Deep 6 Pixels

Tubbataha Trip

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000+08:00

Last March I went on a trip to one of the diving spots in the Philippines: Tubbataha! It definitely is an amazing spot with plenty of sharks, mantas, and impressive coral formations. Video slow or trouble watching it?

A Hike Up Mount Pinatubo

2010-07-09T15:39:00.004+08:00

In January of this year we decided to go hike up Mount Pinatubo. Those of you who like volcanoes probably already know that this is not some ordinary mount. Pinatubo is an active volcano in the Philippines, not far from the capital city Manila. In 1991 it gained worldwide notoriety when it erupted spectacularly, spewing an ash column 7km high. Luckily for me, and the 20 million other people who

A Weeks Worth Of Plastic

2010-05-25T20:15:00.192+08:00

So last week I decided to do an experiment and log all the plastic trash I generate in a week. Each time I go diving I almost always spot some piece of plastic floating on the surface or littered across the seabed, so I know first hand the damage that plastics can do. I was wondering how much of that plastic could potentially have been mine many months, or maybe even years ago. I was shocked

Plastic Profile Day Seven

2010-05-24T22:18:00.003+08:00

On the 324th birthday of Daniel Fahrenheit, and the 34th day of the Deep Water Horizon disaster, I have the same amount of plastic to throw away as I usually do. Since Fahrenheit gave us the first common scale for measuring temperature (later superseded by the Celsius scale) I thought it pertinent to highlight the contribution plastic makes to global warming. Nowadays it seems that the oil

Plastic Profile Day Six

2010-05-23T20:45:00.009+08:00

Yesterday was Biodiversity Day, and today is World Turtle Day. Biodiversity Day has been celebrated since 1993 (although the day on which the celebration is held did change) and World Turtle Day since 2000. Since their inception, public and political awareness has definitely grown, but it seems everything we have done so far has had little effect on the declining trend of biodiversity on our

Plastic Profile Day Five

2010-05-22T14:33:00.008+08:00

Another day and another load of plastic to dispose of. This time I have more than usual. I went for Vietnamese take out, and ordered a couple of dishes (Beef pho and some rolls). Each dish and its associated condiments (sauce, fresh chili, etc) was packaged in its own container, so my take-out adventure resulted in a lot of plastic waste. The Vietnamese restaurant is probably a 5 minutes walk

Plastic Profile Day Four

2010-05-21T23:26:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I had a picture of a dead albatross with bottle caps and other plastic objects visible inside the decomposed carcass. Of course, albatross are not the only birds suffering from the plastic scourge. In a 2005 study, researchers found that 95% of all dead fulmars (a type of seagull) washed up around the North Sea contained fragments of plastic. One dead bird from Denmark had 20.6 grams of

Plastic Profile Day Three

2010-05-20T23:43:00.003+08:00

Just like yesterday, lots of plastic collected today. Noticeable difference this time though: no plastic bags from the supermarket, and no coffee cup caps! Sad but true, today I went without drinking coffee, and its an experience I rather avoid. But then again, at least I spared the environment two caps that my usual drinking habit incurs on a daily basis. Thinking about it, there must be a lot

Plastic Profile Day Two

2010-05-19T23:29:00.012+08:00

Day two of my plastic profiling efforts. Like yesterday, I had plenty of plastic packaging to throw away. As you know, much of this plastic ends up in our oceans. Worse still, it even ends up in our food chain. Only last April a postmortem on a beached gray whale revealed its stomach to contain surprising amount of human debris, including more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves,

Plastic Profile Day One

2010-05-18T23:40:00.054+08:00

After writing my last post, I was wondering how much of the plastic garbage in the oceans was due to my consumption habit. Everything we buy these days comes in some sort of a plastic wrapping. Once we have consumed the product within, we throw it away. I never really noticed the plastic that all my food comes wrapped in, but now knowing that this stuff last forever, it pays to be aware how much

Message In A Water Bottle

2010-05-15T12:32:00.000+08:00

It seems these days everyone in Manila is into running. Almost every Sunday there is a run on, with thousands of Manileños flocking to the start line to participate. Being a typical herd animal myself, I also jumped on to this running bandwagon, and will be joining the Nature Valley Run scheduled next May 30. To make sure I survive this upcoming run, I need to practice, and practice a lot! So

Shark Fin Soup

2010-05-05T11:31:00.001+08:00

In every shark movie the appearance of a shark's fin sets the stage for a lot of human blood spilling in The Deep Blue Sea. In reality though, it is not our blood that continues to spill, it is the shark's. All for the sake of harvesting their fins for a rather bland, tasteless soup. As the middle class in Asia grows, so does consumption of shark fin soup. This has resulted in an increase in

Dolphins in Anilao Waters

2010-05-05T11:22:00.000+08:00

To get away from all the craziness of Manila city life, I went diving again at Portulano Resort last weekend. Needless to say, getting in the water is always great, but this time, on our way to Mainit dive site, we were lucky enough to also spot a pod of dolphins. Unfortunately, the moment we spotted them they quickly swam off and I was unable to capture them on film. It was such a shame they

All the Fishes in the Sea

2010-04-29T02:37:00.000+08:00

Some time ago a dive buddy of mine recommended I read the book The End Of The Line by Charles Clover, but until today never got the chance. Nonetheless, I was able to get a hold of the movie which, I suppose, this is the next best thing to reading the actual book. It was released on DVD last February, and you can get a copy from Amazon (clicking the picture on the left will take you there).

Disneys Oceans

2010-04-23T16:50:00.000+08:00

Besides raising awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment, Earth Day 2010 also means the opening of Disney's Oceans! I remember watching a trailer of this movie last year, and I couldn't wait to watch it. Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud are the directors, and they spent over 7 years working on this $80 million dollar feature (not sure if this amount is still correct). These guys

El Nido

2010-04-18T15:44:00.001+08:00

When in the Philippines you must also visit El Nido, Palawan. This place is well known for a couple of luxurious resorts which are collectively known as the El Nido Resorts. Although these resorts are very nice, a stay with them also comes with a nice price. Luckily there are plenty of other resorts you can choose from. We stayed at a place called Dolarog. Choosing this place was a bit of a

Portulano Resort

2010-04-18T12:40:00.001+08:00

One of my favourite spots in Anilao is Portulano Resort. Whenever I get the chance, I pack my dive gear and camera, and stay there for the weekend. The diving is absolutely great, and with their new boat all dive sites in the Mabini area, as well as Sombrero Island, are perfectly accessible. Read on to see the videos I made throughout 2009. If loading of the video is very slow, or you have

Tinglayan

2010-04-18T12:20:00.001+08:00

The second video of my hiking trip in the Cordilleras region. After visiting Sagada we decided it was time for some white water rafting on the Chico river. According to the experts the water was not as high as it usually was, but I was pissing my pants nonetheless (fortunately everything was wet anyway so nobody noticed). When rafting they classify each rapid according to difficulty, with

Hiking in Sagada

2010-04-18T12:07:00.001+08:00

A few years back we decided to go hiking in Sagada, which is a municipality in the mountain province of the Philippines. Besides packing some warm clothes, good shoes, and some hiking gear, I also took my video camera along. Although the Philippines is famous for its diving and beaches, the interior is also worth a visit. It takes a while to get there though. Short from taking a plane, I believe