Thursday, December 27, 2007

Ep6 Jan2: Veterinary & Animal Care 101






This episode is not about a specific wildlife or animal, but rather a new experience to try animal care in a different manner – HANDS-ON VETERINARY-kuno.

Well, I can’t say it’s really veterinary, but up-close animal handling ala-beterinaryo is in the menu for this week’s episode. The ‘challenges’ (as Doc Ferdz put it) are manageable like cleaning a hoof of a mini-horse, disinfecting wound of a Camel, and may crux – testicle removal of a small pig! (aka Kapon) HAHA. The latter was THE challenge as I’m not use to cutting skin and flesh, pulling testicles, and actually applying knot tying skills to ‘close’ the tubular vessel that connects to the pig’s testicles. Poor animal!

Now I know why I took an IT career – I don’t really like medical procedures, on animals, on humans – and specially, on me!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Ep5 Dec26: Baby turtles, crawling to the sea...





Sea turtles are one of the old surviving species. Imagine – sea turtles started swimming our oceans some 200millions years ago, and although greatly reduced in number – still roaming our oceans today, outlasting the great dinosaurs. (Dinosaurs became extinct some 65million years ago). They're among the few animals that ‘re-entered’ the oceans and evolved to live an almost-permanent life in the sea.


Leatherbacks, green and hawksbill turtles are all critically endangered species. Bataan’s pride – the Olive Ridley is endangered, and we’re hoping that the conservation effort in Morong will allow this species to last another million years, hopefully living thru the new impending Climate Change disaster, and even outlasting Sapiens (hehe)…

Although protected by law, Pawikans are illegally killed for its meat and carapace (‘shell’), and its egg poached as aphrodisiac. (Sigh). Turtle eggs are not even nutritious, high in cholesterol, with no aphrodisiac value whatsoever, and sometimes even contain small amounts of heavy metals like cadmium or mercury. Duh!
Sea turtles meat is also semi-toxic, given that turtles normally thrive on highly toxic sea creatures like jellyfish, anemone and sea sponges.

Conservation centers normally just take care of the nesting place (beach area), the eggs (secure them), and the hatchlings (make sure they crawl to sea). But the real conservation lies in all of us. By not buying turtles products, we kill the demand and hopefully stop the poaching. And by educating our youngsters and friends – we can help save this gentle, lovable creatures of the sea.


Some more Fast Facts:
- Less than 5% of hatchlings the crawls to sea will live to adulthood. Some say only 1%. Like sharks, their sexual maturity takes times (20plus years for sea turtles) hence the slow reproduction process.
- Baby sea turtles (hatchlings) know that they MUST go to sea to survive, les they’ll be eaten by bayawaks, dogs, birds and even humans. And even w/ a good number reaching the sea, most will not survive. When they reach adulthood, their primary predators will be humans. Experts say they can live up to 50-60years. Nemo’s father met an individual with an age of more than 100 years :) hehe.
- Sea turtles remember their place of birth (as in - ala GPS reading), and if a female survive to adulthood, in 20-25 years, they will nest in exactly the same birth place. Even if they travel to Atlantic or Pacific or Indian ocean!
- Best places in Philippines to see sea turtles: APO REEF, TURTLE ISLANDS (duh!), TUBATTAHA (diving only), maybe even BATAAN.


Monday, December 17, 2007

Dec19 Ep4: Sea Snake Encounter



Wildlife encounter: Several banded seasnakes (on land), biggest is 1-in thick, 4feet long.
Adventure: Island-hopping, snorkelling, rock scrambling, and snake handling :)
Like their land counterparts - sea snakes are mostly feared or even hated by humans. Most people just consider them evil, nuisance, or simply useless. But by now, we should all know that all species play a certain role in the ecosystem. So just like cute or lovable animals like dolphins or turtles, we need to protect the sea snakes and keep that eco-system in balance. Sure their bites are deadly but it should not mean we should kill their kind.

Sea snakes are highly venomous. (Not poisonous. Poison kills when ingested, venom are chemical toxins that disrupts our organs/system when introduced to our body). In fact they’re more deadly than cobras. The good news is that, sea snake can ‘toggle on or off’ their venom flow, so generally (not always) – they inject venom only to hunt and eat, but not when biting for defense. It is formerly believed (at least in the diving community) that they can’t bite most human body parts except the ears or the ‘web-skin’ between our fingers. Some theory suggests though, that they can unlock their jaws deliberately (normally for swallowing) – but still not known if they do that when biting. Well, I’ll just keep my distance and not risk knowing it for myself :) - you get a venomous bite, and your life ticks away fast, without so much hope for a timely cure.

Saving animals doesn’t always mean cuddling and loving them, for those who doesn’t like snake too much – simply letting them live their own life in their natural habitat is already a conservation effort. After all, we’re only intruders and visitors of their habitat. And just like sharks, learning about them will lessen or eliminate deadly encounters.

Ang WILD!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Dec12 Ep3: Heal the World!




“… Make it a better place, for you and me and the entire human race…” I think that’s the lyrics of that song, or at least something like that hehe.

Well, when we talk ‘environment’ – it’s all about “issues” ‘coz the fact is – our environment (or the biosphere in general) is the only constantly degenerating component of our planet. Sad di ba. But looking at the positive side – doing something, no matter how small or insignificant, is better, in a lot of sense, than NOT ACTING about our issues. In today’s era of ‘care’, or ‘external focus’ or ‘reaching out’ – it’s almost a crime not to do something about broken things. So let’s DO SOMETHING!

While my partner, Doc Ferdz tried to help neglected, beaten, abandoned or due-for-katay Dogs, I revisited an old, familiar site in Bauan – an Artificial Reef that my team of divers constructed a few years back. Back then, we were struggling with technology, technique, ideas and of course – FUND, and struggling to produce something worthwhile to help re-grow the coral reefs of Bauan (‘Greater Anilao’). My first-ever Climb for a Cause (2004) was dedicated for this effort. We luckily got meager funding from Project AWARE and a few donations from some friends, and soon started our reef building.

Today, after years of ‘life progression’ in the hard substrate (‘reeflets’) that we deployed, we’re finally seeing HEALTHY BABY HARD CORALS growing on the reeflets. This is the best sign of success, more than just seeing fish playing around the structure – it means a new habitat (from the bottom of the marine life chain) is forming to support a little community of future marine life. Tree-planting is easy to do on land, although seedling mortality is high, probability of significant success is higher. But ‘planting’ hard corals (aka. Coral re-planting) underwater is a tricky process, and ‘naturally’ growing them from artificial reef is even more ambitious (we’re doing the latter). But little effort eventually brings good results – and we are seeing it now.

There are many areas where people can help heal nature, or at least allow nature to heal itself. Sometimes (if you’re truly the busy, or the deadma type haha!), we don’t even need to intervene or take complex actions. Simply reducing waste, reducing energy consumption (aka. carbon footprint) and general resource conservation (water, all material things) are of BIG HELP already.

Let’s do our little share and just think that Mother Earth is proudly smiling back at us for that little effort.
We, humans are born to be wild, but we’re also BORN TO LOVE & CARE! =)


Monday, December 3, 2007

Dec5 Ep2: Hide and Seek with the Sharks


(shark photo courtesy of R.Barnett)
WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER: four (4) White Tip Reef Sharks; mantis shrimp, Bat fish, & fish fish fish... ZERO Tresher Shark!
ADVENTURE: Scuba Diving - rocky boat in Big Swells, 1-to-2 knot underwater current
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“SHARK!! Swim for your life!!”
(I was shouting at the shark… so it can swim away, to live another day.)
Sharks earned their fearsome reputation from their menacing set of razor-sharp teeth, fatal attacks on human, and of course – famous movies like “Jaws”. Seeing its dorsal fin gliding in the surface water towards you - gives you the imminent feeling of death!

But we all know that majority of shark species are harmless to humans. In fact, humans kill a lot, lot, lot, lot more sharks (millions!) than sharks kill humans. And their numbers are already threatened.

In the Philippines, majority of Pinoys still fear sharks as voracious human-eating predators. And does that really matter? YES - because people don’t care killing (or allowing killing of) ‘enemies’, and are easily blinded by its importance. The first step is to understand that these creatures are not like the regular Great Whites featured in “Jaws!” We, divers, experience for the fact- that they can swim with humans side by side, without those flesh-munching, arm-tearing attacks. Of course that’s true if you are swim-diving with the right species (or size) of shark, or if you’re behaving ‘nicely’. Enough knowledge gets you out of trouble.

Sharks, even those protected or endangered – are all being hunted for its prized part – the FINS! And not many people know that the usual shark finning method is to catch the animal alive, cut its fins (dorsal, pectorals, tail), and dump back the poor dying victim in the water to die of drowning or starvation. Many people do not know that they play a certain role in the eco-system. All species do! Keeping mid-predator population balanced is one. Like there is this story somewhere in Europe on a severe Tuna population decline, and fishermen were shocked to find out that the reason was the declining number of sharks. They learned later that a healthy population of shark kept Tuna’s primary predator in check.

Sharks are beautiful, elegant and awesome swimmer and hunter. I have seen a few in our own backyards – in Apo Reef, in Malapascua, and also in other famous dive destinations like Palau. Most people only see them in wet markets, or see (and eat) some of its part in restaurants.
We’ve seen the stats, and we’ve seen the effects of its decline. It’s time to ACT – an act to help save this important species to help preserve not just their kind, but the whole Marine ecosystem as well.

This is not only a problem of Government, or NGOs, or concerned citizen. We can all do our little thing to help. DON’T buy or consume shark products!! Shark’s fin soup or siomai, and shark’s teeth/jaw are just a few common examples – please avoid them, and give our shark friends a little room to survive.

Sabi nga ng WWF – “If the buying stops, the killing will…” :)