Melissa Smith is a senior editor for Scuba Diving. An avid writer, scuba diver, backpacker and all-around outdoor enthusiast, she holds degrees in journalism and sustainability studies from the University of Florida. Before joining Scuba Diving, Melissa worked as the executive editor of EcoWatch and as the communications manager of The Ocean Agency, a nonprofit featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Chasing Coral. Her work and expertise have been featured in outlets such as USA Today, The Guardian, National Geographic, Climbing magazine and MarketWatch.
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Melissa Smith Articles
Ninety-six percent of the films included in the study represented sharks as potentially threatening to humans.
The 34-foot coral was discovered in the Great Barrier Reef near Orpheus Island off Queensland, Australia by citizen scientists.
Researchers at the University of Virginia are modeling the movement after tuna to improve the underwater robot’s movement while decreasing how much energy it uses.
The new jelly was spotted off Rhode Island while the shark was discovered between Antarctica and Africa.
Popular northeastern diving site Dutch Springs may close as the Texas-based real-estate development firm Trammell Crow purchases property and looks to construct two warehouses.
Zach Moore, a diver and engineer at Mel Fisher’s Treasures, found a gold coin in about 30 feet of seawater on the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
NOAA researchers spotted a sponge resembling SpongeBob SquarePants and a pink sea star akin to Patrick Star off the coast of New York.
Underwater archeologists researching Thonis-Heracleion discovered discovered the wreck below 16 feet of clay and the burial grounds below a rock pile known as a tumulus.
The solar-powered BeBot can pick up litter up to 30 times faster than traditional clean ups, including plastic fragments as small as 1 centimeter.