|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
New exhibit brings space age fish farming and vegetable growing technology to backyards in Cebu Aquaponics is the word used to describe a new way of growing plants and fish together in the demonstration unit at Mactan Island Aquarium, where Tilapia and Kangkong are the stars of the show...
Tired of watering your plants? See it, try it! The aquaponics system is on show throughout 2010 at Mactan Island Aquarium. Visitors and school groups coming to the aquarium may view the system and have a full explanation of how it works. We can also advise aquarium visitors on how to start your own aquaponics system at home, to produce healthy, chemical free, fish and vegetables to feed your family. Added value Plan your trip Admission rates have not increased in 2010 Just check the relevant pages on this website for details, thanks. |
The fish grow in the water underneath the plants. Aquaponic fish grow their own vegetables!
|
||||||||||||
Sea Turtle on Temporary Exhibit A young hawksbill turtle can now be seen in our Shark Tank. The turtle was brought to us by a fisherman. Knowing that they are a legally protected species, we contacted BFAR to request permission to hold the turtle here until BFAR or DENR should decide to release the turtle back into the ocean at an appropriate location. For now, the turtle is a star attraction for the school students visiting the aquarium, and allows us to advise all our visitors that sea turtles are endangered and protected by law. Sea turtles are particularly at risk from garbage dopped in the sea. They often mistake plastic bags for their normal diet of jellyfish. After they swallow the plastic they cannot digest it and it blocks their system causing sickness and death. |
|
||||||||||||
Marine Conservation Video to encourage Cebu's Students Mactan Island Aquarium educational video gets a good response in our classroom, also online with youtube and facebook. Click on the video to watch... |
|||||||||||||
Back to School! No updates for a while due to us being VERY BUSY with school visits. Our re-design with an educational focus is being received very well by school field trips. I have lost count of the number of busses we have had. We have to get up early every day now to get the tanks and fish ready before the students arrive. We are very grateful for the support of Cebu's schools, and we will continue to broaden and enhance our educational offerings to payback the support we have received. There are still some unbooked slots before Christmas, but please book ahead, and remember, teachers can get a free inspection trip (just see the field trips section of our website). |
|
||||||||||||
|
More Sharks, More Fish, More Everything We have another new shark, Cutie now has two little friends, Shadow and Middy. They have all come from around Bohol Island and Reefs. The aquariums are getting pretty full of fish also, as well as octopus, of which we have four in stock at the moment. Coming SOON! We will be having an audio-visual presentation for school groups as an addition to their tour. We will be showing a short DVD of the problems facing Philippine Coral Reefs, highlighting dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and shark finning. Thanks in advance to SCUBAZOO for donating the powerful film footage material. Anyway, we are very busy right now, so thanks for reading and best wishes to you until the next update. LOOK! - new mural at our entrance - nice huh? |
||||||||||||
4th September 2009 |
|||||||||||||
Baby Shark! About 10 days back, we were offered a baby blacktip reef shark, by a fisherman from Olango Island that had caught the young shark near Bohol. At about 40cm long, the new shark, which appears to be female, is less than half the size of the resident boss of the shark tank "Cutie" who is over a meter long now. It took three days before the baby shark started accepting food in the aquarium, but now she is always the first one to the feeding area, her favorite snack is definitely squid. The two sharks have not been fighting, and seem to get along well, although they do always respect each others distance, avoiding close contact. You can see the new baby shark 7 days a week here at Mactan Island Aquarium.
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Underwater Garbage Collection To promote a cleaner world, we have now set up an aquarium that shows you how fish live when you fill their world up with garbage. Garbage is a big problem in Cebu, in the Philippines and in the world in general. Our exhibit highlights plastic garbage, tonnes of plastic items are floating around in our oceans, because they do not break down for a very very long time. If you want to know where that plastic bag or empty drinks bottle you dropped ends up, try going scuba diving near any large town or city. We actually hate the garbage exhibit already, it's so ugly, but it is for a good cause and is a way of getting the message across in a strong way to the many school kids that visit us. By the way, don't worry, the fish are quite safe, we only used garbage that will not poison the fish and that is too big or too strong for them to eat. |
||||||||||||
What has 8 arms, 3 hearts and blue blood? An octopus. In fact we have two new octopus on show at present. They were caught together and they may be a breeding pair. So far they seem to be getting along peacefully together, but not feeding. Octopus often stop feeding before they breed. The bad news? After they lay their eggs they normally die. Octopus are mostly nocturnal (active at night) and are very intelligent. They hunt fish and crabs, and then return to their lair to hide out during the daytime. They can change color and shape, as well as their famous ability to squirt clouds of ink. The blue ring octopus found in Cebu is one of the most deadly in the world. A single octopus the size of a golf ball can kill around 26 people, with the venom it has. We don't have any of these on show as it is rather dangerous to keep them. |
|
||||||||||||
21st August 2009 |
|||||||||||||
My first experience of DYNAMITE fishing, a painful one... I was scuba diving this morning, near Hadsan Cove on Mactan Island, just near the huge new Imperial Palace Hotel, an area rich in beautiful corals and fish. Accompanied by my Taiwanese friend and a local dive guide, it was a perfect morning. After a short boat trip over a flat calm sea, we entered the warm crystal clear water that attracts many divers to this area. About 20 minutes into the dive I suddenly felt and heard an ear cracking explosion that sent a shockwave through my body. I knew about illegal dynamite fishing in Cebu, but I couldn't believe that they were brazenly operating right here on the main tourist side of Mactan Island. It is even a public holiday, so the nearby Hadsan Cove Resort was full of beach goers, who must also have all heard and felt the blast. Through sign language, our dive guide indicated to me that the blast was not close enough to us to be dangerous and we could continue the dive. Shaken, I carried on, about 15 minutes later, a second even louder blast cracked in my eardrums, this time I was in shallower water and again felt some force from the shockwave of the blast. It was sickening and totally ruined the experience of enjoying seeing the beauty of the undersea world. Back at the boat, our guide indictated to me the area where the fishermen were blasting - just across the bay, a group of boats were visible congregated there. He advised me that this is a spot they always use - on days and times when there are no strong currents that would make it harder to catch the large quantities of fish that they kill by this method. A little closer and the blast could have killed us or shattered our ear drums, adding us to the ever growing list of victims of illegal dynamite fishing in the Philippines. As this blast location is well known among locals, I can only assume that the ones responsible for law enforcement are turning a blind eye to these dangerous criminal activities? Please someone, prove me wrong. If this can continue right here on the tourist side of Mactan Island, in broad daylight, on a public holiday, right in front of the resorts, divers are going to be booking their holidays elsewhere, take note government officials. Seriously. Ironically - at the exact same time this happened, back at the aquarium, my wife was hosting a school field trip including a section on warning kids of the dangers and problems associated with dynamite fishing. Read more about our education programs here if you wish...
|
|
||||||||||||
5th August 2009 |
|||||||||||||
Kids of Barrio Luz in Cebu visit Mactan Island Aquarium on Sponsored Field Trip We were honored to host the annual field trip arranged by teachers and students of PAREF Southcrest all girls school in Banilad last week. The students from Southcrest are volunteer teachers on an outreach project giving tutorials to less fortunate young girls of Barrio Luz in Cebu. This is part of a tie-in with Banilad Study Centre who help sponsor the program and field trips with assistance from private donors who support the learning program. Teacher Carmela Vertido described the visit to the aquarium as "a very enjoyable learning experience..." and "I look forward to going back to the aquarium hopefully with another set of children - either from Southcrest or from Banilad Study Center. Thanks again !" From our side we can say that the kids seemed to have great fun, enjoyed the quiz and coloring activities, were WOW-ed by the shark tank and were all very sweet and well behaved. We are very impressed by the efforts of this group to organise such community spirited work. We will be looing at offering special packages for community outreach programs like this. It makes the preparation and work that goes into providing educational activities for kids feel very worthwhile. In case anybody reading this would like to donate to Banilad Study Centre community programs, we can put you in contact with Ms. Vertido, just drop us an email. If you have plans to sponsor a school or community trip, email us now if you would like more details. |
|
||||||||||||
|
Shark tank fish stocking levels increasing Each week more fish are being added to the shark tank and other exhibits, so far the shark isn't eating them - but the fish know to stay well out of the way at feeding time. |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
| Archived older news: | School kids get a lesson on DYNAMITE fishing The Mactan Island Aquarium is full steam ahead with education these days. The last field trip that arrived tested our new quiz, it covers subjects such as dynamite and cyanide fishing, marine sanctuaries and what to do if you get stung by poisonous sea creatures. Click here to book your field trips. Any companies and corporations reading this - consider sponsoring a school trip to visit the aquarium and learn about protecting the future of our seas. An ideal corporate social responsibility related gesture. Sponsoring a public school would really reach the appropriate young audience to encourage positive attitudes towards the natural environment in the Philippines. |
||||||||||||
Eels from Mindanao A fresh fish supplier named Don-Don donated us three Eels this week. They are an air-breathing variety that are rather interesting and look just like European eels. They are farmed in Mindanao, for restaurant diners. We have placed them on display as an educational exhibit, in our Philippine fresh water displays area. |
Aquarium Director attends Government Fisheries Meeting Last week we attended a meeting on implementing new marine wildlife protection laws, hosted ny BFAR in Cebu City. There was a heated debate, among shell collectors, fish exporters and politicians about how things should be handled. Laws that protect the marine environment from overfishing are hardly ever based on scientific research. The survey we read found that 93% of the nations surveyed had fishing policies that were NOT based on scientific findings. Politics and business have a bigger voice than scientific reason sometimes. |
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
Cyanide fishing Here are some healthy new fish in our Quarantine. Buying Aquarium fish in the Philippines is a lottery if you don't know the fishermen well. Many still use cyanide to catch the fish. They look ok, but cyanided fish always die after a few days or weeks. It is hard to detect. Last week, we had several deaths of butterflyfish that came from Siargao. Our Director is sure that they were caught using Cyanide. They had classic symptoms of erratic behaviour, no interest in food and short life expectancy. Law enforcement needs to be stepped up. Seriously. Cyanide fishing kills coral reefs as well as the fish. |
|||||||||||||
Telephone (0063) 032 2366248 SMS/text (0063) 0919 4851276 |
|||||||||||||
