Coral Armageddon: A Field of Skeleton

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

One would hope to see yellows, blues, pinks and reds but a melancholic wide spread white boney corals present itself, like a field of skeleton ...

ecently me and my wife went for a second honeymoon. Having realised that we have not appreciated our country enough, relative to the European tours that we did in the past, a local tropical island was perfect for a destination. We went to Tioman. It was a great retreat but to our disappointment, many of the corals were not as lively as we hoped it would be. No doubt Tioman still has many sites with colourful corals and fishes to offer snorklers and scuba divers, quite a significant portion of the seabed surrounding the island were and are still the victim of excessive disruption by tourists as well as climate change. One would hope to see yellows, blues, pinks and reds but a melancholic wide spread white boney corals present itself, like a field of skeleton. A sad story indeed.

The first thing that came to our mind was pollution by the passing ships, rubbish from tourists, contaminated water flowing from the rivers as a result of factories releasing toxic wastes and many more negative thoughts including destructive fishing practices. Whilst all of that are true to certain extent, what contributes the most is the climate change. Global warming has taken charge to what we all see as the beginning of an armageddon to the planet Earth, at least to the corals and sea life for a start. We see sea levels rising everywhere. In Malaysia, it rises by 10cm to 13cm every 100 years. 288.4km or 6% of Malaysian 4,809km coastline was being eroded by the sea. With such phenomenon, no wonder corals are having trouble staying alive.

This is a sad case really. My wish now is to visit all the other islands in Malaysia such as Pulau Perhentian, Pulau Sibu, Pulau Redang and a host of islands in Borneo. Why? Well, in my mind, give 10 years to 15 years, those coral fields would probably be the fields of skeleton mentioned earlier. A sad case really. Is it going to be like our Rantau Abang? where tourists 'used to be' facinated with thousands of leatherback turtles coming to shore to lay eggs. The number of sea turtles that lay their eggs has severely decreased in recent years. It has been estimated that during the 1950s, over 10,000 of these turtles called the beaches on Rantau Abang their home. Recently the local government have declared these turtles extinct as no turtle landings have been sighted for quite some time. Next, the government is probably going to declare the corals extinct as well? Let's hope not.

....call it the "Coral Bleaching" where algae that gives coral its colour and food dies, turning it into bone white colour..

After having read so many articles in the newspapers lately, I now understand what these fields of skeletons mean. They call it the "Coral Bleaching" where algae that gives coral its colour and food dies, turning it into bone white colour (#1). It is thought that a temperature increase of more than 1 degree Celsius (bringing the temperature to 32 Celsius) and excessive sunlight trigger the single-celled algae zooxanthellae to attack the corals (#1). It was also believed that easterly winds from the cooler waters of the Pacific have been pushing warmer waters into the Southeast Asian region, contributing to the warmth that triggered the bleaching - part of the steady increase of temperature due to anthropogenic climate change since the early 1950's associated with global warming (#1). This will take months to years for those corals to recover from mass bleaching (#1). 50% of the corals are dead after prolonged coral bleaching and 60% to 90% of the reefs in Malaysia's tourists attraction islands are bleached (#1). The same phenomenon exist in neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines for which, 20% of those corals were lost in the last several decades (#2).

Recently the government ordered the closure of many dive sites in Peninsula Malaysia to give these corals a chance to recover. The closure was for a few months. I wonder whether that is enough for a recovery phase. Perhaps the government should close those sites for a year allowing enough room for those corals to work themselves without disruption from tourists. What is more important is the pollution level in the sea water. Action must be taken to address this, i.e. put a stop to factories flowing toxic into the water, control fishing methods or sea water chemical treatment to stabilise the 'friendlyness' of the sea water to the corals. In any case, significant action has to be taken, or else, we may just now see the last of those corals that will not be experienced by our children and only to be told as a story, a myth, just like how the current generation is deprived of dolphines that used to follow the ferries from Butterworth to Georgetown (A glimpse of my memory).

... we may just now see the last of those corals that will not be experienced by our children and only to be told as a story, a myth ...

* kopihangtuah



Bibliography:
(#1 : Detailed and scientific/technical information was taken from an article "Giving corals a breather" by Evangeline Majawat in NST Friday 23 July 2010)
(#2 : Detailed and scientific/technical information was taken from an article "Tap the opportunities of biodiversity" by Zakri Abdul Hamid in NST Friday 1 October 2010)



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Lest We Forget the History Part 1

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com



istory has always facinated me. Whether it is political, science or religion in context, history provides an insight to the world before our life time. You will be surprised with how much you will learn and understand the world we live in today by merely acquiring factual information from history. A lot of the current social issues, such as racism, arose because the younger generation refuse to do their research on how things became what they are today.

History made reading a pleasure to me. I read historical stuff, apart from my usual Archers and Dan Browns. Just recently I purchased the English translation of Hikayat Hang Tuah (Epic of Hang Tuah) and Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Anals) with the vision to understand Malay history. In the past I have also read many historical books. Some are religion based and some are civilisation based. To name a few: Mein Kampf, The Lemon Tree, The Malay Dilemma, Nasionalis Humanis, Nota Kaki, The Malayan Trilogy, The Cairo Trilogy, A Drift on the Nile, etc. A profound reading would be the Holy Quran which contains historical values. Whilst some of these are actually fiction (eg. The Lemon Tree), they do have historical values in concept.

I would like to share those historical facts that I gathered in my mind to the extent allowable by my human memory. You can either take this as an entertainment value or translate it into your own interpretation of the world we live in. Here they are:


1.
The shortest poem in the world was by Sitor Sitomurang entitled "Malam Lebaran" and it sounds like this: "Bulan di atas kuburan"

2.
Malaysia was earlier known as Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (Federated States of Malaya).

3.
The entire Borneo was actually known as Brunei in 1400's.

4.
The first best film won in the first Academy Award in 1927 was a mute film, Wings, the first and last mute film to win that award.

5.
Which country has the highest number of children? It's Kenya at 51% of its population.

6.
Everest is a colonial name, that tallest mountain has an earlier native name, Chomolungma, which means God of Mother Earth.

7.
Before Titanic was built, a novelist, Morgan Robertson, wrote a book on a ship of similar status in 1808. It was called Titan.

8.
Philosophy comes from the Greek words “Feelo” that means Love and “Sufi” that means Knowledge. Hence, Love for Knowledge.

9.
Gunung Jerai has been a world acknowledged landmark for sea navigation for Straits of Malacca since the early 1400's.

10.
Negaraku was actually Perak's anthem, which was also an old Malay song, Terang Bulan, that stole melodies from a Hawaiian song.

11.
The independence on 31 August 1957 was for Malaya, not Malaysia.

12.
Tasmanian Aboriginals extinct back in 1800's'when the colonial masters hunted every single one of them.

13.
The first man to extract the smooth element out of cocoa beans is Van Hauten. Safe to say he invented the modern day Chocolates.

14.
Hang Tuah travelled as far as Setambol (Constantinople) in the west and Peking in the East.

15.
Before Pahang took the name Darul Makmur, it was Pahang Indera Pura according to Hikayat Hang Tuah.

16.
Before Brunei took the name Darussalam, it was Acheh's according to Hikayat Hang Tuah.

17.
The first Malay newspaper was established in 1876 and named 'Jawi Peranakan', after the founders who were of mixed Malay-Indian or Malay-Arabs.

18.
The main source of the Malay history as we know it comes from Sejarah Melayu and Hikayat Hang Tuah whom the authors are unknown.

19.
Bangladesh was initially known as East Pakistan and the current Pakistan was West Pakistan.

20.
Christopher Columbus travelled west searching for India because the Ottomans were an obstacle for him to pass through the East.

21.
Morphine came from the word Morpheus, the Greek God of Dreams.

22.
Before 1993, the site where KLCC now stands was a horse racing track.

23.
The original native eggplant of Malaysia is white instead of purple. The purple ones were imported and commercialised by the English.

24.
A.M. Azhari, a Bruneian in exile in Kalimantan created the name UMNO.

25.
Tunku Abdul Rahman wasn't the first president of UMNO, Dato' Onn Jaafar was.

26.
The inventor of the modern toilet is John Crapper.

27.
Penang was given to Francis Light by Sultan of Kedah for a duration that ends when there are no more sun, moon and stars.

28.
The first and only king to protect Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. was a Christian King, the King of Abyssinia (a.k.a. Habshah, now Ethiopia).

29.
The first man to ride a horse is Idris, a prophet.

30.
The original symbol for Christianity wasn't a cross. It was a fish.

31.
666 and Gog & Magog in the Bible is referred to as Dajjal and Yahjuj Makjuj in the Quran, the beast and his army at end of days.

32.
Priest of Median in Bible is Prophet for people of Madyan in Quran aka Nabi Shuaib, father in-law of Moses (Nabi Musa).

33.
Who the bible refers to as Kane & Abel are Habil & Qabil in Quran, the first twins on Earth.

34.
Who Christians refer to as John the Baptist is who the Muslims call Nabi Yahya, cousin of Jesus (Nabi Isa). Peace be upon them.


Of course there are more but for the time being, this should suffice. I shall return with more in Part 2. (Note: Part 2 now available at Lest We Forget the History Part 2)




* kopihangtuah


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