Perhentian Island

Hi everyone...Hope ya'll are doing well. It has been such a long time since i updated my blog. Truly has been busy years... starting to work and being committed to it. But here i am, back to blogging! I shall start up with describing my recent trip to the ocean. I went to Perhentian Island in this September, it is a truly magical island. I have been to Redang Island, Tioman Island,Penang Island, Langkawi Island, all of these islands have some special features about them and all are unforgettable.

However my trip to Perhentian Island has once again quenched my thirst for the marine animals and being close to the them and see many species i have not met underwater. In this trip too, I took up three PADI specialties and I am now a certified PADI Adventure Diver! The specialties i took are Peak performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigator and AWARE fish identification. Although being a relatively new and young diver, my instructors are very happy and impressed with my ability underwater. Especially Fish ID specialty, where I was able to identify many species of fish.I am truly blessed to have chosen Perhentian Island for my Adventure diver course.

The dive sites i have been to are Batu Nisan, Batu Layar, The Lagoon and Temple of the sea.  The two most unforgettable dive sites are Temple of the sea and The Lagoon. Temple of the sea gets its name by its shape. It has a small pinnacle about half a meter above the ocean, but when you plunge into the water, it is actually build up of a mountain of corals in the shape of a temple! I dived into the bottom of the temple of the sea - it was 27m in depth! In this depth, the thermocline was 4 degrees, and it was an abrupt change in temperature,in the cold and mist of mere visibility of 5m, me and my instructor knelt on the ocean bed and there is a bamboo shark that came swimming in between us, which is a really rare scene, cause they are nocturnal and shy animals, likes to hide beneath the rocks! Swimming around the mountains of corals is a truly magical experience, i was surrounded by a big school of yellowtail snappers, literally surrounded....
The corals shine in its healthiest condition and its bright colours prevails.



Diving in The Lagoon is a really exciting experience, many times i would say to myself, oh my god, am i dreaming... the beauty of the corals and the abundance of marine lives are thrilling! I saw a black spotted pufferfish in its full size, a huge brown marbled grouper, blue spotted fantail rays, freckled goatfish and a cleaner shrimp !! A truly hearthrobbing experience.

Cruising in the ocean brings me calmness and serenity, i wish i can dive everyday...

If you love the ocean and marine animals and you are not a certified diver yet, what are you waiting for?
I promise you will only gain as a diver and discovers depths about the ocean, and, about yourself too.

Love the ocean.Protect the ocean.

Lastly, i would like to encourage people who are in difficult times in their lives,
hold to the truth in your heart and believe in yourself, You've come so close, don't throw it away.
Hold on together and beautiful days will come.

***pictures abstracted from the internet, sorry not a underwater photographer yet...the day shall come.=)

Beluga whale

HI everyone! It has been a long time since I posted the last blog, it is great to be back to this underwater world. I have the privilege of going to Harbin, China on February and I met two gorgeous Beluga whales in Harbin aquarium. They were brought in from North pole, where their natural habitat is and they were trained to do shows for us in order for us to understand more about ther species in effort to protect them.

Belugas at Harbin Aquarium

I have never thought I would be able to see Beluga so close up, literally inches away in the aquarium swimming freely and having lovely smiles on their faces. Although the water space they were put in is very small compared to the big ocean that they used to live in, hopefully they will be able to understand the purpose of them being kept there and be able to thrive in the aquarium.

The word beluga comes from the Russian word "bielo" meaning white.

Baby Belugas are born gray to enable them to hide in their mother's shadow and gradually turn snow white to blend with the ice and snow. (PIC) Their bulbous forehead, called a "melon", is also flexible and capable of changing shape by blowing air around its sinuses. This allows them to make different facial expressions and produce a series of chirps, clicks, whistles and squeals, which give the beluga its other name, "the canary of the sea.

Belugas, like other arctic whales, do not have dorsal fins (a dorsal fin causes extra heat loss and would be a major hindrance in the arctic ice), but they do have a tough dorsal ridge. They also have a thick layer of blubber that insulates them from the icy arctic waters. They travel in a group of 5-20 animals, but sometimes more than one thousand are spotted together. They consume various fish species, squid, and krill. It most probably does not dive any deeper than 300 m.

The females reach puberty at the age of five and the males at eight. Mating takes place when the ice melts, the gestation period is about 14 months and the calf is 1½ m long and weighs 80 kg at birth. They start turning white 5-12 years of age. No other whale species produces such a variety of high frequency sounds and only two other species can move their heads as freely as the beluga whale.

This is a video of Beluga performance that is found in Youtube, not the same as the one I watched at Harbin, but this showcase how intelligent they are. Enjoy!

This video shows a birth of a baby beluga whale at Shedd aquarium Chicago. Puiji is the mother and the calf is Ninavik. =)

Thank you and i shall see you soon! have a nice day.

Love the Ocean. Protect the Ocean.

For more information, please log on to :

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/species/Beluga.shtml

http://www.solarnavigator.net/animal_kingdom/cetaceans/beluga_whale.htm

I hereby pray that all the people that have died from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan to rest in peace and their family to be blessed with safety and happiness. May God and the ocean be with you.

Puffer Fish

Puffer Fish are probably one of the fish in the sea that shows its emotions through body language. When relaxed and calm, puffer fish has this little mouth that its shape almost suggest that it is smiling welcomingly.

But when it is provoked, it definitely will let you know that it is pissed!


I sure do envy puffer fish, if only I can puff up like a ball with poisonous spines when there is danger. Then I can get rid of my stupid protective alarm that goes off all of sudden in class, and I can throw away my pepper spray that is difficult to use in emergencies. But what if I can’t deflate myself afterwards,…hmm…anyway, the point is, the puffer fish, being small relatively, has got nature’s gift to ultimately protect itself from predators.

The puffer fish can puff up to 2-3 times its usual size! It only does that when it is put into tremendous stressful condition. Aquarium keepers are advised not to transfer a puffer fish out of water, because puffing air is much more dangerous for the fish than puffing water.

The ability to puff is very important for puffer fish because they move slowly and clumsily in the water, will not have enough time to escape from predators if they are under attack. They use their highly elastic stomachs and the ability to quickly ingest huge amount of water to turn themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times larger than their normal size. Some species have spines on their skin to make them even less palatable.

Predators that manage to snag a puffer fish before it inflates might laugh away feeling lucky, but it will not feel lucky anymore to know that almost all puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin. This substance makes them foul tasting and lethal to fish. Tetrodotoxin is deadly to human, it is up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. One puffer fish has toxin enough to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote! Don’t mess with a puffer fish.

Okay, maybe only if you are a professional.

Puffy Puffer Fish Puffs! :p

I hope all of you will get puffed up with joy and warmth in your heart and say no no to ego. This is my 10th post since November 2009 and I am absolutely thankful and happy for those who visits this page on a regular basis. With God’s grace I shall continue my little contribution to the ocean, marine animals and the nature and continue this cause for the rest of my life. May you join me as well and together we can make a difference.

Love the Ocean. Protect the Ocean.

For more information, please visit:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/pufferfish.html

http://www.pufferfish.net/

p/s: I recently found out that Ellen Degeneres is actually the voice of Dory in Finding Nemo!! Silly me, took me so long to realize, but i just feel it is absolutely amazing that one of my favourite hosts is my favourite fish in cartoon!! okay, it doesn't sound right but who cares! wohoo... hehehe..... bye guys!