Odysseys of George

I actually blogged about this a few days ago only to realise that the page went missing 48 hours later! So here it is again!

Manta rays next on restaurant menus as shark populations plummet

Conservationists fear a falling shark population is prompting Asian chefs to look for manta and devil rays to help meet the voracious demand for shark fin soup.

Found in coastal waters throughout the world, rays present an easy target as they swim slowly near the surface with their huge wings. So far, they have escaped commercial exploitation and have been hunted only by small numbers of subsistence fishermen, who traditionally catch them using harpoons.

But the growing demand for the manta ray (Manta birostris) and its close cousin the devil ray (of the Mobula genus) is turning ray fishing into an export operation. In the eastern Indonesian port of Lamakera, catches of manta have rocketed from a few hundred to about 1,500 a year.

“Mantas and mobulas are being used as shark fin soup filler,” said Tim Clark, a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii. He said the cartilage was being mixed with low-grade shark fins in cheap versions of the soup. “The life history of manta rays makes them highly susceptible to overfishing,” he added.

With a life span thought to be well over 50 years, the fish reach sexual maturity only in their teens, at which time they produce one pup every one to three years.

While the rays, which are distantly related to sharks, are ending up in Hong Kong’s restaurants, their gills are also being used in traditional Chinese medicines. “The big market is for the gill elements,” Mr Clark added. “They are dried, ground to a powder and used in traditional Asian medicines.”

Reaching sizes of up to 7m (23ft) from wing tip to wing tip, the manta’s branchial gill plates, which filter plankton from seawater, constitute a tiny portion of a body that can weigh up to 2½ tonnes. The plates can fetch up to £200 on the street in China. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine claim that gill rakers — called peng yu sai — reduce toxins in the body by purifying the blood.

Eli Michael, of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation, said Hawaii is poised to outlaw catching or killing mantas. Until now, getting caught in nets intended for other fish has been the biggest threat to rays, listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Overfishing is also a problem in Britain and Europe. Ali Hood, of the Shark Trust, said: “In European waters, particularly the Mediterranean, the giant devil ray is classified by the IUCN Red List as ‘endangered’. The large skate, found in UK waters, has been exploited for decades, leading to alarming declines, and species such as the common skate are now critically endangered.”

The market for shark fin soup is growing at about 5 per cent a year, while shark populations are crashing: 80 per cent of Atlantic sharks have been lost in the past 15 years, according to the trust. Britain is one of only five EU member states that still allows the removal of shark fins at sea. More than 80 tonnes of fins are landed in Britain every year.

So, where do we go from here? Not only is our fight against shark fin has yet to see its effects, now they go for those lovely Manta’s! Greed will lead to fall of mankind!

Also to read:
Controversial Delicacy!

Is this really necessary?

If you had to choose to let go of a particular sense, which would it be?

It all started when a friend of mine related a true story. There was this girl who was having problems with her nose — so much so that there was no relieve despite anything or any treatment she took. So, eventually the ENT surgeon told her of a particular procedure that may settle her problem at the cost of her losing her sense of smell. She agreed. The procedure was a success but she is now unable to smell anything.

My friend was sad to hear this story and it got me thinking. We have five sense – smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing. Medically, sight is probably the most developed sense in humans, followed closely by hearing. We use these senses without giving a thought of its individual importance until we lose them. But if you were asked to which of these sense was most important to you and which is the least or willing to give up, what would it be?

For me, I would put them in these order — sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, with sight being the most valuable. What would yours be?

I will be going to dive at Layang-Layang soon. Many have already asked me as to where it is though many actually have heard about it.

Layang-Layang, known as “Swallows Reef” is an atoll situated in the South China Sea 300km north-west of Kota Kinabalu. Layang-Layang is an isolated atoll-like ring of 13 connected reefs in a 14 sq km area. The whole island is only 7.5 km long and 2 km wide.Lying 300-km northwest of Kota Kinabalu, Layang-Layang has become one of the preferred destinations for the avid diver who constantly seeks for new thrills and challenges. The eastern end of the atoll is a favored nesting side for many species of migratory birds like Sooty Terns (Sterna fuscata), Black-naped Terns (Sterna sumatrana), Great Crested Terns (Sterna bergii), Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster) and Brown Noddies (Anous stolidus). Hence Layang-Layang is not only a diver’s paradise but also a bird watchers’ haven.

Layang Layang Island is one of the many islands which form part of the disputed archipelago known as the Spratlys. With its oil rich natural reserves, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia have all tried to lay claim to this island.

Malaysia staked her decisive claim here by building a naval base on the island in the 1980s, ensuring that any other countries hoping to govern it will have an uphill struggle before they can do so.

In 1985, the Malaysian Federal Government began reclamation works and created a 50-acre island on one part of the reef. Layang-layang resort development follow suit and in 1986, the resort was open to guests. On the island there is only one resort and a Malaysian navy base. Please take note that the navy base is restricted area.

The fact that the coral atoll is situated by deep waters gives rise to some outstanding wall diving and encounters with pelagic species such as hammerhead sharks, which gather here to perform their mating rituals. Diving in Layang Layang is challenging and varied – visitors often enthuse about both the above-water and underwater beauty of the area.

Layang Layang’s pristine reefs, which drop down as sheer walls into the abyss, are covered with splendid examples of healthy hard corals with staghorn, tables and acropora being the most numerous. The reefs are home to a great variety of sea life where turtles, triggerfish, manta rays and more are quite common, but overshadowed by the mighty presence of the scalloped hammerhead sharks. You may also encounter a whale shark or two.

You can dive Layang Layang from March to August, with March and May being the best time for seeing schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks performing mating rituals. The resort closes between September and February.
Reef Basics

Great for: Large animals, wall dives, reef life and health and visibility
Not so great for: Beginner divers, snorkelling and non-diving activities
Depth: 5 – >40m
Visibility: 20 – 40m
Currents: Gentle
Surface Conditions: Calm
Water Temperature: 25 – 30°C
Experience Level: Intermediate – advanced
Number of dive sites: ~20
Access: Diving resort
Recommended length of stay: 5 – 8 days

Sources:

http://www.myoutdoor.com/layanglayang/main.htm

http://www.dive-the-world.com/tourist-information-malaysia-layang-layang.php

I first dived at Pulau Tenggol about three or four years ago and from that very first day, I fell in love with it. Of all the islands, Tenggol and Redang are my favourites and now to add would be Pulau Yu near Pulau Bedong. This would be the fourth time I have gone diving to Tenggol. The resort — Tenggol Island Beach Resort. Well, when one talks about a dive resorts it encompass a few things which are important. One is the resort itself and the management. Having stayed at its neighbour resort, Tenggol Island Resort the last times, I have to say the Tenggol Island Beach Resort is better managed overall. The rooms at Tenggol Island Resorts are more and looks nicer and better but the maintainance is poor with many a times the hot water does not work, there is no water or poor water pressure, the air conditioning fails and the toilets not functioning. The food is definitely by far excellent at Tenggol Island Beach Resort and to that there is really no comparison. At Tenggol Island Resort, I have heard of not just the food taste poorly but also many a times there is no food served.

Next would be the dive center. Well again the setup of the dive center at Tenggol Island Resort is better but the dive center at Tenggol Island Beach Resort is fairly good. What disappointed me however was the dive guide. We had this Sabahan dive guide who in person I think has some attitude issues and a very poor guide. He hardly showed us anything and somehow I felt that he showed little knowledge of the dive sites as in his dive briefing that he gives. So in that sense, my group was disappointed but since we were all a great team we worked the dives well.

There is another resort there on the island but maybe that, i will check out the next time around.

As for now enjoy the pictures.

For more check out my facebook album

I am so pissed off. It all started with a cheque I received. It was a Maybank cheque and thinking that it would clear faster than me crediting it into my CIMB account, I credited it to my Maybank account via the cheque deposit machine.

After 2 days, as I was busy with work I thought I would get the bank to help me check if the cheque has been cleared. So I called the customer service number and a lady with an irritating tone took the line. My question was, can you please help check if my cheque has been credited into my account? Sounds relative easy question to answer isn’t it! No the lady decided to break the bad news that in Maybank it takes three days to clear — and that if I wanted to find out I can check the ATM machine the coming morning! STUPID!!!
I told her that if I had the convenience to check the ATM I would not bother calling an idiot like her to help me.

Next day, I, trying to help my mom, I came to realize that Maybank 2U only allows transactions to a maximum of RM5000 per day! So fine I take a walk to the Maybank and realized that I could not do a thing without a cheque book. To transfer money, I need to issue a cheque because the bank cannot do that transaction over the counter even with me in their presence!! I somehow managed to do the transfer using ATM machine.

Next, I wanted to make a bank draft and even for that I needed a cheque to get a bank draft. Otherwise, I need to withdraw cash from the ATM and give them the cash to give me a bank draft. How silly is that!!
I am in the bank and I am the account holder but yet I cannot get a bank draft because ….. it takes a cheque to withdraw money!!!!!!!!

Stupid and so useless. In these day and age, work process like this should be made easy and without hassle. I am so pissed!

Taken from article written by Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Burning Fat

When your body moves (or any cell in your body does any type of ”work”) it needs energy. The amount of energy needed is measured as a unit of heat—or a calorie. The fuel to produce this energy comes from several sources, mostly fat and carbs (glucose), and occasionally amino acids (protein). How and when fat is ‘”burned” (or metabolized to provide energy for the body) and how that affects body fat levels and weight is a very complex area of physiology research. There have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of studies exploring the utilization of fat for energy under a variety of different conditions. There is still much to be understood, but this is how we know it works so far:

Whether you are watching TV or running around a track, the fuel your body uses to give you the calories your cells need for energy comes from burning mostly fat and carbs. Your body nearly always burns a mix of both fat calories and carb calories. So normally, for every calorie burned, the fuels are around a 50/50 split of both fat and carbs.

How hard you are moving during exercise is one major determinant of which fuel your body will use. Carbs provide a faster energy source. So whenever you need to do something fast or produce force, carbs are the better fuel. Fats are favored during long, low-intensity activities. It’s not that you stop using one or the other fuel, it’s that the ratio of both shifts depending on your activity. In more scientific terms, you alternate between aerobic (more fat-burning) and anaerobic (more carb-burning) metabolism.

Losing Weight by Burning Calories

When it comes to weight loss, it really doesn’t matter whether you are more or less fat burning. It doesn’t matter what your calories are made of, but it does matter how many calories you burn—and the more the better. So when you are sitting—and burning more fat–you are burning only about one calorie per minute. Clearly, even though you’re in a greater fat-burning state, no one ever lost weight by sitting! (How many calories you burn depends on many factors, including how heavy you are—the more you weigh, the more you burn.)

You do burn less fat when you work anaerobically, but it doesn’t matter because you are burning more total calories. You will always burn more calories the longer or harder you exercise, no matter what your intensity is. So doing cardio for only 15 minutes makes no sense unless you are short on time. Burning BOTH fat calories and carb calories can result in fat loss or pounds off the scale.

The Ideal Amount of Cardio

How much exercise you need to do depends on your goal. Even small amounts of exercise are great for your health. Just moving a little every day can improve metabolic functions, such as how sensitive your body is to insulin and how it reacts to excess blood sugar. Exercise can also reduce your risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions. That’s why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend that all healthy adults accumulate 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on most, if not all, days of the week. Although all types of exercise count, generally the recommendations reflect more cardio activity than lower-calorie-burning moves like strength work or stretching.

The big question is whether you’ll drop weight from this amount of exercise. The answer is that some people can. If you work a little harder in that 30 minutes, you will burn more calories and that will have a bigger effect on weight loss. If you have not been active before, then doing 30 minutes of low-intensity activity would still probably help you lose weight.

The less cardio activity you do (or the fewer calories you burn per workout), the slower the weight loss, and that’s because it’s a numbers game. In 30 minutes of moving around, you might burn 150 to 300 calories. But, theoretically, it takes burning around 3,500 calories to lose one pound of fat. So, you’re going to have to do enough workouts, at say 150 calories burned per session, to add up to 3,500 calories, or 17,500 calories for five pounds of fat, and so on.

The problem is that most people give up if they don’t get concrete results fast. Also, different people have different physiological makeups. So this theoretical caloric equation may not work perfectly in every body. That’s why more realistic fitness guidelines for losing weight or maintaining weight loss have been established. The Institute of Medicine and the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines recommend that a person do 60 to 90 minutes a day of accumulated moderate-intensity physical activity at least five days per week.

Can Exercise ‘Burn Muscle’?

This claim is slightly misleading. You certainly do not burn muscle after only 15 minutes of exercise. You start using protein (perhaps from muscle, as well as other amino-acid-containing components in the body) for energy under extreme conditions such as starvation and at the tail end of long, hard endurance events where carb stores are in short supply. The average person who works out does not need to worry about this.

Will More Muscle Rev Up Your Metabolism?

In short, probably not. The average person won’t lose muscle from doing cardio and won’t burn more fat by building more muscle, mostly because one has to eat more than usual (not diet) and lift seriously heavy weights to build more muscle. And even then that person probably won’t build enough muscle to make a difference. Dr. Joseph Donnelly and other leading exercise physiologists conducted a comprehensive review of all the research on exercise and weight loss for the American College of Sports Medicine. While resistance training was recommended for its beneficial role in potentially improving muscle strength and power, the physiologists found no evidence that increasing muscle mass enhanced weight loss, especially when combined with dieting.