The New Caledonian Christmas issue, released 4 November 2010, features Santa Claus on his sleigh in an underwater vista. Santa's sleigh is formed from the 2 halves of a giant scallop, pulled by 4 seahorses, instead of reindeer; and he is wearing a diving mask with a snorkel, air bubbles escaping from it. The seabed is decorated with an octopus on a brain coral, and reef fishes, like the clown fish swimming around a sea anemone, the bannerfish and the yellow longnose butterflyfish.
Vanuatu Post released 2 new aerogrammes for 2010, the design of one features birds while that of the second one features marine fauna - dolphins, reef fishes and coral reef. The marine fauna aerogramme has a stamp printed on the top right corner featuring a scuba diver looking out from a hatch of the SS President Coolidge wreck.
In anticipation of a rise in basic postage from 55 cents to 60 cents, Australian Post is issuing the first part of reef fishes issue on 21 June 2010. This first part comprises 4 stamps featuring the regal angelfish, the spotted sweetlips, the clown triggerfish and the golden damsel. The cover of the booklet with 10 self-adhesive stamps features the silhouette of a scuba diver shining a torch. The cover of the chequebook with 200 stamps also features the same silhouette.
For the World Expo Shanghai 2010, Vanuatu Post issued a self-adhesive souvenir sheet with 4 stamps on 30 April. The 40 vatu stamp featuring the dugongs of Epi has a snorkel diver in the background, probably a tourist who has come to enjoy the close proximity with the dugong.
Cuba Post issued a set on "Fondos Marinos" or "Marine Depths" on 20 February 2010, with 6 stamps and 1 souvenir sheet. The souvenir sheet marks the 15th anniversary of the world record for no limit breath held free dive by Deborah Andollo (this record has been broken by others since then). The 6 stamps feature a variety of marine fauna, and 4 of them also feature scuba divers.
The sheetlet selvage features a girl wearing a deep sea diving helmet, with a yellow bird perching on her hand. This figure is actually a spray painting on steel, by an elusive artist known as Banksy, entitled "Space Girl and Bird", that was auctioned off for £288,000 at Bonhams 25 April 2007. This piece of expensive art was part of a series of designs commissioned by pop band, Blur, for the cover of their Think Tank album and featured on Blur’s 5-track CD cover. The remaining artwork mostly feature people wearing the same type of diving helmets. The sheetlet shown above is found only in the prestige booklet of the Classic Albums Cover issue released on 7 January 2010 by the Royal Mail.
This stamp with a scuba diver, is part of an issue on tourism in Aqaba, Jordan, released 16 July 2007. Aqaba is located on the Gulf of Aqaba, at the northern end of the Red Sea, not too far from the more famous Red Sea dive destinaton, Eilat (in Israel). These 2 destinations, Aqaba and Eilat are the gateways to the Red Sea Marine Peace Park, which was formed after the signing of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.
This is the picture side of a pre-paid postcard issued on 3rd November 2008 featuring a favourite scuba diving destination in the Visayas - Bohol. There are 10 postcards in this set featuring popular tourism sites.
This is the reverse side of the postcard, with the photo of a clownfish peeping from its anemone home.
A set of 7 stamps were also issued on the same day on the same theme of tourism. This one features Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO heritage site and a top scuba diving destination located in the middle of the Sulu Sea. Scuba diving here is done from a live-on-board that sets out from Puerto Princesa City, capital city of Palawan Island. This is one of my must go destinations.
This block of 4 celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Saudi Aramco in 2008. It was on 29 May 1933 that the original oil concession agreement was signed between Saudi Arabia and Standard Oil of California, that will lead to today's Saudi Aramco. The stamp with the scuba diver probably features recreation in the Red Sea.
This stamp is part of a set of 10, released by the Royal Mail on 25 February 2010, to commemorate the Royal Society. Well, the long-haired guy on the stamp is Robert Boyle, who discovered Boyle's Law, which is so important to understand for scuba divers. This is the scientific phenomenon that requires us divers to wear weights and an inflatable device (the buoyancy jacket, mate), and for us not to hold our breath when using scuba equipment underwater.
Robert Boyle was also featured on an Irish stamp released in 1981.
Released on 22 October, the Cayman Islands 2009 Christmas stamps reprised the stamps issued in 1997, showing Santa Claus enjoying himself in the tropics, with scuba diving, golf, and lazing in a hammock by the beach. This one, with the highest denomination of $1.00 shows Santa scuba diving with a buddy, hovering above a stingray.
On 1st March 2010, Liechtenstein Post issued a set of 2 stamps for the 3rd series of the Voluntary Civil Protection Work featuring mountain rescue and water rescue. The sheet shown here is for the water rescue stamp, the bottom left half of the stamp shows scuba divers conducting a search, while the top right half shows 3 divers conducting rescue work, one of them towing a rubber raft containing a victim securely tied down. Water rescue service in this country is rendered by the rescue specialists of the "Bubbles" diving club, the work include search and rescue of missing persons, salvage and cleaning of groundwater wells.
This is from a set of Belgium Duostamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Smurf or Schtroumpf as known in francophone countries, in 2008 (issue date: 18 May). This one shows Gargamel, the evil sorcerer, in snorkelling gear, trying to catch a Smurf in water; with him is his equally evil cat, Azrael. The actual stamp is the reddish perforated label on the right, the left label is for the illustration - the basis of the Duostamp in Belgium.
The scuba diver is found on the right border of the sheetlet. The stamp is part of a 4-stamp issue on reptiles, the other 3 stamps feature a chameleon, a crocodile and a cobra. The stamps are released in sheetlets of 4 stamps, and only the turtle sheetlet has a scuba diver on the border. The 4 stamps were also issued in a stamp booklet format, but no diving theme there.
