Horse Shoe Crab Release

A short stop in Lahad Datu for breakfast around 6am today turned into another Marine-life Rescue Mission for TRACC. Two Pala'u ladies arrived at the morning market with 3 horseshoe crabs. Both of them hardly speak any Malay so couldn't find out the exact location where they caught these pre-historic looking creatures. 

Anyway, bought all 3 horseshoe crabs and took them to Pom Pom island. I personally have only seen one here last year but we have seen many small ones in Kulapuan. Hope the release of one big female and two smaller males will bring back the population of horseshoe crabs around Pom Pom island. Our staff and volunteers were so excited to have this rare opportunity to handle these living fossils and releasing them back into the sea! - Gon

Horseshoe crabs are easy to catch and are often found in the fish market. They don't have any "meat" to speak of and taste a bit like fresh seaweed (salty, rubbery, cold and disgusting).

Horseshoe Crabs are often called "living fossils". The earliest record of them is in the Ordovician period 450,000,000 years old and they haven't changed much since.

They're more closely related to spiders than crabs but have 10 legs rather than 8 and external gills like a prawn.

They also have a peculiar number of "eyes". There are two compound eyes where you might expect them to be, but then there are five additional "eyes" that have different resolutions and functions - two of them respond to visible light and three to ultraviolet. There are also light receptors along the tail that helps the Horseshoe synchronize its body clock with light and day. Finally, there are two ventral (on the underside) eyes near its mouth.

Sunday Funday Backflips

It's not all work and no play! Sometimes Sunday-Funday means pleasure diving in new places. Sometimes it means doing backflips off the boat.



Sometimes it means making fun little videos.


Please wait for the video to load to check it out!

   

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

Leaving Pom Pom's Paradise

24 hours after waving goodbye to the glittery people and waters of Pom Pom Island and already I miss the ocean, the life, the people. Yes the short stint of air conditioning has healed the majority of my cuts, I’ve slept well pass the natural alarm clock marked by the end of fan time at 7:30AM, and have indulged in the luxury of restaurant quality food and choice. Yet, the lack of modern convenience, insect bites and salty showers is a tax I am more than willing to pay for the life of freedom, community, and awesome access to the ocean TRACC provides.

The short list of what my time on Pom Pom has meant to me is long. It includes– the faces of people laughing underwater – the bright blue gradients of ocean extending from the shore – grabbing a tank and diving at sunrise – feeling weightless – flooding my mask because I can stop smiling – eating bananas underwater – noticing something new about the ocean everyday – excited underwater screams – getting to know the resident creatures of the house reef – collecting and planting soft coral and hard coral, even when the current rips, it storms, and bringing baskets up and down is a chore – peanut butter kaya cracker time – underwater hammering – watching the artificial reef I have helped to build become populated with life – sand everywhere – feeling too hot – the freedom to engineer my own projects – holes in all of my perpetually dirty clothes – jetty time – tanned legs – wonderfully calloused and beat up feet – the stars – the bioluminescence – night diving and the whole other ocean scene that is illuminated under torch light – new favorite ocean creatures – hammock time – waking up to the sound of rain on my tent – learning something new so naturally everyday – the ragged pages of the ocean creatures book – big boat days – jumping off the jetty at Timba Timba – Rasma’s pumpkin curry – Lizz’s cakes – Gon’s roti – turtle walks – moon shadows – Sunday Fundays – Monday Dry Days (sometimes) – getting to know people I wouldn’t otherwise  – how the sun hits the water in the evening and the morning to give the surface a metallic sheen – beams of light breaking through the oceans surface – falling to the ocean floor from laughter – card games during safety stops – being directly involved in marine conservation –150 plus hours of accumulated underwater time – the community – the freedom to dive all the time – and being surrounded by passion and care for the ocean.

But most of all…. The People. The Diving. The Ocean.

Big love to all the many who made my time at TRACC what it was and all the enthusiasm and care for the ocean world.

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

TRACC on TV!

Baki, Lark, Liam & Paul on Pom Pom

A simple request for some dive gear and a dive buddy may result in TRACC on TV!

Baki and the ATV crew came to Eastern Borneo to film the Bajau spear fishermen of the neighboring Island of Kalapuan, but stayed to film the work we do at TRACC. After borrowing some gear, Palten as dive buddy, and Liam as an extra hand for filming, and seeing what TRACC does, they decided to spend a day with us filming the work TRACC does with coral conservation and artificial reef.

At the end of the day after participating in coral planting and filming TRACC’s work, Baki left us with a few words….

“I’ve been to a lot of venues, I’ve been to Banggi, I’ve been to Tioman and they’ve done

The ATV Crew on Kalapuan

a lot of coral conservation, and I think this is the best effort I’ve seen. I’ve seen so much coral growing on the bottles. Because in the other places the percentage is what 10 – 20 percent of growth, but the reefs here are really growing. I think you guys are doing a really good job. Wow!”

Encouraging words for sure!

Thank you Baki and the channel 8 crew for spreading the word and work of TRACC!

The TV program, “Step Forward” featuring TRACC will air in October – check it out at www.tonton.com.my.

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

Lobsters Release on the House Reef

Basil, Tom & Alana with the Lobsters

Releasing lobsters is a surprisingly slippery process. They squirm, wiggle, and slide from the grasp of the hand. But before the lobsters can be released onto TRACC’s House Reef, the lobsters must make it to Pom Pom Island – wrapped in newspaper, placed on ice, and snuggled into a cooler.

When the body temperature of a lobster drops the metabolism and heart rate slows, allowing lobsters to survive for 2-3 hours in a significantly cooled state and induces a kind of hibernation, which reduces the stress caused by transportation. When they arrive on Pom Pom we unload the cooler from the boat and wade into the shallows to unwrap the newspaper parcels of lobsters. They emerge from they cold in an unexpectedly alert state and flail in our grasp, legs and antennae gesticulating rapidly. As quickly as possible we place them in the wicker baskets to be taken deeper. Yet, the

Lark & Tom Prepped to Release 

especially fidgety ones escape from our grasp and Tom must mission to retrieve them from the shallows.

Next, we don our scuba gear and form buddy pairs to bring the basket’s full of lobsters to what we hope will be their new home, carefully we place the baskets on the ocean floor near our newly crafted and placed artificial reef of a “lobster house” and tires. Lobster baskets safely placed we wait and watch. The lobsters test their new environment, peeking over the edge and testing the water with their antennae before clambering out of their baskets to explore the crevices of the tires and lobster houses as their new home. 

Lobster Basket

Over the next few days the lobsters disperse across the reef, sometimes spotted by eager TRACC divers. And sometimes, to entice the lobsters to make a permanent home, Tom goes back down to lay little sausages down by the tires and houses.

TRACC hopes that by releasing the lobsters into our house reef, we not only add biodiversity and beauty to the reef, but also balance our ecosystem. In addition to hunting for urchins and clams, the lobsters scavenge and feast on detritus. Playing as essential role in cleaning the reef and keeping it disease free.

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to TRACC are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

Turtle Hatching on Pom Pom

Photo by Lizz Fitt

Hatchling sea turtles smaller than the palm of my hand, and cute enough to warm even the stormiest of hearts, tumble onto the beach. A line is drawn in the sand to keep spectators at a distance, and the hatchlings scurry down the beach attracted to the ocean by the light of the setting sun.  These tiny turtles are protected from the natural predators of land by our presence and poachers through our nightly turtle walks and eggs collection. Yet, even with our protection, the onset of a sea turtles life is fraught with obstacles and dangers. The short stretch of beach leading to the sea is difficult to navigate, footprints present themselves like craters to the hatchling, some of whom must momentarily rest before they struggle up what must be a mighty staircase to their small selves.

Once reaching the water their weight will reduce and the physical struggles of a creature made for the sea moving on land will

Photo by Lizz Fitt

diminish, but the danger of the ocean and its predators increases– so much so that only 1 in 1000 hatchling turtles will reach sexual maturity. Just offshore ocean predators wait, even from the beach a barracuda is seen lurking in the shallows.

The first task of a hatchling sea turtle is to find a raft of seaweed, which will provide a degree of shelter from harsh ocean conditions, and under which it can hide from predators. This refuge-giving raft also provides the fresh hatchlings a chance to rest and makes it easier for the little turtle to reach the oxygen it needs above the surface of the ocean. If it finds enough cover and has enough luck, baby sea turtles will float with the current in their seaweed raft feeding on smaller crustaceans and fish until the age of 5 or 6 and it is big enough to handle the open ocean. However, even at this adolescent stage the turtles are still small, roughly the size of a dinner plate, and subject to much predation. But if they survive the odds, Sea Turtles instinctively return to the beach on which they hatched when they reach sexual maturity at 35.

Photo by Lizz Fitt

Female turtles lay anywhere between roughly 250 - 700 eggs each of their season, meaning they will produce roughly 4 – 8 offspring throughout their life if they die by old age. For Pom Pom, with our many nesting turtles, and the many nests they lay, we estimate about 2000 eggs are laid each season – and we hope two more turtles from this seasons nesting will return to lay and fertilize eggs and make more hatchlings in 35 years.

We cannot protect out hatchlings from the perils of the ocean, but we can protect the eggs from the danger of poaching, and offer the hatchlings a chance to test their luck and survival in the ocean.

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please 
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.