José, by Colombian researchers has discovered a trove of gold coins,…
Winners of the United Nations World Ocean Day photo competition
The winners of the twelfth annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day have been announced at a celebration…
Diver arrested for looting ancient shipwreck
A scuba diver has been arrested after exiting the water from a dive in Mallorca, Spain, and charged with looting…
Deep sea expedition reveals detailed images of lost WWI-era submarine
A deep-sea training and engineering dive by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers has revealed the first pictures of the World…
Donald Trump pardons divers convicted of theft for freeing sharks
US President Donald Trump has pardoned two divers from Florida who were convicted of theft in 2022 after freeing 19…
Scuba diver dies in North Wales’ Dorothea Quarry
A 60-year-old man has died while scuba diving at Dorothea Quarry, a disused slate quarry used as a dive site…
DIVE’s Big Shot Living Together – win a liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat
Enter your best pictures of different species living together in our latest Big Shot underwater photography competition for the chance…
Penida dive instructor rescues entangled manta – again!
A scuba diving instructor based on the island of Nusa Penida, off Bali, Indonesia, has been filmed heroically coming to…
Shearwater expands Journeys Edition line with Perdix 2
Shearwater Research has announced the latest in its Journeys series of dive computers with the debut of the Perdix 2 Journeys…
Tributes for diver who died off Wirral coast
The family of a Liverpool man who died while diving off the coast of New Brighton on the northeastern coast…
NHS England to close four more hyperbaric chambers
The number of Category 1 hyperbaric chambers available to scuba divers in England is to be cut from eight to…
Painting with light – an interview with Catherine Holmes
Catherine Holmes talks to DIVE’s Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell about her journey from amateur snapper to award-winning underwater photographer – and…
Diver dies during Bayesian yacht recovery operation
A commercial diver has died during preliminary operations to recover the superyacht Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily…
Chinese diver dies off Indonesia’s Kakaban Island
The body of a Chinese diver who died off Kakaban Island, one of the Derawan Islands in East Kalimantan, Indonesia,…
Aggressor Adventures launches three new liveaboards
Aggressor Adventures has expanded its fleet with three new scuba diving liveaboards in the Red Sea, Komodo, and the Bahamas.…
Diving Wreck Week in the British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands is known for many things: beautiful beaches, secluded private islands and a vibrant culture, but the…
Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
The loss of eleven lives when Sea Story capsized in November 2024 once again brought liveaboard safety to the fore…
Thailand bans entry-level divers from using cameras underwater
The Thai government has issued an order banning entry-level divers from using cameras underwater, unless they have an Advanced Open…
Israeli shark mauling victim may have been spearfishing
The partial remains of a man mauled to death by sharks off the coast of Hadera, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast,…
Choosing the right breathing air compressor for scuba diving
Like most scuba gear, breathing air compressors for filling scuba tanks come in a range of different shapes and sizes…
Missing diver was ‘caught in vortex’, inquest told
Emily Sherwin, a 20-year-old diver who went missing during a dive off the south coast of England was ‘caught in…
Divers, crew evacuated as Red Sea liveaboard Firebird strikes reef en route to Dahab
Passengers and crew on board the Egyptian Red Sea liveaboard M/V Firebird were forced to abandon ship after the vessel…
DIVE’s Big Shot Portraits – THE WINNERS!
Check out the winning and highly commended images from our Big Shot Portraits underwater photography competition – as featured in…
Basking sharks: 10 things everybody should know
Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are the second-largest species of shark – and therefore the second-largest species of fish – in the…
Nudis like to show off their colours by daylight
A new study by scientists from Australia’s University of Queensland has found that brightly-coloured nudibranchs and sea slugs are most…
Divers and crew abandon ship in Thailand liveaboard fire
Sixteen divers and ten crew members (some reports say 18 divers and 9 crew) were forced to abandon ship in…
Aqualung Group to be sold to HEAD
The Aqualung Group – owner of Aqualung, Apeks and Aquasphere – has announced it is in takeover talks with HEAD…
Sea Story survivors speak out – Part 4: The ‘interrogation’
Survivors of the Sea Story liveaboard disaster recount how they were pressured into giving statements – described as ‘interrogations’ –…
Marine Curios #20 – Sailor’s Eyeballs, Valonia ventricosa
They look like unremarkable polished stones but sailor’s eyeballs are actually one of the most unique organisms on the planet…
Miami Seaquarium parent company files for bankruptcy
The Dolphin Company, owner of Miami Seaquarium, which made international headlines for the conditions in which Lolita the orca was…
Shark trust launches new shark photography competition
The Shark Trust has launched a new photography competition designed to celebrate the diversity and beauty of sharks, rays and…
DIVE Magazine Spring 2025
Issue # 37: Ocean colour scenes DIVE’s Spring ’25 magazine – packed as always with brilliant photography and great writing…
Six dead, nine injured as Egyptian tourist submarine sinks
At least six people have died and nine have been injured after a tourist submarine sank in Hurghada, Egypt. Four…
Australian woman dies; two injured as Bali snorkel boat capsizes
A 39-year-old Australian woman has died after the boat she was travelling on capsized as it was travelling between Bali…
Review: Treasures, Shipwrecks and the Dawn of Red Sea Diving, by Howard Rosenstein
A review of Treasures, Shipwrecks and the Dawn of Red Sea Diving, by Howard Rosenstein, published by Dived Up –…
Diver dies, two rescued in Florida’s Twin Caves system
One diver has died and two have been rescued after getting into trouble in the Twin Caves system in Marianna,…
Great white shark makes rare Nusa Penida appearance
A great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has put in a rare appearance around Nusa Penida, a large island located off…
British woman still missing after Koh Tao dive boat fire
A 26-year-old British woman from Lambeth, London, is still missing as a result of a fire on board a dive…
Emperor Seven Seas liveaboard destroyed by fire in Port Ghalib
Popular liveaboard Emperor Seven Seas has been destroyed by fire in Port Ghalib marina. All passengers and crew have been…
Ocean Census announces discovery of 866 new species
The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, the world’s largest collaborative effort to accelerate the discovery of marine life, has announced the…
How to become a better diver: never stop learning
Former instructor Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell on why continuing education programmes are essential for both divers and dive businesses. I’ve been…
Wrecks4all maritime archaeology training programme
The Center of Archaeology at the University of Montenegro, Podgorica, is to host a five-day training programme for budding marine…
Sea Story survivors speak out – Part 3: Trapped
DIVE talks to Michael Miles, a 71-year-old Swiss diver who spent some 36 hours trapped in his cabin in the…
Russian divers die after being swept away off Verde Island, Philippines
Two Russian divers have died after being swept away by strong currents while diving near Verde Island out of Batangas,…
New ‘true colour’ images of Shackleton’s Endurance
Colour-corrected images of the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance have been published by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and underwater…
Reconnect Private Island Resort: discover uncharted dive sites in Central Sulawesi
Reconnect Private Island Resort is an untouched scuba diving paradise on Buka Buka Island, a gateway to the Togean Islands…
Underwater Photographer of the Year 2025 winners announced
Alvaro Herrero’s humpback whale mother and calf wins Underwater Photographer of the Year 2025 Spanish photographer Alvaro Herrero has been…
Whale song shares complex similarities with human language
A new study has found the song of humpback whales is a complex, culturally transmitted behaviour, and is structured in…
Inquiry rules British diver’s death in Indonesia was IPO
An inquest into the death of a British scuba diver in Komodo in September 2023 has found he likely died…
Sea Story survivors speak out – Part 2: the rescue
The second in a series of articles detailing how survivors of the Sea Story liveaboard disaster escaped from the capsized…
Genetic evidence proves orcas predate on Australian great white sharks
Orcas – also known as killer whales – have been documented preying on great white sharks in South Africa for…
Egyptian tourist boat sinks off Hurghada
Another Egyptian liveaboard has capsized in the Red Sea off Jabal Al-Zeit, north of Hurghada, with six crew members on…
UK Government issues safety bulletin for Egyptian liveaboards
Substantial modifications, defective or missing lifesaving equipment, poor fire protection, poor crew training and poor safety briefings all identified as…
Divers rescued after Komodo liveaboard sinks
Reports are surfacing that 17 people had to be rescued by the Indonesian Navy after the Grand Komodo-owned liveaboard Putri…
Pitcairn’s Ducie Atoll and Henderson Island recognised as Important Shark and Ray Areas
Henderson Island and Ducie Atoll, part of the Pitcairn Islands, have been named as Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) by the…
Manta Trust launches ‘Volunteer Time Off’ expeditions for businesses
The Manta Trust has launched a new initiative aimed at getting businesses involved in manta ray conservation by offering their…
Ross Merrin on training as a BDMLR Marine Mammal Medic
Musician, author and now a British Divers Marine Life Rescue volunteer, Ross Merrin talks to Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell about the…
Sea Story liveaboard survivor tells her story
DIVE talks to Dr Sarah Martin, survivor of Egypt’s most deadly scuba diving liveaboard disaster, about her escape and rescue…
Review: The Diver and the Cook by Lasse Spang Olsen
Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell reviews the amazing story that is The Diver and the Cook by Lasse Spang Olsen, published by Dived Up.…
Cave diver dies in Spain’s Cueva del Agua
A 37-year-old woman has died in the Cuevas del Agua, a popular underwater cave system located in Cartagena, Spain. The…
Survivors speak of Sea Story liveaboard sinking cover up
Survivors of the Sea Story liveaboard sinking in November 2024, in which 11 people lost their lives, have spoken out…
Scuba divers who suffer IPO should not dive again – report
A joint statement by hyperbaric physicians from the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society (SPUMS) and the UK Diving Medical Committee…
Whale shark mating behaviour recorded at Ningaloo Reef
Scientists in Australia have witnessed whale shark mating behaviour at Ningaloo Reef, in what is believed to be the first…
New Bahamas Aggressor II arrives in May
Aggressor Adventures has announced it will be launching a new liveaboard itinerary in the Bahamas this coming May. The 20-passenger,…
The best scuba diving regulators for 2025
Regulators are the most important components of scuba diving equipment, and there are many to choose from. Here’s DIVE’s round-up of…
Egypt liveaboard crews call for grace period over regulatory enforcement
Egyptian liveaboard operators have called for a grace period before new regulations concerning crew qualifications are enforced. The request comes…
Take a dive with Insta360 X4: The best waterproof 360° action camera
Insta360’s groundbreaking 360° action camera received a much-anticipated update in 2024, with the launch of the new Insta360 X4 seeing…
DIVE Magazine Winter 24/25 preview
Issue # 36: Never stop learning… DIVE’s Winter ’25 magazine is here, and we have some treats to warm up…
Dive instructor jailed for filming female customer in shower
A scuba diving instructor from Hengchun, Taiwan has been jailed after recording a female customer showering at the dive centre…
Red Sea liveaboards are being cancelled – here’s why
Scuba diving liveaboards in the Egyptian Red Sea have been prevented from leaving port this week, apparently due to authorities…
Cargo ship VSG Glory sinks off El Quseir reef
The cargo ship VSG Glory, which ran aground off the coast of El Quseir on 22 November – three days…
British divers warned over Red Sea liveaboard safety
The UK government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has warned there is ’cause for serious concern’ about the safety of…
Body of missing North Wales diver found
North Wales Police has announced that the body of a diver who went missing around the Llyn Peninsula on 28…
Alex Mustard appointed president of the British Society of Underwater Photographers
Dr Alex Mustard MBE has been named as the new President of the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP). The…
British diver’s 2019 death in Australia may have been IPO linked to alcoholism
A coroner’s inquest in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, into the 2019 scuba diving death of British music producer Karl…
Tributes paid as body of missing Cornwall diver found
The family of a scuba diver who went missing while diving near Falmouth, Cornwall in September have paid tribute to…
Shark and ray populations halved by overfishing in last 50 years
A new study finds that overfishing has caused populations of sharks, rays and chimaeras to decline by half since 1970.…
Scuba diving tragedy as 42-year old man dies in Tenerife
A 42-year-old man has died while scuba diving off the coast of southern Tenerife, according to reports in the Canary…
Christmas books for scuba divers
Ten books about diving and other ocean-related themes that make the ideal gifts for scuba divers and their favourite dive…
PADI celebrates inaugural Adaptive Diving Week
Diver training agency PADI has launched its inaugural Adaptive Diving Week to support its ‘mission to make the wonder of…
The orcas hunting whale sharks in the Gulf of California
A new study analysing the behaviour of orcas (aka killer whales, Orcinus orca) in the Gulf of California suggests that…