2007/05/31
2007/05/27
潛游頻道推介好書！潛水員及拍友好幫手！
潛水員完成潛水活動回到船上或潛水渡假中心，都會與朋友談論所見所聞，但很多時候都不能說出所見的生物名稱，現在沒有以上的煩惱了。一本集合1,200種魚類品種的書籍《A Diver’s Guide to Reef Life》以全彩色印刷，內容介紹魚類聚居地方、體積、水深和魚類分析。頁數達480頁，精裝印刷，潛水員的恩物。
另一本以馬來西亞細小海洋生物爲背景的潛水書《A Diver’s Guide to Underwater Malaysia Macrolife》，記錄了600個品種之多，圖文並茂，色彩豐富，全書共470頁，精裝印刷。馬來西亞可以說是潛水天堂，水下生物品種繁多，確是水下拍友的樂土，無論你是潛水愛好者或喜歡水下攝影朋友，收藏此書樂趣無窮。
2007/05/25
2007/05/22
2007/05/21
2007/05/20
戀上日本沖繩伊江島6-28至7月5日
沖繩（Okinawa）位於日本最南端，古稱琉球，素有「日本夏威夷」之稱，首府為那霸(Naha)。沖繩自古與中國大陸淵源甚廣，深受中國文化影響。沖繩為熱帶海洋氣候，碧海藍天，擁有眾多美麗的島嶼、珊瑚礁和沙灘。沖繩是渡假和潛水聖地，旅遊景點豐富。
何不親臨沖繩的水下世界，品嚐日本美食，戀戀沖繩一番？結伴同行，你還要等什麼？速來沖繩潛水，寫下你的潛水遊記吧！
2007/05/19
2007/05/17
2007/05/16
Protecting Tioman marine life
A total of 270 divers participated in the event then which saw them laying some 50 reef balls on the seabed for corals to grow. .....Good!
2007/05/15
2007/05/13
Military divers set to cleanup of tire 'reef' off Florida coast
軍事潛水者將檢索在70年代Fort Lauderdale的海底，數以萬計放於海底的輪胎，當時人為礁石似乎像一個好想法，現在。。。
山東漁民捕獲一條罕見大鯊魚
山東漁民在近海捕魚時，捕獲一條長4.5米，周長2.6米左右，重1260斤的大鯊魚。近海捕獲如此巨大的大鯊魚非常少見。
＃＃我個人觀感可能近岸有大量魚血吸引、外圍獵物少或海洋溫室的改變令牠改變了捕獵範圍。如再捕獲要多加留意！！！
tank
＃＃我個人觀感可能近岸有大量魚血吸引、外圍獵物少或海洋溫室的改變令牠改變了捕獵範圍。如再捕獲要多加留意！！！
tank
嘉陵江發現的最大個體的胭脂魚
嘉陵江中捕到一條遍體通紅而頭部似雄獅的“美人魚”。該魚體長1.35米，重達35公斤。經專家鑒定，這條“美人魚”系國家二類水生野生保護動物胭脂魚，也是最近二十年來嘉陵江發現的最大個體的胭脂魚。
2007/05/12
2007/05/10
Thailand Travel & Dive Expo
Thailand Travel & Dive Expo 2007
Dates & Time: 24 – 27 May 2007 : 11.00 AM. – 08.00 PM.
Venue: Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok Thailand
Thailand Travel & Dive Expo 2007, two major expositions of activities and equipment related to travel and diving trip, the new tourism trends in accord with changing behavior of tourists who wish to stay in close touch with nature. This is also in line with the world trend of eco-tourism, seen in various different forms of adventure travels, from kayaking, rock climbing, camping, to scuba diving, now popular among conservationists and tourists who wish to experience natural treasures under the sea, be they Stag-horn Coral, Ring Coral, plus colorful coral fish, all fascinating for tourists, who return again and again.
At the event, you will meet dive operators, dive resort, interesting package tours, and diving courses at various levels, offered at special prices that cannot be found at any other events throughout the year. The special activities are “The 3rd TDEX Underwater Photo Contest” and “The 2nd Thailand Travel Photo Contest”.
Coral reefs biodiversity, importance, and conservation
A hidden city in the underwater environment in need of urgent global action
A brief characterisation
Coral reefs have been growing in the world's oceans for more than 450 million years. They constitute massive and bulky structures that shelter not only fascinating biological communities but are also the largest geological structures on the planet that have been formed by living organisms. With the exception of some cold water species, the reef building or hermatypic corals are extremely sensitive to thermal gradients, and only manage to grow where the water temperature does not fall below 21 °C or rise significantly above this temperature. As a consequence coral reefs are restricted to tropical waters (roughly 30° S to 32° N) and are not found on the westward facing coasts of landmasses since these are areas of upwelling that bring cold deep water to the surface, lowering the water to lethal temperatures. Coral reefs around the world are one of the most spectacular underwater environments, benefiting people and the natural world far beyond their boundaries. 
These natural wonders are complex ecosystems supporting a remarkable diversity of life, safeguarding human settlements, economies and cultures, fostering tourism jobs and opportunities, acting as safe harbours, protecting against erosion, and providing food to sustain local diets. They contain 10 % of the world’s fishing harvest, playing a key role in nutrient cycling, and holding in secret the prospect of scientific and medical advances we are only beginning to discover.
The threatened tropical ecosystem: a coral reef-mangrove linkage
The world’s coral reefs and associated seagrass and mangrove habitats are in serious jeopardy, threatened by an increasing array of over-exploitation, pollution, habitat destruction, invasive species, disease, bleaching and global climate change. The rapid decline of these ancient, complex and biologically diverse marine ecosystems has significant social, economic and environmental impacts around the world. Coral reefs are among the most diverse and biologically complex ecosystems on earth. These rainforests of the sea provide economic and environmental services to millions of people as areas of natural beauty and recreation, sources of food, jobs, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and shoreline protection. Now under threat from multiple stresses that are overwhelming their natural resilience, coral reefs are deteriorating worldwide at alarming rates.
Conservation strategies must take into account that coral reefs as a whole do not act in isolation. As scientific studies progress, we are aware that these complex systems are linked to other biologically significant entities as for example mangroves and sea grass communities. Mangrove forests are one of the world’s most threatened tropical ecosystems with global loss exceeding 35 %. Juvenile coral reef fish and other creatures in early stages often inhabit mangroves, which seem to be unexpectedly important, serving as an intermediate nursery habitat for protection that may increase the survivorship of young fish as well as providing enough food resources, guarantying an efficient development. Mangroves i.e., in the Caribbean strongly influence the community structure of fish on neighbouring coral reefs. In addition, the biomass of several commercially important species is more than doubled when adult habitat is connected to mangrove.
Current research shows indeed that extensive mangrove habitat scan enhance the biomass of fishes and other creatures on coral reefs because tropical coastal ecosystems seem to be functionally linked. Although precise corridors of connectivity between habitats are not fully understood as yet, the results have an important implication for conservation planning: management schemes should explicitly protect areas of connected habitats rather than simply identify representative areas of each habitat in isolation. A multi-ecosystem approach with open connexions to other would-be important habitats should be at the core of the policies to ensure the protection of not only the coral reefs, but also of the entities directly linked to their existence.
Coral reefs valuable services to the world
- Tourism: the tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy. Reefs are a major destination for snorkelers, scuba divers, recreational fishers, boaters and sun seekers. Diving tours, fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reefs provide millions of jobs.
- Fishing: i.e., in developing countries, coral reefs contribute about one-quarter of the total fish catch, providing food to an estimated one billion people in Asia alone as an example.
- Coastal protection: coral reefs buffer adjacent shorelines from wave action and prevent erosion, property damage and loss of life. Reefs also protect the highly productive mangrove fisheries and wetlands along the coast, as well as ports and harbours and the economies they support.
- Biodiversity: reefs support at least a million described species of animals and plants, including about 4,000 documented species of fish and 800 species of hard corals. Another 8 million coral reef species are estimated to be as yet undiscovered. In many ways, coral reefs rival and surpass tropical rainforests in their natural wonder and biological diversity and complexity.
- Natural heritage: coral reefs are an important part of our natural heritage, rivalling the longevity or complexity of some treasured land-based resources and national parks. For example, a well-developed reef may be the manifestation of thousands of years of incremental accretion by its resident coral colonies, sometimes growing only millimetres each year. Many coral species have no known limit on colony size or age and may continue growing indefinitely in favourable habitats.
Dangers to coral reefs
- Pollution, including eutrophication and sedimentation from poor or overly intensive land use, chemical loading, oil and chemical spills, marine debris and invasive alien species.
- Over-fishing and over-exploitation of coral reef species for recreational and commercial purposes, and the collateral damage and degradation to habitats and ecosystems from fishing activities.
- Destructive fishing practices, such as cyanide and dynamite fishing that can destroy large sections of reef.
- Dredging and shoreline modification in connection with coastal navigation or development.
- Vessel groundings and anchoring that directly destroy corals and reef framework.
- Disease outbreaks that are increasing in frequency and are affecting a greater diversity of coral reef species. In some cases these diseases have jumped from land-based entities to coral reefs.
- Global climate change and associated impacts including increased coral bleaching, mortality, storm frequency, and sea level rise.
Strategies regarding the conservation of coral reefs
- Understanding of coral reef dynamics: monitoring of coral reef habitats should be implemented, supporting strategic research on regional threats to coral reef health and the underlying ecological processes upon which they depend, always incorporating the human dimension into conservation and management strategies.
- Control the volume of threatening human activities: stronger networks of federal, state and territorial coral reef Marine Protected Areas should be proposed, reducing the adverse impacts of extractive uses, declining habitat destruction, and pollution, restoring damaged reefs, strengthening international activities and reducing the impacts of international trade in coral reef specie just to name a few measures.
- Science-based ecosystem approaches: coral reef conservation strategies should be based on a scientific framework, recognizing and building policies upon important linkages among adjacent and remote habitats associated with coral reefs.
- Incorporate the human dimension into conservation: management measures should reflect and be sensitive to the local socio-economic and cultural environments. It should be enhanced by all means the presence of a well-informed and educated public, which recognizes and is engaged in choosing reliable alternative options to harmful activities that may eventually impinge on their own community welfare.
- Global leadership and recognition: worldwide awareness and recognition of the problem at a community and individual level. International cooperation, technical and development assistance with a strong building and collaborative capacity.
Mr. Mario Lebrato
Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography
National Oceanography Centre
University of Southampton
www.noc.soton.ac.uk
ml1104@soton.ac.uk
＊相片內容版權Mr. Mario Lebrato所有，不可轉載。
**中文譯本刊於＜潛游頻道＞第三期，www.diverchannel.com
A brief characterisation
Coral reefs have been growing in the world's oceans for more than 450 million years. They constitute massive and bulky structures that shelter not only fascinating biological communities but are also the largest geological structures on the planet that have been formed by living organisms. With the exception of some cold water species, the reef building or hermatypic corals are extremely sensitive to thermal gradients, and only manage to grow where the water temperature does not fall below 21 °C or rise significantly above this temperature. As a consequence coral reefs are restricted to tropical waters (roughly 30° S to 32° N) and are not found on the westward facing coasts of landmasses since these are areas of upwelling that bring cold deep water to the surface, lowering the water to lethal temperatures. Coral reefs around the world are one of the most spectacular underwater environments, benefiting people and the natural world far beyond their boundaries. 
These natural wonders are complex ecosystems supporting a remarkable diversity of life, safeguarding human settlements, economies and cultures, fostering tourism jobs and opportunities, acting as safe harbours, protecting against erosion, and providing food to sustain local diets. They contain 10 % of the world’s fishing harvest, playing a key role in nutrient cycling, and holding in secret the prospect of scientific and medical advances we are only beginning to discover. The threatened tropical ecosystem: a coral reef-mangrove linkage
The world’s coral reefs and associated seagrass and mangrove habitats are in serious jeopardy, threatened by an increasing array of over-exploitation, pollution, habitat destruction, invasive species, disease, bleaching and global climate change. The rapid decline of these ancient, complex and biologically diverse marine ecosystems has significant social, economic and environmental impacts around the world. Coral reefs are among the most diverse and biologically complex ecosystems on earth. These rainforests of the sea provide economic and environmental services to millions of people as areas of natural beauty and recreation, sources of food, jobs, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and shoreline protection. Now under threat from multiple stresses that are overwhelming their natural resilience, coral reefs are deteriorating worldwide at alarming rates. 
Conservation strategies must take into account that coral reefs as a whole do not act in isolation. As scientific studies progress, we are aware that these complex systems are linked to other biologically significant entities as for example mangroves and sea grass communities. Mangrove forests are one of the world’s most threatened tropical ecosystems with global loss exceeding 35 %. Juvenile coral reef fish and other creatures in early stages often inhabit mangroves, which seem to be unexpectedly important, serving as an intermediate nursery habitat for protection that may increase the survivorship of young fish as well as providing enough food resources, guarantying an efficient development. Mangroves i.e., in the Caribbean strongly influence the community structure of fish on neighbouring coral reefs. In addition, the biomass of several commercially important species is more than doubled when adult habitat is connected to mangrove.
Current research shows indeed that extensive mangrove habitat scan enhance the biomass of fishes and other creatures on coral reefs because tropical coastal ecosystems seem to be functionally linked. Although precise corridors of connectivity between habitats are not fully understood as yet, the results have an important implication for conservation planning: management schemes should explicitly protect areas of connected habitats rather than simply identify representative areas of each habitat in isolation. A multi-ecosystem approach with open connexions to other would-be important habitats should be at the core of the policies to ensure the protection of not only the coral reefs, but also of the entities directly linked to their existence.
Coral reefs valuable services to the world
- Tourism: the tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy. Reefs are a major destination for snorkelers, scuba divers, recreational fishers, boaters and sun seekers. Diving tours, fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reefs provide millions of jobs.
- Fishing: i.e., in developing countries, coral reefs contribute about one-quarter of the total fish catch, providing food to an estimated one billion people in Asia alone as an example.
- Coastal protection: coral reefs buffer adjacent shorelines from wave action and prevent erosion, property damage and loss of life. Reefs also protect the highly productive mangrove fisheries and wetlands along the coast, as well as ports and harbours and the economies they support.
- Biodiversity: reefs support at least a million described species of animals and plants, including about 4,000 documented species of fish and 800 species of hard corals. Another 8 million coral reef species are estimated to be as yet undiscovered. In many ways, coral reefs rival and surpass tropical rainforests in their natural wonder and biological diversity and complexity.
- Natural heritage: coral reefs are an important part of our natural heritage, rivalling the longevity or complexity of some treasured land-based resources and national parks. For example, a well-developed reef may be the manifestation of thousands of years of incremental accretion by its resident coral colonies, sometimes growing only millimetres each year. Many coral species have no known limit on colony size or age and may continue growing indefinitely in favourable habitats.
Dangers to coral reefs
- Pollution, including eutrophication and sedimentation from poor or overly intensive land use, chemical loading, oil and chemical spills, marine debris and invasive alien species.
- Over-fishing and over-exploitation of coral reef species for recreational and commercial purposes, and the collateral damage and degradation to habitats and ecosystems from fishing activities.
- Destructive fishing practices, such as cyanide and dynamite fishing that can destroy large sections of reef.
- Dredging and shoreline modification in connection with coastal navigation or development.
- Vessel groundings and anchoring that directly destroy corals and reef framework.
- Disease outbreaks that are increasing in frequency and are affecting a greater diversity of coral reef species. In some cases these diseases have jumped from land-based entities to coral reefs.
- Global climate change and associated impacts including increased coral bleaching, mortality, storm frequency, and sea level rise.
Strategies regarding the conservation of coral reefs
- Understanding of coral reef dynamics: monitoring of coral reef habitats should be implemented, supporting strategic research on regional threats to coral reef health and the underlying ecological processes upon which they depend, always incorporating the human dimension into conservation and management strategies.
- Control the volume of threatening human activities: stronger networks of federal, state and territorial coral reef Marine Protected Areas should be proposed, reducing the adverse impacts of extractive uses, declining habitat destruction, and pollution, restoring damaged reefs, strengthening international activities and reducing the impacts of international trade in coral reef specie just to name a few measures.
- Science-based ecosystem approaches: coral reef conservation strategies should be based on a scientific framework, recognizing and building policies upon important linkages among adjacent and remote habitats associated with coral reefs.
- Incorporate the human dimension into conservation: management measures should reflect and be sensitive to the local socio-economic and cultural environments. It should be enhanced by all means the presence of a well-informed and educated public, which recognizes and is engaged in choosing reliable alternative options to harmful activities that may eventually impinge on their own community welfare.
- Global leadership and recognition: worldwide awareness and recognition of the problem at a community and individual level. International cooperation, technical and development assistance with a strong building and collaborative capacity.
Mr. Mario LebratoDepartment of Marine Biology and Oceanography
National Oceanography Centre
University of Southampton
www.noc.soton.ac.uk
ml1104@soton.ac.uk
＊相片內容版權Mr. Mario Lebrato所有，不可轉載。
**中文譯本刊於＜潛游頻道＞第三期，www.diverchannel.com
2007/05/08
蘭卡央島潛水之旅
蘭卡央島(Lankayan Island)細小而獨立於水平線上，是最接近菲律賓的馬來小島。長年駐有馬來西亞海陸兩軍及警察，還有高速炮艇，他們除了保護遊客外，最主要的任務乃確保沒有漁民靠近捕魚或違法使用魚炮等的活動。
靛藍環礁，幼滑白色沙灘抱著綠翠央然的樹林，如天然混成的木建小舍(Chalet)衹隱約露出屋角，一片詳和平靜。長長的碼頭盡處是船泊和潛水中心的所在地，出租的潛具大部份都是新置的型號，非常整齊方便。
島上建築都是採用「珍貴的木材」(Brilliant Wood)，據說百年不變。
蘭卡央島是潛水好地方，潛水設備相當齊全。第一個潛點：South Point。一下水，約20米處已看到約十多條小魟魚(ray)在水裡奔馳，自由安逸。
五彩繽紛的珊瑚，不同品種的海兔、魚類、小丑魚和星斑等。導潛更看到大型的後頜鱚魚(jawfish)，馬上通知我們。牠頭部約四至五吋闊，真的很大，我從未見過（我見識少！）。出發到第二個潛點：Froggie Fort。身旁多種魚兒與你同游，
突然左邊傳來噹噹聲，導潛有所發現，原來是幾隻大龍蝦，真的很大，約四斤重左右。一尾護士鯊正在大珊瑚下休息，不同種類的海兔卻是我的最愛。島主是馬來籍華人，經營四間渡假村，深知環保就是資產和主要收入源頭，所以投入大量人力物力去確保這地區的天然資源免受傷害。我們都心存感激，代表海洋生物向他說聲謝謝。
圍繞蘭卡央島附近，安裝了定位的沈澱監測器，收集珊瑚礁的沈澱率，有助研究珊瑚礁的死亡率和其因素。
＊相片內容版權©Diverchannel.com所有，不可轉載。
完全版本，請看潛遊頻道零七年三月號
www.diverchannel.com
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