Thresher Shark at White Beach

Our lovely dive master Maricel just came back for a dive at White Beach. We had already several whale shark encounters this week. But this time we had something special, a huge tresher shark. Unfortunatly Maricel dirdn’t bring her camera on this dive. This encounter is insofar uncommon since Moalboal is not known for thresher sharks. There are there, but usually only seen by out Tekkies in depth greater than 70m. The picture you see here is courtesy of Achim from www.artifishal.com, who visisted us some years ago.

Here is some info on thresher sharks from Wikipedia:

Named for and easily recognised by their exceptionally long, thresher-like tail or caudal fins (which account for 1/3 (33%) of their total body length), thresher sharks are active predators; the tail is actually used as a weapon to stun prey. By far the largest of the three species is the Common thresher, Alopias vulpinus, which may reach a length of 7.6 m (25 ft) and a weight of 348 kg (767 lb). The Bigeye thresher, Alopias superciliosus, is next in size, reaching a length of 4.9 m (16 ft); at just 3 m (10 ft), the Pelagic thresher, Alopias pelagicus, is the smallest. Thresher sharks are fairly slender, with small dorsal fins and large, recurved pectoral fins. With the exception of the Bigeye thresher, these sharks have relatively small eyes. Coloration ranges from brownish, bluish or purplish gray dorsally with lighter shades ventrally.

More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thresher_shark

Whale Sharks

The whale sharks are back. We had 2 sightings yesterday, one at Kasay Point early morning and one at Sampaguita late afternoon. Diving conditions are excellent at the moment anyway, bright sunshine and visibility up to 30m (100f).
For more info about shale sharks in Moalboal check out http://www.savedra.com/shark.htm

Tommi and the weight belts

This is Tommi. Tommi is PADI and SSI Instructor. When it comes to weight belts, he is very often confronted with questions like “How heavy is this piece of weight compared to that piece of weight?” or “What is the weight of my weight belt exactly?” It happened that last Sunday he was strolling along the public market in Moalboal town. Suddenly he saw a pocket scale and after some bargaining (you know Tommi…) he purchased it for 20 Pesos. We checked the scale and it is surprisingly accurate. So now, whenever a diver wants to know the exact weight of his weight belt, Tommi pulls out his pocket scale and is ready for action…

Moalboal Newsletter

This is Lars Starner (...no, not the green plant, the handsome guy with the beer). He is co-owner of the Chilli-Bar, a cool open air bar just opposite our dive center. Lars, as you can see, is usually in a relaxed state of mind and he publishes a newsletter for everybody who is interested in Moalboal and its residents. Find below a sample, and if you like to join drop him an e-mail (starner@hotmail. com).

Moalboal newsletter #56
Date: Jan 9 2007 - 8:49pm

Moalboal 2007

Happy New Year, friends of Moalboal!!

2007 has not really given us any nice weather. Lots of rain,
yesterday the whole basketball court outside Nelsons dive shop was
submerged. First time I have ever seen that. 24 Celsius in the
morning…………COLD man.

The Philippines is now starting to take off in many ways. The stock
market here just got over 3000 points, something that was last seen
back in 1997 and before the Asian crisis. The Peso is getting
stronger by the day, now below 49 to the $.

Internet has been slow here in the Philippines. The earthquake in
Taiwan destroyed a lot of cables so internet and phones have been
slow.

ACTIVITIES:

Soccer every Monday & Friday. Jochen (Planet action) has now had new
goals made. Roland (Ruffas husband) took care of the net part.

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Simon, dive instructor at Visaya divers had a diving accident before
Christmas. According to his girlfriend, Jing-Jing, he had 9 sessions
here in Cebu at the re-compression chamber. He has now had 3 in UK.
He has full function: waist up. Feeling in his toes and getting some
feeling in his legs

PRACTICAL:

Emma's old restaurant is now a Thai restaurant. For those of you that
does not know where it is. Just walk past Visaya dive shop and go
south 200 meters on your left hand side. Very good food but also a
bit slow now during start-up.

Retirement visa, they have now lowered the requirements for getting a
retirement visa. If you are above 50 years old, you now need to bring
in 20 000US$ (before it was 50 000) into the country. Cost right now
is 1500US$ and you will then get a lifetime visa and no more hassle
with going to immigration. Interest now is 5% for the US$ and more
for the Peso. I found Florence, business manager at Commerce bank,
Fuente circle, very helpful. Her e-mail: fypebenito@bankcom. com.ph

The ASEAN summit that was going to be held 12-15 December got
cancelled. Typhoon was coming and the thought it safer to cancel. The
ASEAN summit will now be held 12-15 January this year. Be prepared
for huge delays in flights and traffic.

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

Next letter I will give you the exact dates and location where they
were spotted. I know of at least three times that they saw them in
December. Looks like white beach area is where they hang out these
days. Please, if you see whale shark, go to Chili and write where &
when you saw them. There's a list on the notice board and Chili will
give you a free Ning-Ning when you write.

GENERAL:

If anyone has any information that they think would be interesting
for people on this list, please do let me know and I will add it in.
If you know anyone that would like to receive this letter, please
tell him or her to send me an E-mail at the address below and I will
add him or her. I've found it to hard to do it through
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/moalboalmail

Regards, Lars Starner
starner@hotmail. com

Moalboal home page:
http://www.moalboal.org.uk

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2007. All rights reserved

We found some nice video clips about diving and snorkeling at You Tube. YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated; the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published. Check out http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Panagsama
We still have a lot of whale shark footages from Panagsama, probably we will upload the clips in the near future.

Another diver who found his love in the Philippines

Our diver Uli, second time here in the Philippines and currently under Tommi (PADI and SSI Instructor) for Divemaster Training, is another diver who found his love in the Philippines. He’s getting married soon, a big party is coming up at the 14th. Good luck, Uli, and don’t get to much distracted from your DM course.

Pygmys again – this time just on our house reef.

Under water photographers can not have it easier. Our living diving legend and Dive Master Lindy, who logs more than 10.000 dives, has found 2 Pygmy Sea Horses at our house reef in about 25m, just before the Cabana pier. Here are some pics form Lindy and our regular customer, diver and U/W photographer, Martin Nuermiger. Thank you, Martin, for your pictures.

Here’s some more info about Pygmys from Wikipedia:

The pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae in the western central Pacific. It is tiny, no larger than 2.4 cm. There are two known color variations: grey with red tubercles (on gorgonian coral Muricella plectana), and yellow with orange tubercles (on gorgonian coral Muricella paraplectana).

This species is known to occur only on gorgonian corals of the genus Muricella, and has evolved to resemble its host. The tubercles and truncated snout of this species match the color and shape of the polyps of the host gorgonian, while its body matches the gorgonian stem. The camouflage is so effective, the original specimens were discovered only after their host gorgonian had been collected and placed in an aquarium.

On the lower portion of the abdomen, males have a brood pouch in which the female lays her eggs. They are fertilized by the male, and incubated until birth.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_seahorse)

Patricia is back – for the weekend

Patricia Cueni, our famous dive master and PADI dive instructor, is back for Mario’s funeral. Patricia spend a lot of years diving and teaching scuba diving in Moalboal. She conducted many dive safaris with Mario until she left us for a manager position in a big company in Europe. She came all the way from Switzerland to attend Mario’s funeral and heads Monday back to Europe.

The Savedra Dive Center Family mourns the loss of Dive Master Mario Deniega.
Many of you remember Mario as an accomplished diver and a dedicated PADI Dive Master. He was as an appreciated member of our dive family and highly regarded by his coworkers, a quiet man with a quick wit, a lot of humour and a passion for his work. He will be deeply missed by his friends and family.