Projected by the engineer Guy Maunsell and built in 1942 during the World War II on order by the Great Britain Royal Navy in the Thames Estuary Special Defence Units program, the sea forts were equipped with radar and anti-aircraft guns; they hosted over 100 soldiers each and their purpose was to protect the coast close to London from the attack of the German air force Luftwaffe and Navy. During the war, these fortresses destroyed 22 German aircraft, 30 rockets and an S-Boot ship. Now they stay abandoned since 1958 after a period in the mid-1960s when they were occupied by the first pirate radios like Radio Sutch, Radio City, Radio 390 and Radio Essex.
The sea forts are located about 11 km from the Suffolk coast and there are boat tours organized with departure from Whitstable Harbour. Info at www.maunsellseaforts.com.
Known to be the gentle giant of the sea, the Whale Shark is the biggest fish of our oceans, with up to 15 meters in length and 10 tons of weight. They may live up to 150 years.
Owing to their friendly behavior, unlike other tourist boat tours like whales watching or shark cage diving, it is allowed for tourists diving and snorkeling alongside this incredible fish.
Here are the best places in the world for diving & snorkeling with whale sharks:
Mexico Isla Holbox and Cancun: from May to September Cabo San Lucas: from September to April
Honduras Utila: from March to May and from August to November
Belize Gladden Spit: from April to June
Australia Ningaloo Reef: from March to September
Philippines Donsol Bay and Sogod Bay: from December to May Oslob: all year Puerto Princesa: from April to November
Mozambique Tofo Beach and Bazaruto Archipelago: from October to April
Madagascar Nosy Be Island: from September to December
Seychelles South Mahé: September and November
Thailand Koh Tao: from March to May & from October to December Hin Daeng and Hin Muang: from February to April
The Carcharodon Carcharias, commonly known as the great white shark, lives in the coastal waters of all the major oceans.
Its size is average 3,5 to 4 meters in length for males and 4,6 to 5 meters for females (larger female individuals can reach up to 6,2 meters and almost 2 tons of weight; the largest white shark ever captured was a female of 7,14 meters). They can swim up to 56 km/h and reach depths of 1.200 meters under the sea level.
Maybe the most powerful and cruel predator, it is one of the most fascinating animals on earth.
Being face to face with a great white shark is one of the most exciting experiences you could ever have. There are few places in the world where do that: here are the best places for the great white shark cage diving:
We suggest you to contact the local companies to check the sharks presence before planning the trip.
DON’T miss it if you are traveling in these places… and don’t think about Steven Spielberg’s cult movie Jaws…
** November 2020 update about the presence of white sharks in South Africa**
In the past three years, there has been a significant decline in the number of great white sharks in Gansbaai, one of the best places in the world to meet the majestic predators. Although a lot of news reported that the decline has been caused by Orcas attacks, the local research institutes expressed their concern about that: Orcas could have had an impact on the shark’s reduction, but several other reasons have to be considered, such as lack of protection of the environment, a decrease of food sources and fishing nets.
However, in the last months of 2020, some of the Shark Diving Companies reported sightings of a few great white sharks in the bay.
For further information, read the interesting report on White Shark Diving Company’s blog page at the following link:
The Margherita di Savoia Salt Pans Natural Reserve is located about 10 km north of Barletta (Apulia, Italy). It is the largest salt pan in Europe, the third in the world after the Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana) and the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia).
The salt pan area is 20 km long and 5 km wide, with a total surface of about 45 square km; each year 30 million cubic meters of marine water is used for the production of about six million quintals of salt.
The clay soil guarantees a high level of impermeability.
The natural reserve has a great biodiversity of bird species, among which the pink flamingos, perfectly camouflaged with the salt pans (some areas are pink colored given the presence of the micro-algae Dunaliella salina, one of the few organisms that can live in hypersaline conditions).
Muynak was once an important port city on the Aral Sea, in Uzbekistan. In the 1950s, after the Second World War, the Soviet Union drained the Aral Sea for irrigation of the cotton fields, during the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.
Uzbekistan is now one of the main producer of cotton in the world, and Muniak has become a large boat cemetery in a salty desert land.
The Great Blue Hole is located near the Lighthouse Reef atoll, in the Belize Coral Reef Barrier, the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; it is considered one of the best scuba diving site in the world.
The hole is almost perfectly circular in shape, 300 meters wide and 120 meters deep. It was formed as a limestone cave during the quaternary glaciation (when sea levels were much lower), flooded after the oceans’ level raising.
Recently, some scientific studies, by analysis of the amount of aluminum and titanium deposited in the Great Blue Hole (lower levels of aluminum and titanium in soil and sediments correspond to periods with fewer precipitations) have demonstrated that between 800 d.C. and 1100 d.C. two periods of drought created the preconditions for the decline of the Maya civilization.
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