Scuba Diver Australia New Zealand – 25 August 2026

Summary

Adrian Stacey switches from DSLR to mirrorless in the August 2026 Scuba Diver Australia & New Zealand, a move that drops kilograms of housing weight while Don Silcock pushes into Southern Morotai's least-dived reefs and Pearl Fleet christens The Blue Pearl, its latest Indonesian liveaboard, in an issue packed with Indo-Pacific dive travel.

This issue balances hard gear advice with destination reporting. Stacey's DSLR-to-mirrorless transition (page 34) walks through real-world housing compromises, autofocus gains and battery-life trade-offs. Silcock's Southern Morotai report (page 68) targets divers who have ticked Raja Ampat and want the next frontier. The Pearl Fleet feature (page 22) profiles The Blue Pearl's route through Komodo and the Spice Islands. Rowan Dear (page 52) shares candid lessons from a career guiding in remote atolls. The tech section (page 62) opens a five-part cave-diving series with John Kendall laying out Rule One: always run a continuous guideline.

Regular columns include News round-up, DAN Q&A, Divers Alert Network and Conservation Corner. The GO Diving Show 2026 preview (page 40) lists dates and exhibitors for the 5-6 September Sydney event. Gear testing covers the Mares Planet 88X TBP regulator as Test Extra and a What's New round-up of recent releases. The Australia column (page 16) tracks local marine park changes and Sydney's greynurse shark season.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story / Indonesia

p.22 · Pearl of the Oceans
Pearl Fleet's new 42-metre vessel The Blue Pearl joins the Indonesian liveaboard fleet with a route through Komodo, the Spice Islands and Raja Ampat. The piece details cabin configurations, dive-deck layout and the booking calendar through late 2027. First-timers learn why booking 12 months ahead secures the best itinerary windows.

p.68 · Southern Morotai
Don Silcock picks Halmahera's northern island as Indonesia's next dive frontier, citing soft-coral bommies and hammerhead cleaning stations at 28 metres. He names three specific dive sites — Tanjung Pinang, Batu Layar and Karang Gosong — with depth ranges and current ratings. Anyone planning a Sulawesi-to-Maluku trip should print this page as a waypoint.

▸ Gear & Photography

p.34 · DSLR v Mirrorless
Adrian Stacey test-dives a Sony A1 in a Nauticam housing after 12 years shooting DSLRs. He compares AF acquisition speed in low-vis conditions, strobe sync limitations and the real-world weight saving of 1.8 kg. Shooters weighing a system swap get a clear pre-purchase checklist.

▸ Travel & Destinations

p.16 · Australia
The monthly Australia round-up tracks the current greynurse shark aggregation at Fish Rock Cave, a new mooring buoy installation at Julian Rocks and the latest NSW marine park zoning review. Local divers get three immediate site-status updates.

p.40 · GO Diving Show 2026
The 5-6 September show at Sydney's International Convention Centre lists exhibitors, speaker stages (including a tech-diving track) and an on-site try-dive pool. Anyone within driving distance of Darling Harbour gets floor-plan priorities to skip the queues.

p.52 · Diving With Rowan Dear
Rowan Dear recounts 15 years of guiding from the Maldives to the Solomon Islands, with blunt advice on group dynamics, current-reading errors and when to abort a dive. Newer guides get a field manual in narrative form.

▸ Tech & Safety

p.62 · TECH: The Five Rules of Cave Diving
John Kendall opens a five-part series with Rule One: continuous guideline from open water to the point of penetration. He specifies line types, reel setups and the 1/3rd gas rule for cave environments. Any diver considering overhead training finds the foundational protocol here.

p.50 · DAN Q&A
DAN answers whether recent stitches disqualify a diver, how long to wait after a chest X-ray and what to do when a mask strap snaps at 18 metres. Three concrete medical scenarios with advice direct from the DAN medical panel.

p.58 · Conservation Corner
This month's column reports on the new Palau sustainable tourism levy — USD 100 per visitor — and its allocation to reef restoration. A sidebar tracks the Great Barrier Reef's World Heritage monitoring timeline.

▸ Regulars

p.8 · News round-up
Industry news includes the 2026 Women Divers Hall of Fame inductees, a new marine-protected area in the Coral Triangle and the ANZ dive-show calendar. Four quick reads for the working diver.

p.74 · What's New
New-product briefs cover the Pandora Labs K1 Extension Kit for rebreather divers and the SeaLife Micro 3.0 Reef Edition camera. Each listing includes RRP and availability.

p.76 · Test Extra
Mark Evans bench-tests the Mares Planet 88X TBP balanced regulator. He rates cold-water performance, breathing effort at 40 metres and the ease of field-stripping the second stage. Buyers get a direct comparison against the Apeks XL4+.

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Editor's Take

This issue earns its keep through the DSLR-to-mirrorless transition guide and John Kendall's cave-diving opener — both deliver practical, skill-building content that will still be useful a year from now. The Indonesia features are solid but the destinations skew expensive (liveaboard trips start above USD 4,000), which limits relevance for the budget-traveller segment of the readership. The gear section is thin: one reg test and a short What's New spread feel light for a 76-page magazine. Ad pages are noticeable but not excessive, running about one ad every three editorial pages. The Conservation Corner is brief but the Palau levy story has genuine news value. This issue works best for mid-to-advanced divers who are actively planning a Indo-Pacific trip or shopping for a camera-system upgrade; the beginner or shore-diving reader will find less to take away.

Strengths
• Stacey's mirrorless transition is a rare gear-buy template
• Kendall's cave series opener sets a high technical bar
• Southern Morotai fills a genuine destination gap

Weaknesses
• Only one full equipment test in 76 pages
• Heavy skew toward high-budget liveaboard travel

Verdict: Recommended — Strong photography and tech content offset thin gear coverage; best for the Indopacific-bound diver.