Category: Ocean

This year we experienced a couple Typhoons , hammering the reef and our house. Kristine and Pepito. Both super Typhoons that changed our reef , making them unrecognizable. The Mesa shelves that stood like trees were strewn across the reef like upturned umbrellas. The marshmallow towers that stood like high rises were swept out to sea and dropped down to the deep channels. Some survived , most gave way for new growth that quickly took advantage of the open sand and sun needed to anchor and supply warmth and energy. It’s a brand new reef. The fish and clutches of eggs abound with new life, like there was no problem. Shows the tenacious nature of sea life, just how strong the will to survive is. Here I must mention the forever chemicals and foreign matter hampering the life of everything living there in our oceans. Those things we humans place in the way of growth, stunt the size and reproductive cycles, killing everything quietly while offering an easier life for a few humans, profit above all.

Our house got hit by Kristine. Breaking down a wall along the east side and washing fill under and around the foundation. We acted quickly to repair as the next storm was already on the way. Pepito was expected to join with another Typhoon in the Pacific and become the bigger storm, maybe of the decade. Thankfully that turned north and hit in northern Luzon.

We breathed a sigh of relief and helped rebuild the crew quarters that were destroyed along with most neighbors houses along the wall. Thanks to the crew, neighbors and family we are doing well now. Anyayahan , Welcome friends, is the boat that crosses to Calapan, Mindoro. Best crew, captain and safest passing. I recommend the trip to anyone visiting the area.

Our next visit will be to Isla Verde, the dense reefs boasting 2000 species of fish and over 2500 coral types alone. Shallow waters make snorkeling a pleasure for the novice as well as professional divers. the deep comes quick and current can take you off quickly so stay aware of your surroundings. Even so there are football size areas in waters 2 to 4 meters allowing sun rays to show a brilliance of color. Great for cameras. Isla Verde sits in the middle of the Tiburon channel flowing from the Visayas to Batangas and on to Manila. There’s another reef we plan to visit just west of us, before mount Maria. I’ve heard very positive reports of their reef and resorts. Better keep my camera charged. I’ll post a report on that reef after the holidays. We’re excited to be home and so many things have kept us from reporting but there are no excuses only the job at hand. Giving you the information and passing it along to others interested in saving our environment has no price tag. Thank you all for following.

We hope to bring family along on more expeditions, being divers from young we old timers have to keep up with the grand kids. Some were babies when we started this site and our pride of their growth and knowledge is amazing to us. Watching them teach others and grow confidence among their piers looks like a generation of new thought and action here in the eye of life among the waves. Our world is vast yet small enough to be a baby among planets. There isn’t anyplace we’ve found remotely like Earth. We despairatly need to help it, and us survive the pollution frivously cast like dumped garbage. to ignore it any longer is a death sentence we can’t afford. I’m sure you’ve heard we’re on the cusp of no return. If you’re not part of the solution now, maybe it’s time to think about joining.

By 2050 our plastic industry will triple. Just over 20 years and there won’t be anything living without plastic in their system . There is no way to pick up every piece of debris. There are methods of biodegradable material to be used instead though. Who cares if the plastic can last forever if we’re all long gone before it’s tarnished and lost it’s shiny gloss? Recycling is a fiction made up to keep green believers busy looking the other way. Fish species have shrunk in size and population and that’s been cast as to many people while it’s the chemicals dumped in our oceans by the tons and tons unchecked. Every time we ban one chemical there are ten more to take it’s place. The game isn’t a game we want to play. Switch and bate has to stop, be exposed and there are people now willing to listen. Sound your voice and write your leaders. Gather together and shout about what’s costing your life and those coming after us. You can see it above the waves just as well as below the oceans. PLEASE HELP!

HERE WE GO WITH THE RACE OF THE YEAR. No I’m not talking about the swim race from Lobo to Isla Verdi, I’m talking about the birthing of thousands of baby turtles hatching. Such excitement is a once a year event held throughout the beaches in the South China Sea. Extending to Australia and up to Viet Nam. Maybe I forgot some special areas within the egg laying beaches that are none the less producing hundreds if not thousands of turtles every year. Yay to the tenacity of these great world explorers.

When they hatch they immediately head for the ocean . People excitedly gather , party and help the little critters find their home out there. What a big home it is indeed. Turtles have been recorded in every ocean , tagged as far away as north Pacific coast from hatching in Indonesia , almost 12,000 miles away and still growing. In Japan they eat their fill of giant Jellyfish the Man O War along with kelp, coral and balancing the ecosystem to what used to be normal. Until the advent of plastic in our oceans the job they do went unnoticed. Now we’re faced with massive hatchings of Jellies and less turtles to eat them . So , Jellie’s are on the menu in Japan . No doubt they wish it could be quality fish , unpolluted by mercury and radioactive pollution but nope now they get Jellyfish. yum.

In such a short time our protective organizations have turned a blind eye to the problems we all face, but that’s nothing new as we find how upper crust society gobbles down the prime and leaves the bones for world populations to fight over. Look over there has become the battle cry every time a disaster strikes , but that the opposite way from the disaster at hand. So no change here. Only that fishing catches produce smaller fish and lesser catches than just ten years ago. The research has been dumped by the control polls that would be astounding if released. yep we’re not seeing the food on the shelves and what there is happens to be to expensive to buy. Get your credit card ready, pay the 22% interest and have a tasty bait fish for dinner. Hey this is about turtles!! Well they are so special in our ecosystem books have been written about their importance. Turtles help groom the reefs for eggs to grow properly. Turtles can live over a hundred years and produce thousands of eggs in their lifetime. Such a titan of the sea should be honored and watched so we can follow their lead. Why would such a long lived animal produce such massive hatchlings and live so long? Because the world needs them that badly , without the mighty turtle our oceans would quickly fall out of balance with nature. Just as the shark is misunderstood , so is the turtle. Protected against virtually everything by it’s shell. A true survivor , a grazer , peaceful and gentle, the turtle stands alone.

There is a great threat not only to the turtle but all life here and that is plastic. Plastic has been spread like peanut butter all over the planet. Spread like a freak that just don’t care. unmonitored and toxic at levels beyond a livable amount. Why ? If it’s so bad , why haven’t any of our world policing groups acknowledged it? As the turtles graze they like to add protein to their diet, jellyfish is perfect. digesting the jellies is easy with some coral and sea grass in your gut. Not so for plastic. They become clogged with indigestible plastic and soon die of starvation with a full stomach. It must be one of the worst ways to die, painful , confusing , energy depleting , slow deaths with a 100% kill rate. So again I ask WHY ? Why hide these facts in the news and under waters that provide life for the planet. It’s a war on us all. All Life, animal, bug, foliage and trees harmed by plastic and chemicals dumped frivolously , nilly come hither, anywhere they won’t be seen doing so. Like third world countries. People we trust in places they think we won’t know. Help, I’m sinking in a sea of pollutants along with my loving turtles. They don’t understand any better than I do. It’s not to late to call or write your legislature about this huge problem that combined with the other world catastrophes lessen our chances of survival. Do the elites think their immune to end of world events?

Love all All love

Hello everyone, We’ve returned from the north most point in the main Island of Luzon, Philippines. Searching for that perfect spot to take guests and send tourists. We found a few, Vigan was our first stop with cobble stone streets, empanadas, bagnet and old buildings. They also have a Zoo , holding many exotic animals . a white Tiger was a favorite, with picture taking tourists willing to sit in a pose. The beaches were further up north in Ilocos Norte.

From there we traveled north to Pagudpod, past the windmills. A small community, Saud, was our next stop, on the beach. It is a growing barangay along beautiful beaches, just right for swimming and sun. plenty of good food and friendly people. Many fishing boats adorn the coast but not much boat tourism yet. The fish and coral along the beaches were sparse, possibly due to open current and lack of protection in the north China Sea. I was told just north takes you to Taiwan, but it’s a small Island and easy to miss. Don’t try swimming , you’d likely be cast away. From there we turned south again and spent time in Ilocos Sur at Candon. They grow a lot of Tobacco there, among other crops of corn and peanuts. Just developing tourism, it’s a larger city compared to Saud and has much to offer. While there we learned to roll cigars from an 85 year old woman who told stories of the Japanese invasion of WW2. It was a most delightful part of our journey. You can buy pre-rolled cigars in the public market if you prefer, probably better than any I rolled.

The beach was nice as usual. Sand and light surf , warm water made for good swimming but again not much coral so not many fish species. I found a few shells , found a crab or two, some sea weed and what looked like peas growing on sea vines. I was told the pea type weed was medicinal, good for the prostate I believe.

Again we loaded the van and traveled to Bauang. After securing a room we took a day trip up into the mountains to Baguio City. Not what I expected. Traveling through the mountains I though we would find a small mountain town nestled among ridges in possibly a valley or along a river. What I found to be there was a city as large as any along the coast or inland, with houses and commercial buildings built up into the mountainside, some quasi flat areas but usually up or down with every step. musicians playing along the streets, two parks and a zoo. There just didn’t seem to be an end to the curiosities that cropped up right around every turn. The entire drive from one park to the next was manicured and I asked at one point if we were still in the park. It was beautiful. Being only a day trip wasn’t enough for the visit. I recommend spending a couple days there to ingest the full flavor and view of Baguio.

We returned to Bauang, La Union, enjoyed the beach and ocean there , resting for our return to Lobo Batangas the next day. I hadn’t found and tour guides yet and even though Bauang was a large city it seemed to be growing for tourism. Plenty of open beach and privacy. We had passed through San Fernando heading both directions and that was a hot spot for younger surfers as the waves were larger and surfable. It’s a known destination for the action crowd and did seem like a fun pace to be. In La Union and not far from where we stayed, I recommend touring there if your holidaying along the north coast.

The trip was wonderful, colorful and informative for sure. Upon returning to the reef in Lobo I celebrated with a snorkel dive among the ever enhancing forest in our back yard. Being thankful for what we have right here at home. Isla Verde stands out like a beacon of good hope to the world as the reef forest lies below unnoticed by the world passing by above. What a trade off of 02 to oxygen we have and nurseries of fish species propagating here is unparalleled anywhere we’ve been. Thank the creator for sending us to this home .

For over four weeks now there’s been an oil spill in Oriental Mindoro, sunken ship with no permits that no media cares to report. Over 800,000 liters of industrial fuel, oil, pouring from the ruptures in a tanker that shouldn’t have been sailing let alone carrying toxic oil in the seas of the Philippines. This ship has failed to pass required checks since September 2022. The name of the ship is Princess Empress, owned by R D C Reield Marine Services. Sailing from Limay, Bataan going to Iloilo. After a month the information concerning the owners being linked to San Miguel Corporation even the type of fuel has been masked by goverrnment agencies and main street Media.

Fishing has been halted from Palawan, Batangas and parts of Oriental Mindoro. This is a major spill that deserves world attention yet has been covered up by big agencies paid off or in affiliation with the disaster. Such acts should not go unnoticed or unpenalized. The blame is clear for the world to see but hasn’t been given the proper legal attention by court or government. These atrocities have been thrown into a basket of world offenses we the people are expected to absorb with a spoon full of lemon. The taste holds in our mouths like oil has been mixed with it. The straight truth is much easier to swallow. Without fish we starve, without reefs we suffocate, as these dirty deeds seem to become normal. When will it stop, when will we have our world back ?

Isla Verde is a protected sanctuary along the straight, west of the spill. Weakening of the North West winds causes the oil to flow Northward toward the Island passage. the damage is expected to last for years. These winds are expected to push the spill to provincial capital Calapan City, the Verde Island and some parts of Batangas Province. Barriers have been placed along reefs through the passage. The spill is expected to affect 20,000 hectares of coral reefs, 9,900 hectares of mangroves and 6,000 hectares of sea grass, most of which are found in the marine ecosystems in Pola in Mindoro, Caluya in Antique and the Cuya Group of Islands. After a month of neglect the Philippine and Japanese marine salvage operation has begun. that is a step in recovery. the Senate legislation 518 chapter 4 section F protects ecosystems world wide in a number of ways. If the offender or corporation is knowingly involved in dumping any toxic or harmful substance they are held responsible for damages done. The fine is minimal and almost a joke as the cleanup effort will cost millions and take years to repair. What effort can we address at this early stage of recovery? Inform the public for one. Address the spill with human involvement, elbow grease, and begin filtering the ocean as aggressively as possible. Tighten regulations and impose fines enough to fit the crimes. Inspections of sea fairing vessels that carry toxic substances and a possible ban on water transport of these substances.

This is the worst disaster involving our ecosystem in the Philippines we have ever faced and to berate the importance of such a disaster is a crime in itself. Without our precious reefs, our fish nurseries that replenish the great oceans we would all be lost. All countries should be outraged by this event . I can’t believe the coverup by such corrupt enterprises ignoring, covering their tracks and hiding the truth from us all . This is not acceptable in any way shape or form and needs to be dealt with with a heavy hand . Enough Is Enough !

Deep-sea trawling is destroying coral reefs and pristine marine habitats

A survey of the world’s reefs and submerged mountains has revealed widespread damage from deep-sea trawling

Deep-sea trawling is devastating corals and pristine marine habitats that have gone untouched since the last ice age, a leading marine biologist has warned.read more