New White Whale spotted in Australia...just amazing...you have to see the Photo of this Whale...
New White Whale spotted...
Courtesy By Alison Feeney-Hart
BBC News, Sydney
Migaloo has become something of a celebrity
A new white humpback has been sighted off Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia.
The newcomer, which was filmed by a television news helicopter, has excited marine scientists who think it may be related to Migaloo - to date, the only known all-white humpback whale.
Migaloo is somewhat of a celebrity down under. Why? "Because as far as we know, he is globally unique," said Professor Peter Harrison from the Whale Research Centre, Southern Cross University.
It now seems that Migaloo, (whose Aboriginal name means "white fellow") might have competition.
Although predominantly white, the new whale does have some black markings near its head and tail. So who is the newcomer?
A white calf was spotted with a normal humpback mother in Byron Bay two years ago. Experts say the new whale could be the offspring of Migaloo but further tests need to be carried out.
A record number of humpbacks have been spotted off the Australian coast this year on their annual migration north to their breeding grounds.
One thing scientists do agree on is that this second white whale has never been seen in these waters before...
more and the amazing photo @
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7519263.stm
Major changes at palautours.com HOME PAGE...please contact us for all your advertising requirements
PalauTours.com, a newly launched
commercial website which aims to become the most
comprehensive portal on the worldwide web for Palau and
the Federated States of Micronesia. Our site is
intended to be visually stunning, rich in up-to-date,
accurate, and
informative content,and
highly visible to all of the major search engines and
web directories through our toplevel search engine
marketing.
Our goal is simple; we intend to provide every business
in Palau with affordable advertising and promotional
opportunities to grow their businesses byshowcasing
Palau as a world class tourist destination!
While PalauTours.com is only now being officially
announced and launched, our technical team has working
behind the scenes for quite some time to ensure our
visibility across the web, as proven by our strong and
rapidly growing site traffic.
PalauTours.com comes complete with a Blog feature that
instantly delivers information updates, product
announcements, news, current events and other
promotional programs directly from our site
participants to web viewer’s world wide. PalauTours.com
cordially invites your to join our Palau marketing and
promotional web campaignthrough a selection of our very
affordable
advertisement opportunities. Please request for the
Rate Sheet.
For further details and information, please email us
at
admin@palautours.com
or feel
free
to contact us at:
Tel + 632-523-3179
Tel + 632-522-5232
We hope to hear from you soon!
Your Palau Tours
Team
Photography possibilities and after the shoot workflow in Palau Micronesia...does Palau have sufficient Photo labs and Video processing facilities?
The answer is a big YES, Palau in Micronesia has a lot to offer for Photographers and Videographers, plus a very cool Production House for major International Production.
Most of Palau’s Dive Centers cater for all your Photographic needs, Camera rentals with a wide choice of Housings, from small Digital Cameras to larger Video Cam’s with all the accessories.
Take Roll ‘em Productions Palau, Inc. for example... the first film and video production company in the Republic of Palau. It boasts a 5000 square foot state of the art facility fully equipped to meet the highest quality audio and video production. They have been involved with productions like Survivor Series and Discovery Channel plus many others.
http://www.worldwalkabout.com/index.html
Photo
© “Eye contact”
...dont leave Palau without this magic shot.
Splash Dive Center at
the Palau Pacific Resort (http://www.splash-palau.com/eg/splashinfo/othertour.html)
Neco
Marine (http://www.necomarine.com/facility.html)and
FishnFins
(http://fishnfins.com/Photo-Shop.html)have
their own smaller production facilities and Camera
rentals on site, eqipment is for rental or get yourself
into the frame with a dive guide using the Video or
Digital Camera.
At Sam’s Tours
(http://www.samstours.com/services-photocenter.html)you
find the ultimate in Digital Imaging a complete set up
with six iMac computers and processing software
like Aperture
and Photoshop
Elements. They even
back up all your CF Cards to their external hard
drives, burn CD’s and DVD’s. plus there is
Wi-Fi
all around you and if you
like transfer
all your images on to your iPod. Rental equipment is
also available, small Video Cams and Digital Cameras
with Housings, plus an on site Videographer.
I guess Palau has
it pretty much covered and you have no problems dealing
with all your Photographic requirements during your
vacation below and above the
waves.
Happy shooting,
your Palau Tours Team
Science...the past of our ocean,Scientists say a fossil of a four-legged fish sheds new light on the process of evolution...
A fossilized
Ammonite from the Jurassic period
some 160 million years ago.
This photo of the Nautilus, (a close relative of the
Ammonite)
was taken in Palau Micronesia.
Fossil fills out water-land leap
Courtesy By Matt McGrath
BBC science correspondent
Scientists say a fossil
of a four-legged fish sheds new light on the process of
evolution. The creature had a fish-like body but the
head of an animal more suited to land than water.
The researchers' study, published in the journal
Nature, says Ventastega curonica would have looked
similar to a small alligator. Scientists say the
365-million-year-old species eventually became an
evolutionary dead end.
Counting digits
About one hundred million years before dinosaurs began
to roam the Earth, Ventastega was to be found in the
shallow waters and tidal estuaries of modern day
Latvia.
According to lead author, Professor Per Ahlberg, from
Uppsala University, Sweden, this creature had the head
of a tetrapod, an animal adapted to live on land. The
body, though, was fish-like but with four primitive
flippers.
"From a distance, it would have looked like an
alligator. But closer up, you would have noticed a real
tail fin at the back end, a gill flap at the side of
the head; also lines of pores snaking across head and
body.
"In terms of construction, it had already undergone
most of the changes from fish towards land animal, but
in terms of lifestyle you are still looking at an
animal that is habitually aquatic."
Experts believe that Ventastega was an important
staging post in the evolutionary journey that led
creatures from the sea to the land. Scientists once
believed that these early amphibious animals descended
in a linear fashion, but this discovery instead
confirms these creatures diversified into different
branches along the way.
Professor Ahlberg points to the discovery of a fossil
called Tiktaalik in Canada in 2004. It is believed to
be the "missing link" in the gap between fish and land
mammals. Ventastega is a later species but is a more
primitive form of transition animal.
"Ventastega fills the gap between Tiktaalik and the
earliest land based mammals. All these changes in these
creatures are not going in lockstep; it's a mosaic with
different parts of animal evolving at different rates.
Ventastega has acquired some of land-animal
characteristics, but has not yet got some of the other
ones."
For instance, the creature had primitive feet - but
with a high number of digits...read more & photos
go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7473470.stm
Instead bringing children to some gory Shark Tournament...We should educate them that we have 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish' THINK NOW before it is to late.
Educating in schools is a good start…but not the way it is conducted at the…Disgusting Montauk Shark Tournament.
A message from Palau Tours in support of DivePhotoGuide
"We Care About Our Environment"
©
Gunther Deichmann - for more environment related images
go to:
http://www.deichmann-photo.com/environment.html
'Only 50 years left' for sea fish'
By
Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Natural
protection
There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the
seas by the middle of the century if current trends
continue, according to a major scientific study. Stocks
have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries,
and the rate of decline is accelerating.
Writing in the journal Science, the international team
of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to
a broader loss of marine biodiversity.
But a greater use of protected areas could safeguard
existing stocks. "The way we use the oceans is that we
hope and assume there will always be another species to
exploit after we've completely gone through the last
one," said research leader Boris Worm, from Dalhousie
University in Canada.
This
century is the last century of wild
seafood
Steve Palumbi
Should fish be off the menu?
Send us your comments "What we're highlighting is there
is a finite number of stocks; we have gone through
one-third, and we are going to get through the rest,"
he told the BBC News website.
Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University in California,
one of the other scientists on the project, added:
"Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all
the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then
this century is the last century of wild seafood."
Spanning
the seas
This is a vast piece of research, incorporating
scientists from many institutions in Europe and the
Americas, and drawing on four distinctly different
kinds of data.
For
the complete article go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6108414.stm
Palau and Micronesia…things you should know...
Aerial
view of pinchers lagoon, a favorite spot for dive
training
due to its shallow waters.
(excerpts from Fins Magazine)
:: PALAU ::
Palau was first
brought to world attention when Captain Henry Wilson of
the English vessel “Antelope” was
shipwrecked on Palau’s barrier reef near the island of
Ulong in 1783. With assistance from Koror’s High Chief
Ibedul, Captain Wilson and his crew used wreckage of
the Antelope to build another vessel and sailed away
three
months later. Joining them on their journey back to
England was Lebuu, son of the high chief. Word of
Captain Wilson’s voyage spread, leading to further
European contact, and in 1885, Spain was granted
control of Palau by Pope Leo XIII. In 1899, Palau was
sold by Spain to Germany, which quickly established
mining and other operations to tap Palau’s abundant
natural resources. Following Germany’s defeat in World
War I, Palau was granted to the Japanese under the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and by 1922, it had
become the administrative headquarters for
Japanese-controlled territories in Micronesia and the
South Pacific. Japan closed off Palau (and other areas
in Micronesia) from the rest of the world and began
heavy fortification of the islands. Palau endured heavy
fighting during World War II, including massive aerial
bombardments of Koror, particularly during the assault
of Peleliu Island by US Marines that resulted in
horrendous casualties on both sides. Remnants of WWII
are still visible throughout Palau today, including
many ship and plane wrecks resting at the bottom of
Palau’s
inner lagoon. On 1 October 1994, Palau became the last
of the UN Trust Territory islands to gain independence,
following the signing of a Compact of Free Association
with the United States, and it became a member of the
United Nations.
Exploring,
kayaking and spectacular diving in Palau
(excerpts from Fins Magazine)
Palau is located at the crossroads of the Pacific Ocean
and the Philippine Sea, which is one of the world’s
richest
zones of tropical marine biodiversity. This makes Palau
a world-class scuba diving destination that few places
on
the globe can rival. Palau’s marine ecosystems include
barrier reefs, fringing reefs, seagrass beds, marine
lakes and mangrove forests. Palau’s marine biodiversity
includes over 1,300 species of fish, an abundance of
large pelagic animals and over 700 species of corals.
Palau was chosen by the National Geographic Society as
the
first Underwater Wonder of the World and was featured
on Discovery Channel’s “Living Edens” series. It is
home to one of the highest number of marine species in
the world, and its marine habitats support an enormous
density of coral, fish and other invertebrates. Seven
of the nine species of giant Tridacna
clams are found
in Palau, along with the world’s most remote population
of dugongs. Palau’s signature dive is Blue Corner, a
shallow reef-top promontory with vivid corals, huge
schools of fish and ever-present schools of patrolling
sharks.Without a doubt, Blue Corner consistently lives
up to its reputation for “adrenaline diving” and is a
dive that can be repeated time and again without fear
of boredom!
In our
next few blogs we introduce you to Yap, Chuuk and
Pohnpei...plus a lot more.
Sport Fishing in Palau Micronesia...from Big jacks, Spanish mackerel & gigantic Marlin...
A variety of traditional
conservation methods are still observed ensuring
healthy fish populations. There are also formal
restrictions such as the Koror State Rangers' annual
enforcement of no fishing between April 1 and July 31
in Ngerumekaol, and no fishing at any time within one
mile of Ngemelis Island...read more @
http://www.palautours.com/tour-fishing.html
Welcome to PALAU...by palautours.com, Visit Palau and explore this Nature Paradise below and above the waves...
To get you excited about Palau we have decided to bring you this little slide show direct on our blog, sit back and enjoy.
For more images please visit our Photo Gallery @http://www.palautours.com/gallery.html
ROCK ISLAND TOURS for more detailed info please go to: http://www.palautours.com/tours.html
Among the most popular tours is the exploration of the awe-inspiring Rock Islands, with its stunning topography and the wide variety of action to be experienced.
Dive shop activities such scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking tours as well as sailing, water skiing and banana boat rides, the latter especially fun for kids, are all available. With two atolls to the north and a fringing reef surrounding the main island, encounters with exotic marine life and kaleidoscopic coral formations are not uncommon.
The white sand beaches, which mostly slope very gently into shallow water, are a joy for all age groups, accommodating everyone from novice swimmers to experts. Another exciting diversion is fishing, with its unique catch-and-release fishing technique an environmentally friendly alternative.