October - the month of Actions!

Came October, and now gone October. Just realized I haven't blogged for 2 months! Some friends even tease me "when is ur next episode of Scientific Expedition?". I just said, "I've got no time to write la". I now realize, that writing a blog, is not that easy, when you have too many things to share, and yet to many things to do. I always wonder, why I have not enough time? Was it because I'm not good at time management? I guess so.

Well, this month have been hectic. Within two weeks, I've been away from my 'base' 2 times. First, Bangkok for Asian Youth Climate Workshop. Then, barely a few days, I'm on trip to Langkawi already. Jetlagged, but work needs to be done. People may envy me, for travelling a lot. But I always say, "this is my job, my passion...you can do the same if you really want".

To make things short, this month have the month of actions, and not just talk. It's quite inspiring how I made my mind, and decided to take bigger actions after I came back from Scientific Expedition. Thanks to Abe, who told me about 350.org, and I got a hook on it. All these while, I've been doing small small things that is not enough. Now, having the capacity with UM Cares, and eco-active friends from out of campus, I think I finally achieved something. The feeling is so different, so much different. It was even more different than getting the 'Braille walkway' done in campus. Maybe because this time I'm involved in the process of the action.

As the saying goes, picture paints a thousand words. I'll just gonna put up some link and photos to end this time's blog.

The big march in Bangkok to UN building during UNFCCC (5th Oct)

Freeze for Earth as part of our actions of awareness to push for 350 ppm of CO2 in the atm. Took place in KL Sentral and KLCC.

Thousands over candles lit in KPS,UM to mark UN day, and represent hope that we can achieve 350 ppm

The jump of joy as event ends...over the banner that I and Jimmy put on to the pole
another 350 made by shoes...so that we can feel the sand with our barefeet, and enjoy the nature before it's gone

Links to videos on youtube:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4vkNYlPIyY
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzUiwvasiUw
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfHje4RNslw
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBos7L-I43M
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTiVeSsFg8
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK-s8Q5FVNA

That many videos? Well, at least that's what my passion goes to. Lets save our Earth before its too late. Not for us, but our children's children.

Prime Scientific Expedition Voyage 2009 -The Story Begins

30th June
I boarded on a voyage, might be the only one in my life. KD Perantau was responsible to wave us thru the seas of Sulu and Celebes. This voyage, a memory i'll never forget - for both right and wrong reasons. I've seen things beyond my age, knowledge and understandings. Being on a navy survey ship, opened my eyes and changed my personal perception - on scientist and navy personels.
Felt anxious and excited. Not many would have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My task - dive and record what i observed on laid transects. Dive sites - navy bases inaccessible by civilians around Spratly Islands, open seas along the waters of Sabah up to Sipadan.


1st; 2nd July
KD Perantau started sailing. After a night's journey, out in the middle of deep blue ocean, she stopped. "Letupan! Letupan! Letupan di keladak belakang!" All of us quickly gathered at the bow. It was just a drill, incase of real emergency. But, we still see real explosion. Set up by one of the personels. Then, few of us got the chance to try out firing the stand gun to a red target.


3rd July
Sunrises, and Layang-layang island can be seen at the horizon. Excitment begins. Finally set foot in Layang-layang, dived and survived. Didn't get to see big things. But reefs were exciting. First dive - survived. 2nd dive - failed. Recovery inflatable boat was down. We had to be towed back and abort second dive. In the end, 2nd dive turned to be night dive at the jetty. Though at jetty, wonderful things can be seen. Great view.

Stayed overnite in the fisheries research centre. Nice place, but lack of water supply.



4th July
Dawn dive, around 7am. Dive at reef balls. Doesn't seemed to be working as a good artificial reef. But still manage to see different kind of corals. Next dive, near slope. Great diversity. Healthy corals. 3rd dive, in reef ball site. Again, the reef balls doesnt seem to be working. Natural reef was nearby, seems healthy. But being attacked by COT. High diversity. Saw twin spot lionfish. A kind of rare sightings.

to be continued...

Death of BM or death of Science n Maths?

As i was goin back to PD, i managed to catch a glimpse of what i call 'idiotic' protest. The protest, or better called as 'death procession' because of the fake coffin being carried while marching. I find this protest was a waste of time...and a mark of death for the future of science and mathematics in Malaysia.

Massive protestors near KTM Kuala Lumpur

While catching a glimpse of the march, i was one of the innocent victims got hit by tear gas. The wind was blowing hard, and carry the smoke of tear gas right to the place i was waiting for bus. I thought something hit my eyes...but when i saw alot of ppl rubbing their eyes, i knew it was tear gas.

Look at the smoke of the tear gas shot...

More smoke around the area...

I even managed to catch a glimpse of fire engine spraying water to disperse the crowd but it seemed unsuccessful. These ppl are stubborn. The funny thing is if they are protesting against using English in teaching Science and Maths, why are they shouting "God Almighty"? What does that have to do with BM? From that moment i knew that this was politically moved. Why are these politician so selfish and never think for the future of our students?
I find these protestors mostly are non-scientists. In scientific field, peer-review is very important in research. Almost all the journals reviewed are in English. This is very important to justify the research. If Malaysians can't master these subjects in Eng, how are we goin to compete with scientists of other countries? How are these journals being accepted into international standard when Malaysians are only competent in BM? We want our uni to be on par with other uni around the world, bt if our journals are not being reviewed by others,we will never achieve that. Besides, there are scientific terms that are not avaialble in BM, for example evolution and centrifugation. Not only tat, most of the scientific books are written in English. even Darwin's evolution theory was written in English. If they want BM as the medium, can these books be translated into BM but still maintains the same meaning and explaination? But most importantly, can they translate fast enough or it will take years to do so?

FRU truck loaded with FRU personnels

FRU personnels coming out to stop the crowd

For the sake of the future of our students, in the scientific field, English has to be used as the medium. I strongly urge, those who supports the use of English, to stand up and speak out loud...in more intellectual manner, not like these street demos. Most of them are well educated, but act like monkeys!

South China Sea Conference 2008 - A step closer to protect the marine ecosystems

For the past week, I was away attending an international conference, South China Sea Conference organised by UM, together with MOSTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovative) and MSMS (Malaysia Society of Marine Sciences). This conference is one step closer in creating transboundary and collaboration to protect one of the most diverse ecosystem, the South China Sea. It was held in Hyatt Regency, Kuantan from 25th til 28th November 2008.

I attended this conference with two mindsets...
1st: to present my work on corals on a poster.
2nd: to get more knowledge in scientific value on how to conserve the large marine ecosystem.

Expert scientists and researchers all over the world. From left: Ms Li Jianwei (China), Dr. Fadli Syamsudin (Indonesia), Dr. Tan Koh Siang (Singapore), Prof. Dr. Phan Siew Moi (UM), Dr. Kenneth Sherman (US), Prof. Vo Si Tuan (Vietnam), Dr. Koch Savath (Cambodia) and Abraham Sakili (the Phillipines).

This conference is big, as it was attended by bigshots around the world involved in marine protection, such as Dr. Kenneth Sherman (US), Director of National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Vo Si Tuan (Vietnam), COBSEA project, Dr. Tan Koh Siang (Singapore), Dr. Yasuwo Fukuyo, Prof Phang Siew Moi (UM), Director of Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences and etc from all over the world including China, UK, US, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. I was proud to have joined this conference as I get to know what efforts have been made to protect marine ecosystem in this region.

I was excited as I get to present my poster in an international conference. It's an important value for a researcher as the more scientific paper published, the higher reputation you'll get. This is a start for me, as I had my poster presented. To add further excitement, there were competition for the best poster presentation. My team, including my well respected supervisor and only expert in Malaysian corals (I reckon so) Mr. Affendi Yang Amri, Badrul Huzaimi, Nikoo Cheheltani, Munira, Poh Leem, Jia Jie, Kok Wei, Faedz (didn't attend) had posters and oral presentation during that conference. And the great news is, our team won 2 out of 3 winners in poster presentation. Mr Affendi, and myself....both winning the biological category. It was my first time winning an award in an international conference (the first i attended as well)...and guess what, the judges are from overseas, so it shows that our work are on par with other U in the world.

My poster: Effect of Jetty Pillar Orientation on Scleractinian Corals

1st pic: That's me and my supervisor, Mr Affendi. 2nd pic: Posing with Mr. Affendi's poster, one of the winner of best poster awards.


Explaining to one of the judges, Prof Dang from Vietnam


En Ismail, National Coordinator for the Large Marine Ecosystem project

Prof Dr. Gareth Jones (UK) listening to my presentation on my work.

I hope that after this conference, more of the scientists in the world will collaborate with each other to share data and protect the world's largest ecosystem, the marine ecosystem. I hope one day, I'll be able to get involved actively in protecting this fragile ecosystem.

I would also like to acknowlegde Mr. Affendi, Prof Chong, my family and siblings, my project mates, my housemates and a very important person in my life, Kuan Ching...in winning the best poster award. Thanks to all of ur support and assistance. I wouldnt have gotten the award if it wasn't because of all of you!

Middles Rock Expedition (27th - 30th Oct 08)

I never thought that I would have the chance to be the first few ppl to dive in Middles Rock, after that area was given to Malaysia (and Malaysia lost Pulau Batu Puteh to S'pore). It was a risky trip, simply because of the time of the year where monsoon is hitting, and also it was spring tide where the current is very very strong. Some may think that this is crazy or some would say, "what do we have there? there 's nothing but just rocks". Well, u'll never know when u dont get down there to see it for urself. (Unfortunately, i have no photos at the moment as i have not collected from the underwater photographers that was with us).

Middles Rock (Batuan Tengah) is just south of Pulau Batu Puteh. There are two rocks, approximately 250m apart from each other and one being bigger than the other. There were not much biological information that can be found on Middles Rock (just try to Google it). The diversity of the Middles Rock, I would say is quite high (the data collected have not been analysed, so it's not justified at the moment). Based on the Reef Check system (which I was assigned to do), it shows that the coral system there is doing quite well despite of the high siltation. The size of the massive and boulder corals are damn huge! (some are bigger than me!) So we roughly know that the corals there were not very much disturbed yet (let's hope it will remain that way) and have existed for thousands, maybe even hundred thousands of years. Surprisingly, despite of the high diversity of corals, I din managed to spot big fishes (all <>

Scientific Expedition to Pulau Aur 17 Aug - 22 Aug

It has been a tired week, last week. Had been on a scientific expedition to Pulau Aur, organized by Institute of Oceanography and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya. This expedition, was also known in short as SESMA in its third edition. But this is not the end, there are more to come in future. It was really a great experience.

The expedition started off with an early bus ride to mersing, took us bout 5 hours. Then we had to take a boat to reach at Pulau Aur. However, the journey was not easy. At first, we're on a comfortable ferry..but not even a quarter of our journey, we have to change boat (just like changing bus on land). This was due to the tide that affects the journey of different sizes of boats. For the first time, i experienced changing boats. Our luggage (not to forget this is a scientific expedition, so equipments were included) had to be shifted as well. There were not just bags, but instead there were plenty of boxes, traps, chemicals and etc. Shifting the stuff were hell of a work.

It took almost 3 hours before reachin Pulau Aur. The sea was calm, but there were bit of waves causing the boat to rock. Well, we definitely can't run away from the unpredicted condition of south china sea. Fortunately, after a rocky ride, we reached our destination safely.

The whole expedition was a great experience. I was assigned to help out in geological work, scuba diving to study the profile of the reef. At the same time, I was assigned to also collect seaweeds and seagrass as well. By the first dive, i was stunned to look at how diverse the marine life forms there. It was very beautiful and a good place for research. The high diversity and clear zonation of the different reef systems makes it an interesting place to look at. But the massive algal cover that seemed to overcrowd the corals shows that the waters are too high in nutrients. It could due to the burnt soils by the locals, whom practices nomad style of agriculture. Amazingly, there were a lot of coconut trees on the island. It seemed like there were more coconut trees than jungle. Pulau Aur also have big boulder rocks, all over the island. It was really an amazing island.

Underwater sceneries were even more amazing. First site was at Pantai Teluran, was juz amazing. However, there were no sightings of sea urchins, or algal eating inverts to control the overcrowding algae. As for the fishes, there were no big sized fishes. All are just normal and small sized fishes. The next site, in Atlantis Bay was even more breath-taking. Massive corals were found almost everywhere. It was amazing to see the white beaches, and slightly blue water (instead of greenish). The profile of the area was also unbelievable. It was rather flat, before a sudden slop right down to 20 meters...and could reach more than 40! The locals reported that whale shark were seen before pass by the island. How true, i'm not sure as there no justified evidence.

We also managed night dive. Surprisingly, just when we descend, hardly even 1 minute, we managed to spot a big cuttle fish and a long trumpet fish. As usual, for night dive, we'll be able to see sleeping fishes and active invertebrates. A lot of shy shrimps were out feeding and being active. During 2 of the night dives, managed to catch glimpse of snake eel, octopus, nudibranches. Oh, can't miss another camouflage fish, known as flounder. This expedition, managed to spot turtle, bumphead parrot fish, a large potato grouper, nudibranches. There were also plenty and massive diversity of seaweeds (now waiting for the official count of species, coz still processing in the lab). Not to forget, my interest on corals, which are very diverse. However, cant really identify to species level yet but i know that it's high in diversity.

This trip also included terrestrial biologists, which found a number of birds species, mammals, insects and also dragonflies...not to forget mushrooms and fungi. Even mushrooms are quite diverse with monkey head fungi was found in the wild. But that's not all, there are still lots more to be discovered. I hope that the natural environment will be sustainable for as long as earth lives.

This trip also given me rare experience, as i managed to spot hurricane in the sea. We managed to capture glimpse of the hurricane with cameras. Its really rare but we were able to see how the hurricane suck up water as well. The shape also changes accordingly. It's really a rare occasion. By the time we are leaving back to KL, it was already night time. For the first time I get to travel across sea at night. It was really scary but when i looked at the skies, millions of stars brighten up the dark. On the long journey back to mainland, i felt happy and excited for being able to be part of the experience. But i'm glad to say, this is what i love to do...and i'm still doing it!

*i would like to acknowledge that some of the pictures above were taken by Khaira Ismail, Azi and Dr. Azhar.

Help preserve our marine life forms

Within a month's time, i have been travelling to Tioman twice. The first time was to help a friend in her Master's research and the other time, was to carry out reef check. The last dive i did was in February. Surprisingly, within approx 5 mth's time, everything in Tioman had changed. The corals are seriously in stress due to the heavy construction along the beach. For the first time in my life, I'd seen serious bleaching of corals in depth less than 2m. To some people, this is just normal. But as for a diver, and as a person interested in corals research, i find that this phenomena is a sign that the environment is seriously changing.

Bleaching, is an event where the zooxanthellae inside corals are expelled and the corals starting to loose their natural colours turning white, just like the two pics shown top right and left (i try to briefly explain in the layman's language). Bleaching in Tioman has gone serious, with even the most robust of them all are also bleached. The only factor that may be involved or in relation with bleaching event is water temperature. The water temp for last few months have been increasing based on recorded data from a reliable source. No many people know that although with an increase of 1 degree of celsius, is already providing stress to the corals. Corals can actually be the indicator to the changes in the environment as they are very sensitive to slight changes. They are also very fragile. Some corals, would only grow bout 2 cm a year (imagine now how long a big coral have been living).

One big problem to corals in Malaysia is that not many issues and phenomena have been recorded or documented. Even that, the development that have been taking place, will always 'forget' the importance of marine life forms. For bleaching event, as far as we know, the last event was in 1998. Therefore, i hope that snorkellers, and leisure divers, would report to the authorities of any bleaching event (either Marine Parks, or any universities in Malaysia, UM, UKM, UMT or UMS). This small report would help to enhance the conservation movement around Malaysia. We can see improvements (just improvement, but still more to do) however but unfortunately, these were focused on terrestrial organisms. Many are not aware of the marine ecosystem is equally important or i would say play more important role than the terrestrial ecosystem.

Development are important, but think again, without the natural resources, will there be development? Isn't it time for all human being (especially business minded people - and i do really mean it) to stop being selfish and try to save the world. Some will go "oh my gosh, that's horrible!" and then do nothing. Small contribution is better than no contribution at all. Development will create heavy sedimentation to the seawater (refer pic on the right, the view is being blocked by sediments), and that will reduce the light received by corals. Even small particles can reflect light, what more sediments. What's the point of development, when they will destroy the environment? Its a fact that the world doesn't belong to us, but to the future generations. What we do today, may be harmful for our children. Stop being selfish, some would even think what's more important to them now, rather than the future.

Let us all pray that the corals that are facing this massive bleaching event, will be able to recover. Another information to share is that although bleaching is a catastrophe, but they are not dead yet. Corals have the ability to recover when the water temp begin to cool, where the zooxanthellae will be able to get back into the corals. This recovery event is like chasing the time. If corals are bleached for too long, they will eventually die, or when algae grows faster than the recovery rate, that's the end for the corals.