Seriously......
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../ndriver128.xml
> Women divers outdo men, study claims
> David Harrison
> Last Updated: 1:06am GMT 29/10/2007
>
> For years women drivers have endured jokes about map reading and
> reversing
> from men who pride themselves on their superior spatial awareness.
>
> Underwater, though, the boot  or flipper  is on the other foot.
> For women
> divers are much more aware of their surroundings than men,
> according to a
> two-year study of scuba divers.
>
> "Women have better orientation," said Mandy Shackleton, a marine
> scientist
> at Hull University's marine sciences centre. "They have a greater
> awareness
> of what is going on around them."
>
> Women were found to be calmer, less aggressive and more safety
> conscious
> than their "gung-ho, sensation-seeking" male counterparts.
>
> Men took risks and were prone to showing off. The men experienced
> "a chain
> reaction of hormones" that caused them to lose their "buoyancy
> control" more
> easily than women. The stress hormone cortisol is released first,
> followed
> by testosterone  the hormone linked with aggression  and finally,
> adrenaline. "The combination of these three results in erratic,
> dangerous
> diving," said Ms Shackleton.
>
> On an ecological level, men's "spatially unaware" behaviour is
> damaging the
> world's coral reefs. There is growing concern about the future of
> the reefs,
> which are vital habitats for thousands of fish species.
>
> Many male divers swim too close and break pieces off with their
> flippers or
> "fins". Their flippers also churn up the seabed sediment, which
> "suffocates"
> and kills the living coral.
>
> "Men should try to relax and develop good breathing techniques to
> maintain
> control and minimise damage when they go scuba diving," said Ms
> Shackleton,
> a qualified dive master, who watched 500 divers of several
> nationalities,
> including Britons, off the coast of Kenya.
>
> Nigel Forman, a professor of psychology at Middlesex University,
> said there
> was strong evidence that men had greater spatial navigational
> skills than
> women on land. However, he added: "Women tend to use local cues,
> signposts
> in their immediate vicinity, for navigation and it is possible that
> this is
> more effective underwater where even in the clearest waters
> visibility will
> not be as good as it is on land."
>
> Recreational scuba diving is increasingly popular, as the cost of
> exotic
> holidays has fallen. The industry is now worth around £2.5 billion
> globally.
> Just over 57,000 divers obtained certificates in the UK last year,
> 1,500
> more than in 2005.
>
> "Traditionally, it was seen as a masculine roughty-toughty sport,"
> said
> Carol Giles, of Padi, a worldwide certificating body with several
> bases in
> Britain. "But more women are taking it up and they now make up
> about 40 per
> cent of all scuba divers. And in my experience, they do tend to
> have a more
> careful approach than men."
>
