23 December 2011

Guinea 2011 Seashells & Dugongs

A slew of souvenir sheets targeted at collectors have been issued for the Republic of Guinea on 2 December 2011, among them are 2 with scuba divers on the selvage. The first is on the subject of seashells featuring a cowrie, a mitre and the great nautilus; the second souvenir sheet is on the subject of dugongs.

17 November 2011

Papua New Guinea 2011 American B-17F “Black Jack” Underwater Wreck

Papua New Guinea released on 16 November 2011 a set of stamps featuring war relics which are remains of fierce fighting between the Japanese and Allied forces during World War II. The issue contains, among others, a souvenir sheet featuring the underwater wreck of an American B-17F "Black Jack", discovered perfectly intact in 1986 in Milne Bay Province. Nowadays this wreck is often explored by scuba divers from around the world.

04 November 2011

British Antarctic Territory (BAT) 2011 Antarctic Science

A November issue from the British Antarctic Territory, on the theme of Antarctic Science, comprising 2 souvenir sheets, each containing a setenant strip of 4 stamps, and a sheetlet containing 4 sets of dual setanant stamps. The stamps feature scientific research in the Antarctic, both in the past and in the present. It is in the sheetlet that we find the scuba divers, in the last stamp at the lower-right corner, aboard a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) preparing to enter water, at the Rothera Research Station

01 November 2011

X'mas Island 2011 Santa is coming to the beach!

The stamp shown here, released for Christmas Island on 31 October 2011, is the second one in a set of 2. The stamp features Santa literally coming to the beach from the sea, carrying his fins in his left hand, with his snorkel and mask pushed up to his forehead, wading in the shallow waters towards a host of local inhabitants: The fauna of Christmmas Island.

22 October 2011

Guinea 2011 Fishes

Something targeting exclusively at collectors from the Republic of Guinea, on the theme of fishes. These 2 souvenir sheets have a release date of 10 May 2011, and the selvages of both sheets feature scuba divers.

26 September 2011

Mayotte 2011 101st Department of France

Mayotte issued on 19 September 2011 a single stamp celebrating the island as the 101st Department of France (or administrative division of France). The stamp design consists of a child drawing of the map of the island of Mayotte surrounded by the ocean filled with marine fauna; and swimming among the marine creatures, that include seahorse, octopus, ray, turtles, fish, whales, is a man in wetsuit and snorkelling gear.

Mayotte 2011 Scuba diving

Mayotte, an island in the Comoro archipelago under french administration, issued on 4 July 2011 a single stamp on the theme of scuba diving (La plongée sous-marine). The stamp design features 3 scuba divers hovering over the edge of a coral reef. Hopefully modern day divers do not dive the same way as these ones shown on the stamp, with all the hoses for the octopus and the gauges hanging out freely, ready to snag on to the coral, and probably damaging the coral!

22 August 2011

Aitutaki 2011 Aitutaki Marine Research Center

Aitutaki released a set of stamps on 25 July 2011 to commemorate the Aitutaki Marine Research Center, with emphasis on clams. The issue has 6 stamps and a souvenir sheet with 2 stamps on it. Two of the stamps feature different species of the Tridacna clams or giant clams. One of the stamps on the souvenir sheet feature a snorkel diver working on the sea bed.

25 July 2011

Serbia 2011 International Year of Biology

The Serbian post released the International Year of Biodiversity single stamp issue on 15 April 2011. The stamp design is dominated by the letters "IYB", with biodiversity themes decorating the insides of these 3 letters. The letter "B" contains the silhouette of a scuba diver finning above a stream of underwater flora and fauna. The stamp is issued in sheets of 8 with a central label, containing a slightly different design. For the label, the scuba diver has disappeared from the B, leaving only the bubbles of expired air!

19 July 2011

Palau 2010 Endangered Species - Napoleon Wrasse

Palau released on 21 December 2010 4 souvenir sheets featuring 4 endangered species: Napoleon wrasse, sharks, turtles and dugongs. One of the 3 98c-stamps on the Napoleon wrasse souvenir sheet features a scuba diver.

09 June 2011

French Polynesia 2011 Spearfishing

French Polynesia is releasing on 22 June 2011 a set of 2 stamps on the theme of fishing. The stamp shown above features spearfishing with a sling spear, donning only snorkelling gear, as it should be for spearfishing sport. The other stamp, not shown here, features fishing with a rod in a boat.

07 June 2011

Perhyn 2011 Pearls

Perhyn, or the northern atoll of the Cook Islands, has issued 2 souvenir sheets on 5 May 2011 featuring the pearl industry. Much of the manual work in maintaining the pearl farms are done by men donning snorkelling gear as depicted in the souvenir sheets. The main creature featured in this issue is the pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera).

14 May 2011

Aland 2011 Very very old champagne!


The Aland stamp here featuring 2 bottles of champagne has 3 June 2011 as the issue date. On the very same day, 2 special bottles of champagne will be auctioned off, one Juglar and one Veuve Clicquot. What is special about these champagnes is that they were retrieved by divers from an old shipwreck in July 2010 in the vicinity of the Aland archipelago, and they are more than 150 years old! The shipwreck is a 2-masted schooner which had ran aground sometime between 1825 and 1830. It has been reported that divers had retrieved at least 145 bottles of champagnes and beer! The champagnes were from the houses of Juglar, Veuve Cliquot and Heidsieck. And 5 bottles of beer has proven to be drinkable and were sent to VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland to determine its nature and eventually the probable recipe for it, with the intention reproducing this ancient beer for sale.

25 April 2011

Marshall Islands 2011 Corals of the Sea

The Marshall Islands Postal Service issued on 10 March 2011 a set of 5 stamps featuring corals. The issue comes in a sheet containing 4 sets of the stamps, the sheet margin is decorated with marine underwater reef scenery with the silhouette of a scuba diver on the top margin. The stamps themselves are very beautiful, featuring corals like the chalis coral, the elkhorn coral, the brain coral and the finger corals; the corals on the stamps are envliven by the reef fishes swimming around them.

14 April 2011

Togo 2010 Cousteau's Birth Centenary

A commercial issue from the Togolese Republic celebrating the birth centenary of Jacques Yves Cousteau. The issue comprises 2 souvenir sheets, one with 4 stamps and one with a single stamp. The Alcyone, the expedition ship with the experimental turbo-sail, is featured in both sheets.

13 April 2011

Maldives Girl Guide Centenary

I just got my hand on this large souvenir sheet, that is supposed to mark the centenary of girl guiding. I am not sure of even the year of issue, because the Maldives post office website has listed a different issue in 2010 for this event; the rubric on the sheet indicates that celebration of girl guiding would be held every 10 April of 2010, 2011 and 2012. I would welcome any help on this matter. The relevance of this souvenir sheet here, is that the lower half of the sheet background shows underwater scenery in blue, with the silhouettes of 2 scuba divers.

Maldives 2010 350 for Climate Change

I discovered this issue being listed on Maldives Post Office website. Issue date is published as 23 June 2010, and it is entitled plainly as "350". Googling with keywords: maldives 2010 350 scuba diver, I found out that the organization called 350 (350.org) was created to raise awareness about climate change around the world; the number 350 refers to the number of parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide concentration in the air that must be reduced to, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the world. 350.org website states the current number to be 388 ppm. The scuba diving President Nasheed of the Maldives, who held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting on 17 October 2010, led a 24-hour scuba diving relay a week later, with 350 scuba divers, in the world’s largest recorded scuba diving event. This issue, comprising a souvenir sheet with 5 stamps, marks this event.

25 March 2011

Israel 2011 Eilat

The Israeli postal authority is issuing a set of 3 stamps on the theme of tourism in April 2011. One of the stamp features Eilat, a famous Red Sea dive destination. This stamp simply shows a clownfish, but the top edge of the whole sheet for it shows the photo of a scuba diver approaching a coral reef.

04 March 2011

Canada 2010 Blue Whale Under UV

It has come to light that the Canadian 2010 Blue Whale $10 stamp has security features that include the silhouette of a scuba diver suspended above the whale itself, which is revealed only when shone under short-wave ultra-violet light!

23 January 2011

Vanautu 2010 Smile With Us - Underwater Post Office

This is one of the 10 stamps released on 15 December 2010 by Vanuatu, in a set entitled "Smile With Us", to celebrate being listed as one of the ten happiest places on earth in 2010 by Lonely Planets. The place is happy because the inhabitants are happy going about their daily lives. This particularly stamp features a snorkeller sending a water-proof postcard at an underwater post office, manned by a postal worker in scuba gear! Postcards posted at this post office are cancelled by an embossing device, instead of an ordinary inking stamp.

17 January 2011

Macedonia 2010 Birth Centenary of Jacques Cousteau

Macedonia Post celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Jacques Cousteau with this stamp on 20 October 2010. The stamp features Jacques Cousteau, who invented the modern scuba equipment, wearing his patent red woolen cap, and a couple of orcas or killer whales.

05 January 2011

Canada 2010 Blue Whale Full Sheet

The Canadian 2010 $10 Definitive features the blue whale, the image being the work of master engraver Jorge Peral. This stamp was produced using a combination of two printing techniques: intaglio (for the whale in the foreground) and offset lithography (for the colours in the background). The intaglio process (which was used to produce Canada’s first postage stamp) was recently reinvented using a new, state-of-the-art laser engraving technology. The colour control markings on the left margin of a full sheet of 2 are in the shape of scuba divers.