Pulau Hantu Over Perhentian.....

Call me CRAZY if you want. For I just forgo the last long weekends(Vesak Day) of the year to dive at Pulau Hantu instead of Perhentian.

As I have already missed out two long weekends (Good Friday & Labour Day), I was thinking of going to Perhentian on the Vesak Day weekend. But when news of a Hantu Blogger dive is available, I decided to sign up.

Why? Why? Why choose murky water over crystal clear blue sea?

Because it is so hard getting a dive trip to Pulau Hantu when Malaysia dive season is on. And I missed diving at Pulau Hantu and especially all the small critters! :O)

Happy Earth Day Again!.....

To All Things Big & Small :

Happy Earth Day Again!!!

ADEX Tomorrow.....

Yeah! ADEX (Asia Dive Expo) finally here.

Will be at Suntec tomorrow and Sunday to check out some dive gears and books. Will be looking for an octopus (alternate air-source) and a console to complete my regulator set. Still thinking about whether to get the BCD cause I am too lazy to wash it. :OP

Also, Wildfilms will be showing video clips of Singapore shores tomorrow. Hopefully it will surprise the divers that we have these wonderful stuffs in our own backyard.

I just felt very sad when mention about diving in our water, the first reaction from some divers is that there's nothing to see. Just like last night, I was at this underwater photography seminar, sitting next to a bunch of youngsters and I overhead their conversations going like this;

A : Confirmed with the dive centre the course is at Redang.
B : You sure it is Redang?
A : Yah.
B : So long it is not Hantu. There's nothing to see in that kind of water.

What's wrong with Hantu? You can't see it doesn't mean there's nothing there!Sigh.....Hopefully we can change some mindset about diving at Pulau Hantu or other Singapore dive sites with what we are going to showcase.

You Fools!.....

Sorry, I can’t help it but to call them this.

Have You Have Any Ah-dea?.....

Attended a public presentation on the issue of the Big Aquarium by Nature Society of Singapore (NSS) last night. They have invited the relevant parties (SUF & SEC) that initial Project NOAH to come for a chat session to explain their plan and answer questions raised by concerned individuals/groups.

And it turned out that there are more doubts than answers after the session. Lots of questions were left unanswered. Examples?

1) When asked about the plan of "building" a reef inside the lagoon, they said that the they did not mentioned about building one and that the press had provided wrong infomation about this. Basically, NO Idea (or NO AH-DEA) how press got this idea.

2) When asked about how and what methods are they going to use to carry out the census, they answered with SILENTS. Basically, NO AH-DEA.

What really knocked me off the chair was that they really have NO AH-DEA who are the REAL peoples behind conservation drives. They ACTUALLY mistook a fellow public as one of the most prominent conservationist in Singapore!

They said they wanted to create a CLEAR water habitat. But from the conversations session, I wondered how this could be possible when their answers are not CLEAN & CLEAR. Basically, NO AH-DEA.

To know more on how NO AH-DEA they were, you might want to check out these sites:

A) Wildsingapore
B) BWV's Reefnews
C) The Hantu Blogger's Details of Inconsistencies


Qns : Have you have any ah-dea?
Ans : No ah-dea, No ah-dea.

It Makes You Sad.....

Reading this blog entry from The Hantu Blogger makes me sad and wanna cry. :'o(

I just feels helpless knowing the terrible fate of those creatures. Beautiful marine creatures buried under tons of sand, not to mention lives being cut short for all those unborn babies. :O(

Back From Dayang With No "Souvenir", Sort Of.....

Back from my diving trip to Pulau Dayang. It was an enjoyable trip with great vis and only slight currents. Therefore, I don't have any "souvenirs" like cuts and scratches this time round....well....sort of....for I do have very itchy rashes on my arms and legs from something that stung me in the water.

Surprisingly, Dayang was not that crowded with divers as it should be this weekend. Maybe most of them will be there on the long weekend that is coming up.

Brought along my camera to take photos. However, I still have problems with the focusing when taking marco shots. Thus, most of them are out of focus.:OP For night dive, I didn't bring my camera down. And damn!....I missed the the shot of a Great Barracuda and a rare sighting of a Sea Cucumber releasing its sperms!

Anyway, here's some of the photos from my day divings:












Sea Stars of various kinds


Fishes


Sea Slugs & Nudibranchs

Christmas Tree Worms & Flatworm


Soft Coral


Dayang Jetty and Pulau Lang (Notice that the sky looks grey? We have a passing shower on Sunday morning and a beautiful rainbow after that)

And of course, I did not forget about my friend's birthday and did tried to "stop" this Batfish to wish him a happy birthday. And this is what the Batfish said:

:OP

A Big Aquarium Coming Soon?.....

I know I am a bit late to post this piece of "news". But anyway, here's
News on First step to create marine sanctuary on Pulau Hantu from Wildsingapore website

My first reaction was "Do they know what they were talking about?" and also lots of questions arise as I read on. This project to me looks absurd in term of conservation our natural habitat but realistic in term of creating a big man-made aquarium.

But wait.....am I the only one thinking this way about this project? So I posted my opinions on FINS Forum to find out what fellows divers think about this project. But so far, somehow, not many divers seen like to comment on it while some say that they are waiting for the relevant parties to provide further details before they give their two cents.

Anyway, besides FINS Forum, you may also like to take a look at others comments on:

A) BWV's Klog
B) Clubsnap's UW Forum
C) Yahoo! Group Nature in Singapore

Off To Pulau Dayang.....

Going for this year first diving trip to Pulau Dayang tonight over the weekend. Had asked Kah Chine to come along, but she can't make it. So going alone again.

Just hope that I won't get into this again or bring home any "souvenir". *Fingers crossed*

Also hope to see more nudibranchs this time round. Didn't get to see much last year due to doing course and also my DM likes to bring us to see "BIG" things.

So watch this space for a trip report next week. :O)

Oh yah, one more thing.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!(in advance), Hong Zhenxing.

PS: Will try my best to "stop" a fish to wish you Happy Birthday this Sunday. :OP