Seahorse Charms....

• Seahorses gained international protection on May 15, 2004

• They do not have scales; their skin is covered with bony plates.




• The small dorsal fins propel it through the water in an upright position, while it beats them back and forth, almost as fast as a humming bird flapping its wings.



• 25 million seahorses a year are now being traded around the world - 64% more than in the mid-1990s - and environmentalists are increasingly concerned that the booming trade in seahorses is putting the creatures at risk.

• Seahorses can come in patterns like “zebra stripes” and spots. Seahorses change color to blend in with their surroundings. Their ability to change color is even stronger than the well-known chameleon.

• Seahorses usually mate under a full moon. During mating, the seahorses utter musical sounds. They make small clicks by moving two parts of their skull against each other.


• The pectoral fins control turning and steering. When resting, the seahorse curls its tail around seaweed, to keep it from floating away... :)
  


• Seahorses are members of the bony fish. Seahorses are considered bony fishes because they have bony skeletons and bodies that are protected by strong external plates.
  

• Seahorse natural predators are crabs, tuna, skates and rays.
  


• Seahorses cannot curl their tails backwards.

What makes seahorses vulnerable?

1. Each pair of seahorses commonly produces 1,000 young per year. This is a low birth rate compared to other fish. For example, cod commonly produce 200,000 eggs per spawning. This means that seahorse populations are slower to recover.
2. Seahorses can take a year to mature, but juveniles are popular in the market as home aquarium fishes or in patent medicines. Because of this, young seahorses are fished before they can reproduce.
3. Seahorses move slowly and generally stay in the same area. This enables a skilled fisher to make a survey, find an area where seahorses live and eliminate them. Repopulation of the areas is very slow.

-Salha-

Disturbing

Inno Fisheries Sdn Bhd is selling corals. Here. Personally I am concerned. Is it right to sell our corals when we are having problems here. What with fish bombing and other destructive methods of fishing we have. And then there are land based pollution flushed out into our ocean, choking the corals. Now this?!

-Salha-

Under the Sea

A preview of the underwater world. This video shows some of the amazing critters found in the sea.

The evolution of Popong

Popong is the name of the fish in our logo. He's a banded butterflyfish (notice i did not mention the number of bands he's got). The 8 banded butterflyfish is abundant here in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. Unfortunately we couldnt fit 8 bands into Popong. He's got only 4 :)

My bro, Bing just gave him the name Popong when he was designing the logo because of the "teropong" (binoculars). I didn't like it, wanted to change the name but Sofia seems to like it. Said it has a local flavour to it. So now its stuck :/ Popong it is!

When we got the idea of the logo, we just slapped nemo with a binoculars to show our deisgner (Bing) how we want it to look.

Then when we got our grant and we were going to attend the symposium, we realize we needed a name card. So Bing worked over time to come up with a mock up of Popong.

Here Popong looks more like a tiger than a fish :D this was the first mock up. He's cute and all but the color is all wrong. So Bing got into it again.

This is the Popong that went to the Symposium with us. He was popular with the guys and a real hit with the ladies ;)

Now we are in the process of registering our little society and we're getting Popong registered too. So the final look? Here it is....

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The past few weeks.....

Been very busy the last 2 weeks, especially after the symposium, we met all the people we wanted to meet there and it was a fruitful event for us :) Julian Hyde and of course our friend Zarinah were happy to assist us with reefcheck training. Dr. Jamili (Deputy Director of Sabah Parks) & Dr. Liz (Marine Consrvation Society) were also very supportive with our project. Eric (Treasure Images) gave us some good ideas on how to make our education programme more attractive and it was very nice of him to give us his underwater footage DVD to be used in our programme for the kids :)

Since KK Reef Watch's ultimate goal is to become a Foundation itself to support small local conservation projects, raising fund is a very important skill for us to have. Ken (WWF) will give his support by guiding us on how to go about and raise more money as he's an expert in raising funds, thanks Ken :) After the symposium we met Susan (EPD) as adviced by Datuk Sue and helped us to get in contact with Department of Education.

Salha will be going to Lankayan Island to set up another marine education program starting this mid-february for Reef Guardian. Our first 'I see, I care, I save' program will be held in May, since we're both going to be busy with our day job, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to have an intern to help us out with some of the paperwork and meetings. We are still thinking about it....

KK Reef Watch is now in the process of being registered with ROS (Registrar of Society) and LHDN (Inland Revenue Board).

Thanks again people for your support!