3rd Olympic Festival , U P Los Baños, Laguna

HAPPY REUNION TO MY CLAN!!!!

Happy Reunion to the Olavides Clan... too bad mga agaws, cancelled my plans to attend, kinda short of budget this time.. maybe next two years, I can have the resources to bundle up all my issues to meet you all.. really meaning to have this chance to know my bloodroots..

problem with uploading pictures

There seems to be a problem with uploading picture in blogspot but not with wordpress. I thought this was because of my slow connection which is still dial-up but when I opened my new wordpress site, lifeliners, olavides.wordpress, I can load pictures easily.. so this past few days, I have been blogging at wordpress, my picture feature blog.

Be Aware Of What Fish You Eat - Part 2

On my March 2 post I warned about the kind of fish we buy in the market... Today, we got this news from ABS-CBN interactive ----



Puffer fish kills 1, downs 10 others

One person died while 10 others were hospitalized after reportedly eating puffer fish in Cebu province, ABS-CBN Regional Network Group reported Monday.

The report said the incident happened around 4 p.m. in Madrilejos town.

According to Mayor Salvador de la Fuente, the victims are from Sitio Romblon in Barangay Malobago.

Puffer fish (also known as Tetraodontidae) is classified as the second most poisonous in the world. Its skin and certain internal organs are highly toxic to humans.

Air Tank in SCUBA Diving

These pictures of SCUBA ( Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus ) tanks I took at Dakak Dive Shop in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte. There were no diving activities when I went there but I met Mr. Paul Jalosjos, the in-house Dive Master. It was pleasant meeting him and talked about his dive experiences and the dive industry in Philippines which is not so good in this part of the country inspite of the fact that they have one of the best dive spot in the country. He attributed this partly because only foreigners are into this sports and few pinoys are certified divers. This prompted me to research on this.. probably next time.

Well now, for the scuba tank commonly used in recreational dive is made of aluminum and holds 80 cubic feet of air compressed into an area of the tank which is 2 feet high and 6 inches in diameter. Please take note that it is compressed air and not oxygen as many think it is. The compressed air is almost the same as the air we breathe on tierra firma. The standard tank is filled with 2000 to 3000 psi ( pounds per square inch ) of air pressure. The usual dive time I have with 3000 psi is 45 minutes with only 100 psi remaining when I surfaced. Currently, Nitrox, a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, prolongs bottom time but you take another PADI nitrox course that will teach you the advantages and limitations of Nitrox. As to the double tank, it usually used for extended dive time but is now rarely used, it is too cumbersome.

Be Aware of What Fish You Eat !!! ( Awat ta tits, Butete Kang Daku!!!)

"Awat ta tits !!! Butete kang Daku" , - in English, " You can't fool me, you're a big blowfish"...
A week ago, we went to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, for our monthly medical mission in a nearby barangay of Sibutad, and the day after, our group went on a side trip to Dakak Park and Beach Resort and also did some pasalubong hunting in Dapitan
Public Market. My wife bought some dried fish which she said was cheap compared to prices in our city and that it is quiet fresh and meaty. That's the picture above which is around 1 kilo at 100 pesos per kilo. The next day my wife cooked some for breakfast and it really looked delicious with its meaty part and I ate some dipped in spicy vinegar, also my wife took some big portion and loudly proclaiming that it was really good.. But my son took noticed of the fins and rightly blurted out that's a puffer fish!!!!. Well, we stopped eating and hence the picture...I just don't know what species of puffer fish this is considering that there are 120 species of puffer that live mostly in tropical seas.. It is commonly called butete, tikong in Cebu area, is abundant in Philippine seas. They are aptly named because of their defensive action of inflating themselves with water or air when threatened to make difficult for predator to swallow. Their toxin called tetrodotoxin is mostly located in the liver, testes,ovaries and eggs. The Japanese consider this as a delicacy and even have licensing for chef for preparing this.
Symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning is said to occur within fifteen minutes to several hours after eating the puffer fish. Feeling like floating, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain is experienced, lips would feel numb or itchy. Now, this dried fish is in the freezer awaiting further research, meantime, I will have to be content with the familiar dried fish sold in our city..the safest is the fish called "bolinao" which is fondly called "lansang", nails in English..By the way, which is safer to eat, a puffer or a nail???

SHARK ATTACK ! ! !

I am reprinting this news article from CNN because of my latest blog about Great White Shark.. although the attack does not involve the great white shark, nevertheless, all divers are to take lessons from this incidence.. please take note of the list of sharks that are potentially dangerous to humans!!!





From Susan Candiotti
CNN


MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The leader of a shark tour whose customer was mauled to death Saturday was warned that his practice of allowing people to swim close to hungry sharks could lead to tragedy, a colleague said.
art.shark.ap.jpg

Shark feeding was banned in Florida in 2001, so dive operators take customers out to Bahamian waters.

Markus Groh -- an Austrian lawyer -- died after being gnawed during a dive led by Jim Abernethy's south Florida company.

Groh, 49, died from loss of blood resulting from the shark attack near the Bahamas, The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office said.

Neal Watson, a president of the Bahamas Diving Association, told CNN he implored Abernethy to stop what Watson considered a dangerous practice: Cageless shark dives specifically targeting dangerous shark species.

"I hate to say I told you so out of respect for the victim's family, but I've always said it wasn't a matter of whether something like this would happen, it was when," he said.

Abernethy did not return phone calls from CNN seeking comment. The shark dives are advertised on the Web site of his company, Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures.

"Abernethy has been swimming with sharks almost his entire life, and is a pioneer in diving with tiger and great hammerhead sharks," the site proclaims. "No one can get you closer, or get you the best photographic opportunities!"

In shark-dive excursions, dead fish and fish entrails are used to attract the sharks and bring them close to the divers. Cageless dives put divers and sharks in close proximity, without a metal underwater cage protecting the diver.

Watson told CNN he also offers a cageless shark tourist experience in the Bahamas, but only with less dangerous species: Caribbean reef sharks, blacktip sharks, blacknose sharks, nurse sharks and silky sharks.

Shark feeding was banned in Florida in 2001, so dive operators take customers out to Bahamian waters, Watson said.

Watson said that he had sent a letter to members of the Bahamas Diving Association in July 2007 urging them to stop cageless dives with about 10 dangerous species. He said he wrote the letter to everybody, even though Abernethy is the only dive operator he knows of who does it.

The letter read in part, "We recommend all operations immediately cease and desist conducting open-water, non-cage shark diving experiences with known species of potentially dangerous sharks such as tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerhead sharks, lemon sharks, and mako sharks. ... Purposeful feeding or interaction with these species without a proper shark cage is highly discouraged."

Watson said the letter was copied to the Bahamas government, which he said has not outlawed the practice.

Abernethy did not respond, Watson said.