Saturday, July 07, 2007

WE CARE!

Crown-of-Thorn starfish (Acanthaster planci) is coral eating echinoderm. This starfish is widely distributed around the coral reef region ranging from Red Sea, throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans. Spines of Crown-of-Thorn starfish (COTS) are long and poisonous , when accidentally touched or stepped by human can cause painful sting, swell, nausea and vomiting. Crowns-of-Torn starfish (COTS) outbreaks is a large number of starfish population presence in the small area of coral reef. COTS outbreak being recorded occurs in Red Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Maldives, Indonesia and Fiji island.
Couple months ago, Divemaster being observed the presence of quite number of COTS in the shallow site of a few diving site in Mabul area. Its was no so severe outbreak , but its can be the early stage of the outbreak. Incipient outbreak means high densities of juveniles are found which likely to survive and reach maturity. Causes of COTS outbreak is linked to overfishing of thier natural predators such as Giant triton, Emperors, triggers, snapper and puffer. Besides, also related to the high nutrient contain in the water column cause by humans activities which provide high density of food for the COTS larvae.
Dive team have come out with a collecting COTS project around the affected dive site to save the beautiful table coral from being eaten by COTS. Total COTS being collected from the dive sites about 80 individual. Average size of the COTS is about 10cm in diameter. The collected COTS were burried in the beach area.



Heroes come and save the world!

Cage for collect COTS underwater.


COTS feeding on table coral with part of the coral
already being eaten (white area).

Dying table cora...............


COTS hiding underneath the coral,
usually come out feeding on the night time.

Another table coral being eaten by COTS.

Table coral already died and algae growth on it.


Jay pick up the COTS using stick - becareful, dont get sting !


Put COTS in the cage underwater.

Cage carry man....


Fish: why my house change color and died...?


Bleach out table coral.


3 color table coral : live color, bleach color and algae growth color.


Collected Crown-of-Thorn Seastar (Acanthaster planci)

Boatman help to removed COTS carefully from cage.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Lovely Couple


View of Dive centre from our sundeck area which is the most beautiful scenery for sunset. Come here see and feel it by yourself then you will know the feeling of fall in love with the sea. Its all about feel and love! What make the divers fall in love here is the fascinating macro life here.



Orang utan crab (Achaeus japonicus)


Clown Anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris)



Purple fire goby (Nemateleotris decora)


Look at me! Im so cute!


Napan Sevikul - a nice guy who provided us beautiful photos for this blog.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!


Divers from Japan and Thailand - Monami, Michiko,
Che Song Su, Yang Soo Hyang, Jakarin and Napan.




Thanks to Che Song Su also for the photos you provided for blog.




A pair of White-eyed moray eel (Gymnothorax zonipectus)


A pair of Arrow goby (Ptereleotris evides)



Green turtle laying on a love shape barrel sponge.


Lovely couple felt in to the love sea of Sipadan! hahaha!




I love this photo.....lovely couple (Che Song Su & Yang Soo Hyang)
in the romantic sunset moment!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

PHOTO WEEK 2007



WELCOME back to Photo Week 2007 in SWV Resort, Mabul island, June 15-23, 2007 organized by Travel Master, Optiquatics and Dive Travel Services. This year we have 14 participants and 3 photo and camera pros (Marty Snyderman , Clay Wiseman, Joe Wysocki ).
PHOTO PRO - CLAY WISEMAN
PHOTO PRO - MARTY SNYDERMAN
DIVE GUIDE- ALEX AND CAMERA PRO- JOE WYSOCKI
EVENT COORDINATORS - MIKE AND VIKIE COKER
During the photoweek all the participants have an opportunity to improve the underwater photographic skills with the help of a team of proffesional photographers and dive in the famous dive site in the world - Sipadan and also Macro heaven - Mabul and Kapalai.
Hey guys! Let's see who is the fastest to put on this underwater weapon.
HI! Andy and Leonard
There are 3 categories of the photo competition: Point and Shoot, SLR (Single Lens Reflex) and Divemaster. Winner photos:
POINT AND SHOOT CATEGORY
1ST PLACE WINNER: GLENDA PRUNER

2ND PLACE WINNER: DON PECK


3RD PLACE WINNER: HARDEE BILL


SLR CATEGORY

1ST PLACE WINNER: RICHARD SCOTT


2ND PLACE WINNER: LEONARD CICHOWSKI

3RD PLACE WINNER: AMY MOORE


DIVEMASTER CATEGORY

1ST PLACE WINNER: NICK

2ND PLACE WINNER: LEONARD LAI

3RD PLACE WINNER: BOBBY


GROUP PHOTO OF THE PARTICIPANTS, PROS AND DM.

GOOD BYE AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!