on a cold rainy night...

all quiet on the home front, apart from the sound of rain together with the gurgling of the aquarium. which desperately needs a clean-up and a makeover. i think the residents are getting seriously depressed and wouldn't mind some fresh water and new playmates.

problem is, the parrotfish is seriously mentally deranged and has killed every other thing in the aquarium apart from the sucker-fish or commonly called the bandaraya fish. This is due to how they came about...

Parrotfish or Blood Parrot (the fresh-water variety), according to some quarters, are controversial and discouraged because they don't exist in nature and is a human-engineered, cross-bred species. Due to this unnatural state of being, they have plenty defects, physical AND mental... therefore they pose a great danger to the eco-system if ever let out into the wild, as it may lead to all sorts of evolutionary mix-ups. not to mention their mood problems har har ( read more here )

on the plus side, it's what we call a 'pet' fish, which means it will come over when signalled heheheh and possibly allowed to be pet. i don't remember trying this... it does have a smile though, like a dolphin's :) but ...but.. i mustn't forget that it wiped out most of its friends in the tank... no Finding Nemo kinda scenario here har har.

I'm just waiting for it to die (and i seriously mean it) so i can populate it will all manner of little cute fishies or maybe even convert it to a salt-water tank and attempt to rear some false anemone clownfish (scuba diving has given me great reason to find out about marine life like never before, and fish ID is one of the essential things to know).

oh cruel me, keeping live animals in captivity...

i wish...

then again, speaking of Perhentian, I think i'm WAYYYYY overdue for a stint under the waves.

Happenings in Perhentian that i've come across lately :

- Fund-raising for orphans on the island. We contributed our bit for those kids laa of course.

- Perhentian clean-up on 24-26 September. This would be so good if not for the dreams of a raya trip. It would be great to have fun and have a noble objective at the same time - picking up Crown-of-thorns and rubbish.

Hmm.. which makes me thing... where did the rubbish come from in the first place. I've seen how us Malaysians disregard rubbish bins, and our tourist spots are no exception, and I would think that having once-a-year campaigns would come to nought if there is no education programs and awareness campaigns to show that dirty and polluted areas equals less people equals less money.

so there is the contradictions and conflicts of 'eco-tourism' - how to make money and have the inherently-pollution-generating humans at the same time.

a fine example would be the smokers. everything they do goes into the oceans, and this is the smokers who are also so-called eco-protectors - the divers, the DMs, the instructors, the boat drivers. The very ones whose livelihood depends on eco-tourism, they themselves are screwing it all by chucking their cigarette butts, wrappers, boxes, foil, into the sea and slowly poisoning the oceans with the toxins found in cigarettes.

so, dear divers and operators, take note.. the cumulative effects of those little butts might cause permanent harm to the oceans we love.