30th August 2015
This
year’s Swim for Sharks was another amazing success. First of all we
would like to thank Rachel for organising the event, Shark Guardians who
came to give a presentation and show their support, Scotty for roasting
us up two pigs on a spit for the meal at the after party, but mostly
for the kids who came down to show their support and the swimmers and
snorkelers who participate in the swim. The money raised will go to
Shark Guardians and Sea Shepherd.
The
day started with the young children who came to swim in the pool and
play games and have their faces painted, there were also giant sharks
made out of sand on the beach (which actually survived all night until
the tide came in).
The
swim around Koh Nang Yuan is 3.6km or 3600 metres, just to put that
into some perspective that’s 72 lengths of an Olympic size pool or 144
lengths of your typical 25m swimming pool in most leisure centres, or
300 lengths of our Big Blue confined pool! We couldn’t have asked for
better conditions, the sea around Koh Nang Yuan was completely flat. A
small current around by Green Rock on to the final leg of the swim
pushed the swimmers in the last few metres. The competitors who raced
went off first, then the snorkelers followed by the fun swimmers.
Our very own Nick Bufton had decided that beating his personal best of 54 minutes was his main goal, not surprising as his main competitor was one of Mojos DMTs from New Zealand’s National Swim team who just missed out on qualifiers to The Rio Olympics and decided to go travelling instead! Nick lost obviously but he smashed his PB by 6 minutes, coming in at 48 minutes 45 seconds, only 3 minutes behind the professional Kiwi swimmer. Needless to say we are all extremely proud of him and his efforts for this fantastic event as we are for everyone else who took part.(Far too many names to write).
Our very own Nick Bufton had decided that beating his personal best of 54 minutes was his main goal, not surprising as his main competitor was one of Mojos DMTs from New Zealand’s National Swim team who just missed out on qualifiers to The Rio Olympics and decided to go travelling instead! Nick lost obviously but he smashed his PB by 6 minutes, coming in at 48 minutes 45 seconds, only 3 minutes behind the professional Kiwi swimmer. Needless to say we are all extremely proud of him and his efforts for this fantastic event as we are for everyone else who took part.(Far too many names to write).
Koh
Taos infamous Trigger fish claimed a few victims along the route
stopping to nibble and head-butt the swimmers as they swam over them.
FACT more people have been attacked by Trigger Fish than a shark on Koh
Tao, probably because there are no more sharks left on Koh Tao as they
have been over fished and served up in soups and in restaurants around
Samui!
The
evening event was just as fun seeing the traditional charity head
shaving. Poor Jai Kennedy had his whole head shaved and now he looks
like the end of a dirty cotton bud. But the money raised from just last
night’s antics came to 75,000 baht and that not with what was raised for
the actual swim and t-shirt sales.
So again a massive Sharky fin thank you to everyone involved.
So again a massive Sharky fin thank you to everyone involved.
10th August 2015
We
have all been pretty slammed with work over the busy July as it is
always our busiest time of the year, what with everyone being on their
summer holidays. So apologies for not keeping the latest news updated,
just not enough hours in the day for me to do it but I’m back now.
This
time of year we tend to get some small jelly fish looking things wash
up on the beach which then as the tide starts to go out they are left
behind and the sun cooks leaving the beach stinking.
They are not jellyfish at all but are called Salps, and unbelievably interesting and important they are…
Salps are part of a group called tunicates, members of this group have a kind of primitive backbone, which jellies lack and no stinging cells. The animals can also "give birth" to long chains of clones, and recent research finds that they may actually be a weapon against global warming.
Salps are part of a group called tunicates, members of this group have a kind of primitive backbone, which jellies lack and no stinging cells. The animals can also "give birth" to long chains of clones, and recent research finds that they may actually be a weapon against global warming.
Part
of their life cycle involves asexual budding, where one salp creates a
chain of hermaphroditic clones that stay connected, (imagine that, what
shall I be today? male? Female? Na lets be both!!!) The chains in some
species can get up to 15 meters long. Sometimes, the salp chain comes
out in shapes; one species creates a wheel of salps, while another
species organizes its chains into a double helix.
Eventually,
the salp chains break apart. All the individuals that are released turn
into females containing one egg. Males from a previous generation of
salps will fertilize the females, producing an embryo. The "mother" then
develops testes and goes on to fertilize the eggs of other nearby
salps, all while the embryo continues to grow inside of it. That embryo
eventually pops out and grows up to create another chain of clones.
Salps' cloning tendencies also let them take advantage of algae blooms. The animals gorge themselves on the algae and pump out chains of salp babies. All that eating also produces large fecal pellets that sink rapidly, as much as a thousand meters a day.
Salps' cloning tendencies also let them take advantage of algae blooms. The animals gorge themselves on the algae and pump out chains of salp babies. All that eating also produces large fecal pellets that sink rapidly, as much as a thousand meters a day.
This is a salp's secret weapon against climate change. The algae that they eat uses carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to grow and we produce a lot of it! The salps then eat the algae and all that carbon. When the animals produce their pellets, that carbon sinks to the bottom of the ocean where it's essentially removed from the carbon cycle.
Essentially, salps repackage carbon into big pieces that sink very quickly into the ocean, it's natures unique way of trying to balance out how much CO2 is in the atmosphere.
So as stinky as they are and they feel like squishy crushed grapes when you walk on them after they have been washed up, these little critters are vital to our planet and seeing the swarms of them just goes to show how much we have polluted our planet.
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