Our boat man Kim found this poor little seahorse floating on the surface with a leaf in Verde Island so they decided to call it “Kabayo” (means horse in Tagalog). Kim took it back to home and set it free into the ocean. At least there’s some sandy bottom area and food to keep it happy.
This project has been started by one of our good friends Alex Suh. % of profits go to #StopSharkFinning project. “Shark Diver” men’s T-shirt and women’s loop blouse with one of Alex’s Great White Shark images. Made by Prawno Apparel so you know the quality and softness. Order at www.DiveWet.com under products. Limited quantity and sizes, order soon.
Yea! We did it again! Our September Instructor Development Course (IDC) started in style with a very fun Dive Against Debris in the Sabang Bay. We recovered 13kg of trash including rice sacks, fishing lines and unusual steel items and reported all data to Project AWARE. It’s a great feeling to get involved in ocean conservation and being able to take direct action. Some of our fun divers joined right in and helped to fill the sacks for a good cause…High five to Alex, Michael, Juta, Lutz, Jamie and Sabine.
Congratulations to Beth and Steve Watson, Damien and Rob Jacobs, Hanno Jansen, Amit Kakar, Matt Hubball, Felicity Lee and Ross McLeod who have all successfully completed their “Project AWARE – Dive Against Debris Diver” Specialty certification and earned themselves a fancy limited edition 50 years PADI – Project AWARE certification card…(see picture)
These folks are certainly not letting their dives go to waste – and are now able to organize and conduct the ‘Dive Against Debris’ survey so it counts towards future policy development and implementation, while being very conscious of their buoyancy and applying good judgment on what to collect underwater and what to leave. We had especially great discussions about the impacts of plastics in the food chain and how debris can be avoided in the first place. Students apparently even had fun during the knowledge reviews – here is an example Q&A: Question: “List and describe criteria you should use when deciding whether to remove objects from underwater.” Student’s answer: “Is it debris or something I can sell on eBay, like pirate treasure”… B) Great recycling thought !
Have a look at the video of their graduation dive…
https://www.facebook.com/1720696354808939/videos/1733266430218598/
Great fun we had on the special event dive: a Project AWARE – Dive Against Debris !!
14 divers descended at the Sabang Wrecks on a ‘treasure hunt’ for debris items and were accompanied by a large green turtle, beautiful frogfish, juvenile crocodile fish, scorpion fish, a school of batfishes, rabbit fish, and lots of other reef fishes.
A staggering 32.6kg of debris was collected on this dive, while participants learned to identify what to pick up, what to leave on the bottom and what to appreciate even more. We collected a relatively new tire, rescued reefs and turtles from fishing lines, food wrappers, and little plastic fragments that don’t biodegrade… even a black bikini top was recovered. All items were counted and reported to Project AWARE where the data are used as statistical evidence for policy development and implementation.
We finished the dive on a floating bar for some celebratory ‘orange juice’ 🙂 and exchanged stories from the event underwater.
It was a lot of fun to have a great dive and at the same time contribute to the ocean health.
Thanks to all who joined the event… Beth, Steve, Sue, Hanno, Amit, Felicity, Rob, Damien, Khalia, Ross, Allison, Pete, Matt, and especially thanks to Sabine Henkel for organizing this and to Beth Watson for taking amazing pictures during our dive and Rob as our wonderful videographer. Enjoy the pictures…
For those interested, the report can be found here:
http://www.projectaware.org/debris-survey/ads142-sabang-bay-puerto-galera
This blog is about interesting sea life that has been sent to us by SeaLifeBase. The one is about “Ocean Giants: colossal squid”.
Who here have watched the movie “Clash of the Titans”? Remember the scene when Zeus shouted “Release the Kraken!” to his men? Kraken actually refers to a squid-like sea monster and among the family of squids, there are two known largest species. First is the heaviest – the colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni commonly found in the Antartic. To read more, please see: http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/2015/05/ocean-giants-colossal-squid.html
You can become a SeaLifeBase collaborator. WHAT is a “SeaLifeBase collaborator,” and WHO can be one? In a nutshell, SeaLifeBase collaborators are the people who help us by: a) sending or alerting us to references and photos, which we have not yet used; b) assembling data from published sources using a preformatted template; and/or c) verifying or correcting data that we have extracted and incorporated into the information system. Some of them are — but not limited to — biologists, taxonomists, scientists, and other experts. Some are aquarists, photographers, businessmen, and marine-life enthusiasts. Truly, we welcome contributions from anybody who has a passion for marine life.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/marine-scientists-discover-100-new-species-filipino-easter-egg-hunt
You can become a SeaLifeBase collaborator. WHAT is a “SeaLifeBase collaborator,” and WHO can be one? In a nutshell, SeaLifeBase collaborators are the people who help us by: a) sending or alerting us to references and photos, which we have not yet used; b) assembling data from published sources using a preformatted template; and/or c) verifying or correcting data that we have extracted and incorporated into the information system. Some of them are — but not limited to — biologists, taxonomists, scientists, and other experts. Some are aquarists, photographers, businessmen, and marine-life enthusiasts. Truly, we welcome contributions from anybody who has a passion for marine life. http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/p/collaboration.html
This blog is about interesting sea life that has been sent to us by SeaLifeBase. The one is about “Ocean Giants: Giant Isopod”. Please see: http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/2015/03/ocean-giants-giant-isopod.html
All you underwater photographers out there….Become a SeaLifeBase collaborator. Please see below:
WHAT is a “SeaLifeBase collaborator,” and WHO can be one?
In a nutshell, SeaLifeBase collaborators are the people who help us by: a) sending or alerting us to references and photos, which we have not yet used; b) assembling data from published sources using a preformatted template; and/or c) verifying or correcting data that we have extracted and incorporated into the information system. Some of them are — but not limited to — biologists, taxonomists, scientists, and other experts. Some are aquarists, photographers, businessmen, and marine-life enthusiasts. Truly, we welcome contributions from anybody who has a passion for marine life. http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/p/collaboration.html
This is second blog about interesting sea life that has been sent to us by SeaLifeBase. The is about “Ocean Giants: Lion’s Mane Jellyfish” Please see: http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/2015/02/ocean-giants-lions-mane-jellyfish.html
You can become a SeaLifeBase collaborator
We get many photographers coming to Asia Divers who take some pretty amazing photos of the marine life in Puerto Galera, We encourage all of you to become a SeaLifeBase Collaborator. Please see below:
WHAT is a “SeaLifeBase collaborator,” and WHO can be one?
In a nutshell, SeaLifeBase collaborators are the people who help us by: a) sending or alerting us to references and photos, which we have not yet used; b) assembling data from published sources using a preformatted template; and/or c) verifying or correcting data that we have extracted and incorporated into the information system. Some of them are — but not limited to — biologists, taxonomists, scientists, and other experts. Some are aquarists, photographers, businessmen, and marine-life enthusiasts. Truly, we welcome contributions from anybody who has a passion for marine life.
http://sealifebaseproject.blogspot.com/p/collaboration.html
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