A Greek and international team of divers and archaeologists has retrieved stunning new finds from an ancient Greek ship that sank more than 2,000 years ago off the remote island of Antikythera. The rescued antiquities include tableware, ship components, and a giant bronze spear that would have belonged to a life-sized warrior statue.

The Antikythera wreck was first discovered in 1900 by sponge divers who were blown off course by a storm. They subsequently recovered a spectacular haul of ancient treasure including bronze and marble statues, jewellery, furniture, luxury glassware, and the surprisingly complex Antikythera Mechanism. But they were forced to end their mission at the 55-meter-deep site after one diver died of the bends and two were paralyzed. Ever since, archaeologists have wondered if more treasure remains buried beneath the sea bed.

Now a team of international archaeologists including Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Theotokis Theodoulou of the Hellenic Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities have returned to the treacherous site using state-of-the-art technology. During their first excavation season, from September 15 to October 7, 2014, the researchers have created a high-resolution, 3D map of the site using stereo cameras mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Divers then recovered a series of finds which prove that much of the ship’s cargo is indeed still preserved beneath the sediment.

Components of the ship, including multiple lead anchors over a meter long and a bronze rigging ring with fragments of wood still attached, prove that much of the ship survives. The finds are also scattered over a much larger area than the sponge divers realized, covering 300 meters of the seafloor. This together with the huge size of the anchors and recovered hull planks proves that the Antikythera ship was much larger than previously thought, perhaps up to 50 meters long.

"The evidence shows this is the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered," says Foley. "It's the Titanic of the ancient world."

The archaeologists also recovered a beautiful intact table jug, part of an ornate bed leg, and most impressive of all, a 2-meter-long bronze spear buried just beneath the surface of the sand. Too large and heavy to have been used as a weapon, it must have belonged to a giant statue, perhaps a warrior or the goddess Athena, says Foley. In 1901, four giant marble horses were discovered on the wreck by the sponge divers, so these could have formed part of a complex of statues involving a warrior in a chariot that was pulled by the four horses.

The shipwreck dates from 70 to 60 BC and is thought to have been carrying a luxury cargo of Greek treasures from the coast of Asia Minor west to Rome. Antikythera stands in the middle of this major shipping route and the ship probably sank when a violent storm smashed it against the island's sheer cliffs.

The wreck is too deep to dive safely using regular scuba equipment, so the divers had to use rebreather technology, in which carbon dioxide is scrubbed from the exhaled air while oxygen is introduced and recirculated. This allowed them to dive on the site for up to three hours at a time.

The archaeologists plan to return next year to excavate the site further and recover more of the ship's precious cargo.  The finds, particularly the bronze spear, are "very promising," says Theodolou. "We have a lot of work to do at this site to uncover its secrets."

The Paranormal Divers

Paranormal investigators are a dime a dozen, but Florida’s Paranormal Divers aren’t your typical ghost hunters. The world’s first underwater paranormal investigation team has searched for spirits in just about every type of water there is and have had a few eerie experiences along the way.

In one expedition, the Paranormal Divers spotted “a weird unexplained light phenomenon” in the water under Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The original Skyway collapsed in 1980, sending 35 motorists plunging to their death. The bridge is also a popular site for suicides. Over 200 people have jumped to their death since the new span’s construction in 1987, and one man was forced to leap at gunpoint. Could these deaths have something to do with the strange lights?

In another expedition, the Paranormal Divers snapped what they call the world’s first underwater ghost photo (below). Taken in a flooded underground cavern at 130 feet, the photo reportedly shows a diver’s face mask floating in murky water. A member of the team snapped the pic after hearing screams coming from the bottom of the cavern.

“We panned deeply and shot the black water and the sound of the screaming voice which was the exact site of a diver death,” reads a report on ParanormalDivers.com. “This is the real thing. To our knowledge, it’s the first underwater ghost photo ever taken.”

The Ghost Machines of Truk Lagoon

Situated halfway between the Philippines and Hawaii, Truk Lagoon was the site of a major battle between the U.S. and Japan in 1944. Around 60 ships and 275 planes sank beneath the waves during a U.S. attack known as Operation Hailstone, and thousands of men went along with them. Human remains litter many of the 69-year-old shipwrecks, but it’s the machines that appear to live on.

Japan’s Hoki Maru ship went down with a cargo full of trucks. Now, divers reportedly hear the sound of engines turning over and starting up, even when there are no boats on the surface. Strange reports also come from the Fuji Kawamaru where grinding noises eminate from the ship’s engine room.

The crew of Destination Truth explored the underwater ruins of Truk Lagoon, and was perplexed to hear an engine idling underwater. They also recorded something that sounded like a human voice, as well as human-like heat signature.

Disappearing Divers

A common theme in underwater ghost tales is that of the disappearing diver. Several reports speak of men and women who appear in the water and then disappear without a trace.

Last year, scuba instructors in Santa Rosa, CA reportedly saw a diver with a pink tank floating near the bottom of a local blue hole. When they got closer, however, the diver disappeared. The instructors reported the strange event to police only to learn that they weren’t the first people to encounter the mysterious figure at the bottom of the hole.

A similar account appeared in the Toronto Sun in 2007. After an eventful afternoon exploring the waters around Grenada, a group of divers returned to their live-aboard ship to compare notes. One man asked the rest of the group if they’d seen the diver in the white shirt. The other divers thought he was kidding, but the man insisted he’d seen someone.

“He was wearing a white T-shirt, and a scuba tank. He waved at me!”

The ship’s crew immediately took a head count, but no one was missing and there were no other boats in sight. They never did solve the mystery of the man in white. A hallucination, perhaps?

However, not all ghostly divers disappear. A diver on the forum scubaboard.com shared this odd story:

“One of my friends dived a wreck the day after his friend’s funeral,” the man writes. “He went down the line and saw his friend slowly waving to him from the deck of the ship. He ascended for a bit then went back down and the guy was still there waving at him so he abandoned the dive. He was that freaked out.”

Do ghosts truly haunt underwater caverns and decades-old shipwrecks? I’m sure not strapping on a scuba tank to find out!

By Ted Alan Stedman

They’re weird, wild and bizarre. Many call them ugly — so ugly that they’re, well, fugly.

Which is part of the reason divers love these denizens of the deep, those mesmerizingly wonderful marine species that would seem utterly alien if they weren’t in fact real.

The undersea world is replete with all things beautiful. So to mix it up, we offer our unsightly picks that add another wow-factor dimension to the diving experience.

Take the challenge to see if you can find these creatures that only a diver could appreciate.

TASSELED ANGLERFISH

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

To untrained eyes, the tasseled angler (also tasseled frogfish) gets overlooked, dismissed as another algae-covered rock due to the long filamentous appendages that completely envelop its rotund body. Using its superior camo, Rhycherus filamentosus attracts prey by deploying its long dorsal spine tipped with a glowing, bacteria-charged “lure” before inhaling catches with its voluminous mouth.

Bizarre as it is, this tousled creature is exemplary for its resourceful evolutionary adaptations that scientists think occurred between 100 million to 130 million years ago. One of more than 200 anglerfish species, the tasseled is endemic to Australia, particularly the southern states of South Australia, ­Victoria and Tasmania, where temperate waters foster dense kelp beds the species prefers. Sightings are not only common but also convenient. Where ­Mornington Peninsula separates ­Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay from the roily Bass Strait, shore and boat divers are privy to tasseleds at Blairgowrie Pier. Considered the best pier/muck dive on the peninsula, the kelp-shrouded site is a virtual marine lab of sponges, soft corals, nudibranchs — and the obscure stealthy predator that’s fished these waters for millennia.

>When to Go Anglerfish are present throughout the year. Strong tidal currents make Blairgowrie Pier a slack-water dive. Consult tidal charts and confer with a dive operator beforehand.

>Operator Aquability (aquability.com​.au) is a full-service dive shop located south of Melbourne in the suburb of Mentone, and offers guided dives throughout Port Phillip Bay.

>Price Tag Boat dives start at $56. Air fills and equipment rentals are available for independent shore divers.

STARGAZER

Moalboal, Visayan Sea, Philippines

With its toothy upturned maw, oversize head and bulbous wild eyes aiming skyward, the stargazer looks otherworldly — like an alien apparition worthy of a Steven Spielberg flick. Upward of 50 species comprise this Uranoscopidae family of perciform fish distinguished by eyes on top of their head. Found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters, this strange critter is a benthic bottom dweller that buries itself in the sand to ambush prey that stray overhead. While most stargazer species hover in the 12-inch range, the giant stargazer (Kathetostoma giganteum) found in the waters of New Zealand can post a gargantuan 3-foot length. Add to its E.T. appearance the fact that it’s venomous, with two large poison spines that can also deliver electric shocks up to 50 volts, and the stargazer stands apart from nearly anything that slinks, swims or squiggles in the ocean.

In the Philippine dive mecca of Moalboal, stargazers are standard protocol for muck-diving sites inside the bay, says Chris White of Turtle Bay Dive Resort.

“We like doing this shallow muck dive at night when your flashlight suddenly illuminates this scary-face fish buried in the sand and staring up at you,” he says.

>When to Go  Stargazers are observed year-round. Peak diving months are November and December, and continue to June.

>Operator  Turtle Bay Dive Resort (turtlebaydiveresort.com), located in Moalboal on the island province of Cebu, offers daily dives in Moalboal Bay.

>Price Tag Two-tank guided boat dives run $65. Through September, seven nights, all meals, airport transfers plus 10 guided boat dives start at $859 per person.

RED-LIPPED BATFISH

Galapagos Islands, Eastern Pacific

You might think of the red-lipped ­batfish as the sad clown of the underwater world. Its frowning, pouty red lips look as if the creature went gonzo with makeup to compensate for its homely hatchet face. And there’s the rhinolike protrusion housing its illicium, the fleshy extension that enables it to “fish” for prey, as do other anglerfish. Did we mention it’s a terrible swimmer? Together with its flat, batlike body and propensity to “walk” the ocean floor with pectoral fins, it’s no wonder Mother Nature Network dubs them among “13 of the ugliest animals on the planet.”

Yet Ogcocephalus darwini is a ­fascinating deepwater species found only in the Galapagos, and prize ­sightings are for the taking, says ­live-aboard operator Peter Hughes.

“We visit three sites where they’re nearly guaranteed, like Punta Vincente Roca. This is a deep, dark, beautiful dive, and the red-lipped batfish is nearly always found on the sand at a depth of 75 feet,” he says.

Hughes advises divers to get low on the sand and approach them slowly or they’ll spook and swim away — awkwardly.

>When to Go  Batfish are sighted year-round. Most divers prefer the “Garua” cold/dry season from July to November, when whale sharks congregate.

>Operator Peter Hughes’ DivEncounters operates the M/V Galapagos Sky (galapagossky​.com), a 100-foot luxury live-aboard that visits all the top dive sites year-round, including reliable batfish sites.

>Price Tag Seven-night cruises with four dives per day and three land excursions begin at $5,494 per person.

REEF STONEFISH

Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

To our anthropomorphic sensibilities, Synanceia verrucosa — aka reef stonefish — is as fugly as they come. Resembling an encrusted rock or lumpy coral, it can have splotchy patches of yellow, brown, orange, gray and red, which add to its superb camouflage — and ugliness. But there’s another aspect of its ­macabre physiology that puts it on our list: its danger to humans. Not only are reef stonefish venomous and the most widespread species of the stonefish family, but it is the world’s most venomous fish. The fleetingly fast carnivorous bottom dweller is armed with 13 ­dorsal-fin spines, each with two venom sacs ­producing an extremely lethal toxin that attacks both the ­cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems. Most recorded deaths involve humans stepping on the creatures in shallow reefs of the ­Indo-Pacific and Red Sea.

Naturally, with this kind of marine mojo, reef stonefish are a much-sought check-off for cautious divers. One of the best reliable havens is along the Great Barrier Reef at Steve’s ­Bommie, where captivating caves, canyons and coral gardens belie the reality that these menacing-yet-mesmerizing creatures are literally underfoot and nearly everywhere.

>When to Go Sightings of stonefish occur year-round. Best viz is from August to December.

>Operator Diving Cairns (divingcairns.com​.au) is located in Cairns, Queensland, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

(CNN) -- Bored of diving among the usual coral reefs and tropical fish? Looking for something a little out of the ordinary?

Ever thought about diving in a crack between two continents in some of the clearest water on Earth? Or what about swimming up to an active volcano? Perhaps underwater art is more your thing?

If so, take a look at some of the most unusual, mysterious and awe-inspiring underwater landscapes from around the world.

Continental rift in Iceland

The only place in the world where you can swim between two continents, the Silfra fissure in Iceland's Thingvellier National Park is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

Not only can you dive in a crack in the earth caused by the two continental plates slowly moving away from each other (at an average of 2 cm a year), the waters are so clear that many divers are said to lose all sense of depth and even experience vertigo.

The water's extreme clarity is thanks to year-round cold temperatures of around two to four degrees Celsius and the water's purity. The water originates from a glacier high on Iceland's Hofsjokull Mountain and is filtered through layers of porous lava rock before reaching the national park. Not only is it cold and clear, the water is so pure it is safe enough to drink.

The three sections of the dive include Silfra Hall, the Cathedral and Silfra lagoon.

Mysterious ruins in Japan

A long-lost civilization, the work of aliens or simply a natural wonder? The mysterious underwater ruins of Yonaguni continue to lure the most intrepid of divers.

Located in the Yaeyama Islands off the westernmost point of Japan, the tiny island of Yonaguni is remote and difficult to reach. But it remains popular thanks to the archaeological riddle submerged off its southern coast.

Exactly how the underwater pyramid structure, known as the Yonaguni monument, was formed is still under debate. Some claim the ruins to be evidence of a long lost city, while others are convinced it is a geological phenomenon. There are even a few who believe the site to be the work of architecturally-ambitious aliens.

Whatever its origin, it's an impressive site. Estimated to be between 5,000 and 8,000 years old, the stepped structures -- with smooth platform steps and right angles -- appear as though they were carved out of the rock.

This is not a diving site for beginners, with the ruins located in open waters with high waves and strong currents.

Volcanic action in Indonesia

Want to see a volcano up close without the threat of lava flows and toxic air? If so, the submerged volcano of Banua Wuhu is the place to head.

Located beside the island of Mahangetan, part of the volcanic island chain of Sangihe in Indonesia, Banua Wuha rises more than 400 meters from the sea floor and is less than five meters below the water's surface.

There is no risk from lava -- instead, the underwater volcano releases ribbons of silver bubbles -- sulfur gas -- escaping deep from inside the earth's crust.

"The bubbles can burn your fingers if you're not careful," said Roman Szalay, managing director of Ocean Rover Cruises, which charters one of the few boats that makes the journey to the volcano.

"If you bring (the gas) up in a bottle to the surface it smells horrible, but if the bubbles come up to the surface it smells like nothing," he added.

The further you descend, the volcano's barren sulfur-covered rocks give way to coral reefs and an extraordinary display of marine life, including huge barrel sponges, black tipped reef sharks and schools of neon fusiliers.

"If the sky is cloudy and the sun is not bright, the atmosphere is quite mystic" said Szalay, "Sometime you can also hear the roaring of the volcano."

Underwater art in Mexico

Want a bit of culture on your next dive? Then try the tropical blue waters of Cancun, Mexico where you will find the Museum of Underwater Modern Art.

Consisting of more than 403 permanent life-sized sculptures, the art-filled sea-bed is one of the largest artificial reef attractions in the world.

The work of British sculptor and scuba diver Jason deCaires Taylor, each sculpture is individually cast and made using a special cement mix to encourage coral growth.

"It's incredibly interesting working underwater," said deCaires Taylor. "The colors are different, the light patterns are very different, the atmosphere and mood is otherworldly.

"The piece takes on a very different tone underwater -- it has a lost feel to it and brings up all these questions that you wouldn't have on land," he continued.

Underwater cemetery in the U.S.

A little over five kilometers off the coast of Miami, Florida, is an altogether different, and slightly creepy, diving experience -- an artificial reef that doubles as a cemetery.

The Neptune Memorial Reef, with its tagline "creating life after life," is a man-made reef, built to encourage the growth of marine life while creating "the ultimate 'Green Burial' opportunity."

People who choose the reef as their final resting place are first cremated. Their remains are then mixed with non-porous cement, sand and water, and molded into a stone shape of their choosing, such as a shell or starfish. The stone is then added to the reef by scuba divers.

The first phase of the memorial has been built in the style of a "classical re-creation of the Lost City." Relatives of the deceased, curious scuba-divers and marine biologists are among those who dive among the coral-encrusted arches and statues of lions that line the sea floor.

When completed, the memorial will cover have the capacity to hold the cremated remains of around 100,000 people.

New underwater footage posted online Friday is believed to be the world’s first video showing a pod of killer whales hunting and killing a tiger shark.

According to Barcroft TV, the video was captured off the coast of Costa Rica by photographer Caroline Power on September 8th.

The wildlife video shows three killer whales work in unison to force the shark toward the surface, before they bite off its fins. Ultimately, one of the killer whales delivers a final blow to the shark.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqimOYOQjJ8&feature=player_embedded