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Welcome back everybody,
Another one but never the same follows one safari! Every time we jump back in water, we can feel the temperature changing. I put on more and more lay of neoprene. More than one diver would thing it’s unpleasant! But in fact, it is an excellent sign… The cold water bring back the king of Bali, the diver dream, the majestuous Oceanic Sun fish Mola Mola (news page October 2005)
The return of the Oceanic Sunfish is one of the Bali’s attractions; the turtle coming to lay eggs in Kuta beach in April is another one… In the Bali News section, I will present you Wayan Wiradnyana who devoted his life to the Bali turtle. Christian Laubacher has taken the photo of the month, an unusual nudibranch, Ceratosoma trilobatum. To contact us :
info@skubaskool.com
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BALI NEWS
Wayan, a 29-year-old computer engineer, choose to devote his life to protect the Bali turtle. This species is worldwide in high danger, but especially in Asia where its meat is considered as a delicatessen, powerful medicine and its carapace used for decoration and jewelleries. This species might survive only in one condition: make the people mind change and aware of this disaster. In order to start this mind revolution, the year 2006 has been voted “year of the turtle” in the South East Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Wayan is the head of the ProFauna Balinese office, an Indonesian organisation that fights for the preservation of the endanger species in the Indonesian archipelago. Open in 2001 in the emergency, the Balinese office has multiplied action and information campaign. Regarding Wayan, the number of turtle sold in Bali decreased by 80%, and the number of location where the turtle were killed has also considerably decreased. One year ago, the government declared 6 of the 7 turtle species found in the Indonesian water protected species. Killing or hunting a turtle is now severely punished by the law (5 years in jail and over 100 millions rupiah fine). For more information about this subject, please connect to our news page 01 . However, Wayan knows he hasn’t won the war yet! One of the consequences of this new law has been the development of the black market. Being punished by the law, the commerce of the turtle meat and shell became financially very worthy and the methods employed close to the mafia one. This is a very worrying evolution which have been emphasized by the usual corruption…
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PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Christian Laubacher has taken the 2 following photos |
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INFO BIO
CLASSIFICATION
Class : Gastropoda
Subclass : Opisthobranchia
Order : Nudibranchia
Family : Chromodorididae
Genus : Ceratosoma
Species : Trilobatum
WORLD HABITAT
Distribution: Red sea to Australia and northern Indonesia
FEEDING BEHAVIOUR
As far as we know, all nudibranch are carnivore. This species probably feeds on the sponge it has been found on. However, I haven’t found any information about it.
REPRODUCTION
All Opistobranchs are hermaphroditic. Both female and female organs are present in the adult specimens, usually positioned closely together and jointly referred to as the gonat. Gonat and gonopore (where the exchange of sperm is effected) are position on the right –hand side near the head. Any member of a species can mate with any other member. In most case, two nudibranchs position themselves head to tail so their right side are touching, and exchange the sperm. After fertilization, the animal separate and crawl away to lay their eggs on one particular food organism which the egg may match in colour. Spawn is characteristic for each species, in shape, form and colour and arrangement of the eggs within. The eggs hatch into planctonic larvae. At this stage, they have a shell, which they will lose in their transition to adults shape. Their lives are superbly geared to the abundance of their food. Those who feed on slow growing organism (sponge, gorgonian, sea pen…) lives for about a year. Those who eat transitory organisms (hydroids, bryozoans) that bloom briefly have very rapid life cycles lasting only six weeks or less.
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