As the importance of the oceans fade amidst the hustle and bustle of life, Asian Diver endeavours to be its mouthpiece, bringing its voice to life with underwater tales that are yet to be told.

As the importance of the oceans fade amidst the hustle and bustle of life, Asian Diver endeavours to be its mouthpieace, bringing its voice to life with underwater tales that are yet to be told.

From the awe-inspiring great white to the adorable dogfish sharks, Scuba Diver Ocean Planet presents a collection of images from some of the most talented underwater photographers across the globe. These individuals have united with the same vision – to see our sharks saved. Featuring the smallest, fiercest, friendliest, and rarest sharks, let these images attest to the true nature of sharks in this Collector's Edition.

This issue’s theme coincides with ADEX 2019’s ‘a plastic-free future and is designated official magazine of Ocean Partnership Summit 2019. It is also the first issue that incorporates eight pages of our distinctive junior section, so that your young ones can enjoy articles on the same theme in the same magazine.

This year, the quadrennial Asian Games – a massive sports event that often gets mixed up with some of its regional variants – will be hosted here in Southeast Asia. We appraise several local sports that set the Asiad’s lineup apart from its Olympic counterpart, and drop in on three unique sportspeople gearing up for August. But the 18th Games’ most interesting aspect could just be its return to Indonesia, a place where, over a half-century ago, Jakarta’s controversial hosting decisions shocked the 1960s’ worlds of sports and politics. Indonesian politics also kicks off another fascinating tale: how five Southeast Asian men managed to create the first Asian miracle of the 20th century: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Helped by a few rounds of golf and drinks, these powerful diplomats succeeded in getting their respective countries – many with histories of bitter grudges and border invasions – to team up into a bloc that today still merits international admiration. Their surviving family and friends share memories of these master negotiators.

With the modern world developing at the dizzying pace it is, do you know what’s going on around you and how it all works? In this issue, we look at the latest in science and technology across the region, from the obvious – China’s transformation from IT copycat to technology leader – to the unexpected, like why Cambodia’s farmers are now selling bat faeces instead of rice. Go on a sparkling journey across the night sky in our exclusive story on astrotourism, an upcoming trend that’s winning the hearts of Asians young and old across the region. Read about a mysterious bridge between India and Sri Lanka that has geologists befuddled, and a hyper fast underwater levitating train – straight out of a sci-fi movie ­– that you might soon be able to buy tickets for. Are you ready to get up to speed?

To celebrate World Oceans Day, Scuba Diver will explore the world’s most precious underwater destinations with a trip around the planet’s protected marine sites. Packed with the most beautiful photography and comprehensive info on what makes these locations so special, this record of our oceans at their best will be a must-keep edition.

The ocean constitutes over 90 percent of habitable space on the planet. By the year 2100, without significant changes, more than half of the world’s marine species may be on the brink of extinction. Scuba Diver OCEAN PLANET Through the Lens Collector’s Edition celebrates the magnificence of Earth’s threatened marine species by taking a closer look at the fragile beauty of 25 of these resplendent creatures in their natural habitats through the eyes of the world’s most talented underwater photographers.

Wrecks are enigmatic, revered, and sometimes dangerous. Yet they can be found in abundance: It is estimated that there are around three million wrecks underwater. But for the majority of the population, these treasure troves remain hidden beneath the waves. With Asia being a hotspot in the theatre of World War II, its waters host a plethora of historical wrecks waiting to be explored. While some are the result of a rich history, others are purposefully-sunk as artificial reefs. Either way, these wrecks have now become home to the ocean’s creatures, sustaining new life when all was dead.  

This issue compares the mobile phone scene in Asia and the West and delves into everything related to the gadget that has become very much a part of our everyday lives. We zoom in on apps, wireless networks, mobile service providers and phone manufacturers – the people and technologies that fuel the burgeoning global mobile phone market. We illustrate the evolution of the mobile phone and what actually goes into its production with informative timelines and carefully crafted infographics. In addition, we explore the problems and possibilities that come with the ever-evolving mobile phone scene. Be inspired by winning photographs from international mobile photography competitions in the mobile photography special and reminisce about pagers, phonebooks and other essentials that kept people connected in the past.

In order to witness the beauty of Nature’s tiniest marine creatures in their hidden habitats, we’ve combed through the different layers that are found in the muck in this issue of Asian Diver. Whether it’s the plastic trash that has made its way into the oceans from polluted rivers that now provides shelter for critters like octopuses, the artificial tyre reefs humans have created to attract marine wildlife that may be doing more harm than good, or the diminutive marine organisms like the algae shrimp and the “Shaun the Sheep” nudibranch that live on the algae found on the seabed – we’ve pored over the minutiae of the muck and its inhabitants to understand what makes this type of diving so thrilling.

   

There is nothing so pure as donning a simple pair of fins, snapping on a mask, and chomping down on a snorkel bit before a beach entry into a silvery turquoise lagoon. Freediving is like a first love, the one that taught us how to move through this three-dimensional world. Together we felt the wonder at the profound beauty of life but also learned that without respect, all is lost. In this issue, Asian Diver looks at the evolution of freediving through the centuries, from its beginnings more than 7, 000 years ago in ancient cultures such as the Chinchorro to its current status as one of the most popular underwater sports in the world.