UNDERWATER ITALY: Discovering The Deep Mediterranean Sea

[Davide DB 487]

Today we launch Underwater Italy, a new video channel dedicated to deep diving in the Mediterranean sea. 

The YouTube channel is a container through which me and my buddy Claudio Valerio narrate about our dives in the twilight zone, a depth interval, where coral forests, sponge gardens and millennia-old animals form ecosystems that have not yet been directly altered by humans. This is the so-called mesophotic zone, the bathymetric range between fifty and one hundred and twenty meters, which in recent years is proving to be crucial in investigating the impact of climate and anthropogenic changes on our seas.

With our footage we want to unveil the secrets of little-known seabeds where scientific research and exploration confront the beauty of nature.

Seabeds that are actually very close to the most common dive sites where hundreds of divers dive every weekend. And it is precisely in these spots, served daily by diving centers, that technical diving has redrawn and in some cases overturned the map of possible dives. It has given us the ability to combine two or more dive spots in a single trip or find new ones. 
This information quickly became the heritage of local diving communities, but transmitted mostly in oral form it is inevitably destined for word of mouth distortion if not oblivion. Hence an additional reason for preserving the memory of these environments and perhaps setting a baseline for future observations.

Out there, a few hundred meters from the diving moorings, close to walls, shoals and wrecks is an unknown world waiting to be (re)discovered.

In the coming weeks we will publish the first video. for now a small trailer only music and images.

If you like it, please subscribe 

 

 

[TimG 62]

Brilliant! Well done, you guys.

[Davide DB 487]

Thanks Tim!

[troporobo 244]

Beautiful work in challenging conditions!  I’ve subscribed. 

[waterpixel 66]

Wonderful, thank you for sharing !  This reminds me of Ballesta's expeditions !

I definitely need to spend more time in Liguria/Toscana for the food diving

Edited December 28, 2022 by waterpixel

[Davide DB 487]

When I was young I wished I could have been him. Ballesta is in another league.

If you come to Tuscany to Porto Ercole I will be delighted to be your guide (even to the restaurant)  

[ChrisRoss 150]

Looks great Davide, conditions would certainly be challenging.

[lutfu 118]

Davide 

So Beautiful

Congrulations

[benedika 124]

Looking forward and hopeing to see more of your deep dives!

[scuba_d 6]

Looks great. Thank you for sharing.

[Davide DB 487]

After so many videos just music & images, we wanted to try to tell stories around some of the lesser-known biological aspects of well-known dive spots but at the same time be "showcases" for those who have never been there.
It was difficult and perhaps impossible to make mini-guides but we tried to show that the unexpected and the beauty are right there, in the places we frequent most. You just need to have the tools to see them.

In the first episode we opened with a small introduction about our equipment and dives but we tried to use language that did not emphasize the danger and exceptionality of technical diving as we often see people do but rather show that scooters and rebreathers are just tools to closely observe these animals in their natural environment.

In this episode we found at 65 meters (215 ft) a small resident community of John Dory (Zeus faber) that uses the complexity of the Lytocarpia forest as the ideal place to hide and hunt.

We chose the Vlog format because it is perhaps the one that would most render to viewers the immediacy and impression of being there. All to the great shame of me improvising as a Youtuber with white hair and Claudio's big laugh behind the camera and the puzzled looks of the other divers in the Diving.

For the pixel peepers: not all the images are technically perfect or exceptional, but they were chosen with the story-telling function in mind.

For the techies: everything is shot with a GH5S and GH5 in Aquatica/Nauticam housing; several lenses: 12-35mm, 8-18mm, 14-42mm + WWL-1B and Keldan Lights.

English subtitles available
 

 

Edited January 1 by Davide DB

[TimG 62]

Terrific Davide! I loved the pacing, editing and accompanying music. Great images and a story well told. Thanks!

I just gasped at the amount of gear you guys need. Wow..... 

[Davide DB 487]

Thanks Tim

Managing the equipment while shooting or taking pictures is the hardest part because I always have to have an eye on the instruments and try to be as stable as possible.

My buddy Claudio valerio is a professional cameraman and has a far better success rate than mine  

[TimG 62]

1 hour ago, Davide DB said:

I always have to have an eye on the instruments

I can imagine! I did think about a rebreather but then having studied the various guides and the like, I thought I'd couldn't pay enough attention to monitoring the system whilst taking pics. 

Super images though, Davide, and terrific production. Hats off to you.

[ChrisRoss 150]

Great video, thanks for sharing it here.  I'm like Tim, I've thought about this type of diving, but I couldn't imagine paying enough attention to the instruments and also taking photos.  Did you say there were subtitles? I can't see where to activate - it just  says unavailable when I hover over the CC symbol at bottom of the you tube window.

[TimG 62]

23 minutes ago, ChrisRoss said:

Did you say there were subtitles?

That's really odd. The first time I watched it there were subtitles for sure. Just checking it now in light of Chris' comments, and there are now no subs and, as Chris says, they are shown as unavailable.

[Davide DB 487]

Thanks guys,

Really don't you have subtitles available?

I loaded them for Italian and English and I see the CC button enabled. I can choose language via the gear symbol but Youtube automatically choose language via browser/app user language.

I have to check it. Sorry

[waterpixel 66]

fantastic video!

English subtitles work for me

[ChrisRoss 150]

3 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Thanks guys,

Really don't you have subtitles available?

I loaded them for Italian and English and I see the CC button enabled. I can choose language via the gear symbol but Youtube automatically choose language via browser/app user language.

I have to check it. Sorry

No need to apologise, it's more than likely YouTube and not you as the subtitles are now there, definitely were not there this morning, but now I can turn them on.

[dpoursanidis 9]

Great work! 

Subs works as well

[Interceptor121 765]

On 12/26/2022 at 9:39 PM, Davide DB said:

Today we launch Underwater Italy, a new video channel dedicated to deep diving in the Mediterranean sea. 

The YouTube channel is a container through which me and my buddy Claudio Valerio narrate about our dives in the twilight zone, a depth interval, where coral forests, sponge gardens and millennia-old animals form ecosystems that have not yet been directly altered by humans. This is the so-called mesophotic zone, the bathymetric range between fifty and one hundred and twenty meters, which in recent years is proving to be crucial in investigating the impact of climate and anthropogenic changes on our seas.

With our footage we want to unveil the secrets of little-known seabeds where scientific research and exploration confront the beauty of nature.

Seabeds that are actually very close to the most common dive sites where hundreds of divers dive every weekend. And it is precisely in these spots, served daily by diving centers, that technical diving has redrawn and in some cases overturned the map of possible dives. It has given us the ability to combine two or more dive spots in a single trip or find new ones. 
This information quickly became the heritage of local diving communities, but transmitted mostly in oral form it is inevitably destined for word of mouth distortion if not oblivion. Hence an additional reason for preserving the memory of these environments and perhaps setting a baseline for future observations.

Out there, a few hundred meters from the diving moorings, close to walls, shoals and wrecks is an unknown world waiting to be (re)discovered.

In the coming weeks we will publish the first video. for now a small trailer only music and images.

If you like it, please subscribe 

 

 

Excellent quality. I am not in the technical diving but this is superb

[Davide DB 487]

Thank you Massimo

[Davide DB 487]

After the Ring Trilogy, the Coral Trilogy could not be missed!

English Subtitles Available!

In the summer of 2022, we were involved in a citizen science project collaborating with Dr. Martina Coppari of the Università Politecnica delle Marche on a study on the reproduction of the Mediterranean black coral, Antipathella subpinnata.

It was an opportunity not to be missed for us to package a "trilogy" of videos documenting all the work done by teams of divers in the water led by university biologists.

In the first of three episodes, after a lecture on the reproductive biology of these beautiful hexacorals, the technical divers dive on a black coral forest at 70-80 meters (230-260 ft) to take the samples needed to census the Antipathella colonies under study.

 

[Davide DB 487]

The Timelapse

English Subtitles Available!

In the second episode, technical divers set up timelapse equipment: through this technique, biologists hope to capture the release of gametes in open water. Substrates are also placed for the eventual settlement of black coral larvae.

 

Edited February 22 by Davide DB

[Davide DB 487]

Episode. #3 - The Epilogue and Squid Egg Mass

English Subtitles Available!

In the third and final episode on the ongoing experiments on Mediterranean black coral (Antipathella subpinnata) reproduction in Giannutri, technical divers recover much of the equipment left on the bottom. Only the sediment traps remain, which will continue to collect samples for the next few months.

But surprises never end, and in decompression divers encounter a cephalopod egg mass, a very rare encounter.