introduction of the Tubbataha Reef

Tubbataha Reef is an atoll coral reef located in the Sulu Sea, 98 nautical miles (181 km) southeast of Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, the Philippines. It is a marine sanctuary protected as Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park.

Declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on December 1993, it is under protective management by the Philippines Department of National Defense (DND). It is under technical supervision by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) & the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR). It is administered as part of Cagayancillo town on Palawan.

The reef is composed of two atolls, North and South Reefs. Each reef has a single small islet that protrudes from the water. The atolls are separated by a deep channel 8 km (5 miles) wide.

Over one thousand species can be found in the reef; many are already endangered species. Animal species found include manta rays, lionfish, pawikan or tortoise, clownfish, and sharks.

There are no permanent inhabitants of the islets or reefs. Fishermen visit the area seasonally, establishing shelters on the islets. The park is visited by tourists, particularly divers. Trips to Tubbattaha from mid-March to mid-June are all vessel-based; the park is about twelve hours by boat from Puerto Princesa City. Tubbataha is considered as the best dive site in the Philippines and the diving dedicated ships that opearte during the "Tubbataha Season" are usually booked years in advance especially during the Asian holidays of Easter and "Golden Week"

A marine sanctuary having a reef of enormous size is the Tubbataha National Marine Park located at the Central Sulu Sea. It was established in August 11, 1988 with an area of 332 km² (82,000 acres). In 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, through an Executive Order, increased the boundaries of the park by 200%. It is now 968.24 km² (239,000 acres) in size and is guarded by armed rangers 24 hours/ 7 days a week.

The word “tubbataha” is a combination of two Samal words which means “a long reef exposed at low tide”. This reef is made up of two coral atolls divided by an eight-kilometer (5 miles) wide channel. The South Atoll, the smaller of the two is five kilometers in length and three kilometers in width; while the North Atoll, the larger of the two is 16 kilometers (10 miles) long and five kilometers (3 miles) wide. (Knipp 22)

Vivid corals cover more than two-thirds of the area and the waters around the reef are places of refuge for numerous marine lives. The seemingly diverse ecosystem of this sanctuary rivals the Great Barrier Reef – having 300 coral species and 400 fish species. (Knipp 22, 24)

In 1993, the United Nations designated Tubbataha as one of the two World Heritage Sites found in the Philippines. The other site is the Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao. (Knipp 24)

Tubbataha has become a popular site for seasoned sports divers because of its coral “walls” where the shallow coral reef abruptly ends giving way to great depths. These “walls” are not only wonderful diving spots but they are also wonderful habitats for many colonies of fish. There are giant jacks, hammerhead sharks, barracudas, manta rays, palm-sized moorish idols, parrot fishes, and moral eels living in the sanctuary. Tubbataha is even home to the hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) which are endangered species. (Knipp 24)

Aside from being a marine sanctuary, Tubbataha is also renowned for being a bird sanctuary. A lighthouse islet, at the southern tip of the South Atoll, supports a large number of seabirds which nest there. Around the Tubbataha, there are tens of thousands of masked red-foot boobies, terns, and frigate birds resting during their annual migrations. To minimize any external intrusions, the Philippine Coast Guard maintains a small monitoring station on one of the many permanent sand bars. (Knipp 24)

Tubbataha National Marine Park is truly a national treasure worth protecting. As a senior official of the DENR says,

“As a World Heritage Site, Tubbataha should be protected and preserved so that future generations will also have the opportunity to see one of the greatest wonders of the world.” (Knipp 24)

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history of Cox's Bazar beach

Cox's Bazar is a town, a fishing port and district headquarter in Bangladesh. It is known for its wide sandy beach which is claimed to be the world's longest natural sandy sea beach (120 km) including mud flats.[2][3][4] It is located 150 km south of Chittagong. Cox’s Bazar is also known by the name “Panowa”, the literal translation of which means “yellow flower”. Its other old name was “Palongkee”. The modern Cox's Bazar derives its name from Captain Cox (died 1798), an army officer serving in British India.

Although Cox's Bazar is one of the most visited tourist destination in Bangladesh, it is yet to become a major international tourist destination allegedly due to conservative attitude of local people.[5]

As a most beautiful and famous tourist spot of Bangladesh, the major source of economy of Cox's Bazar is tourism. Millions of foreigners and Bangladeshi natives visit this coastal city every year. Therefore, a number of hotel, guest house, and motel have been built in the city and coastal region. Many people are involved in these hospitality and customer service type business. A number of people are also involved in fishing and collecting seafood and sea products for their livelihood. Out of several sea products various kinds of Oyster, Snail, Pearl and their ornaments are very popular to tourists in the seaside and city stores. A number of people are also involved in the transportation business for tourists. Cox's Bazar is also one of the few major spots for aquaculture in Bangladesh.[12] Along with Khulna, it is considered as a major source of foreign exchange earning of the country from this sector. Besides, a mix of small-scale agriculture, marine and inland fishing and salt production are other industrial sources from this region that plays important role in the national economy.

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About the New 7 Wonders of Nature

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About the New 7 Wonders of Nature
The New 7 Wonders of the World campaign was a resounding success, in which more than 100 million votes were cast and which took democracy to a new global level. Now, the second campaign organized by the non-profit New7Wonders Foundation, to choose the New 7 Wonders of Nature, is off to a promising start: Some 200 nominations were submitted by some half a million people within the first few months of the campaign.

Call for Official Supported Nominees!
Nominations can be submitted for the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign until December 31, 2008. Check the world map now to ensure that your favorite natural site has been suggested, then get in touch with local authorities to make sure they form an Official Supporting Committee for the nominee.

Vote for your nominee!
Voting for nominees will continue through 31.12.08. Then, a panel of experts will create a list of 21 candidates from which voters worldwide will elect the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The New7Wonders Panel of Experts, under the leadership of Prof. Federico Mayor, former Director-General of UNESCO, will select the 21 Finalists from the top-ranked Official Supported Nominees (to ensure the fairness of the process, the names of the Panel of Experts will be released after their decision has been made). The 21 finalists will then be put to popular vote.

The change from man-made structures to treasures of nature
New7Wonders Founder and President Bernard Weber notes, “We are finding the New7Wonders of Nature campaign to be excitingly different from the first one. So many breathtakingly beautiful, natural places are still quite unknown to many. From waterfalls to fjords, rainforests to mountain peaks, freshwater lakes to salt flats, we are discovering together the incredible beauty and variety of our planet.”


source from www.new7wonders.com

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THE NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD

The New7Wonders organization is happy to announce that the following 7 candidates have been elected by more than 100 million votes to represent global heritage throughout history.

The listing is in random order, as announced at the Declaration Ceremony on 07.07.07. All the New 7 Wonders are equal and are presented as a group without any ranking.
source from www.news7wonders.com

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How New7Wonders has created Global Memory

With the New 7 Wonders of the World, humanity has created what we are calling Global Memory, seven things that everyone can remember


When Philon of Byzantium declared the Ancient 7 Wonders, the then-known world was very small, spanning around the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. Today, of course, we are aware of the 7 continents that make up the globe—our world is much larger than that of 2,000 years ago. Should this mean that there should be, instead of only 7, maybe 21, 100, or why not even 1,000 New Wonders of the World? This logical question has been asked often over the past years. However, it is not only in tribute to the original Greek concept that New7Wonders has stuck with the number 7 in the first campaign and now in the current campaign … there is another very interesting and important reason for this. It is a fact that 7 is not only a magical number, but also a very practical one: 7 things is exactly the number of things that the average person can remember

global_memory_seven2 164x220When people are asked to choose a number between one and 10, the most popular choice is 7, all over the world. 7 is a number that appears in nearly every facet of human life. Here are just a few examples: 7 is the number of periods (or rows) of elements on the periodic table in chemistry. On a more aesthetic level of science, ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) are the 7 colors that make up white light—these are also what we marvel at in each rainbow. With very few exceptions, all mammals’ necks have 7 bones. In addition to the traditional 7 seas in many cultures, 7 is also the number of stellar objects in the solar system visible to the naked eye: the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. There are also 7 external holes in the human head: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears and one mouth.



Every religion and culture assigns a special place to the number 7. The Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament recount that God rested on and sanctified the 7th day, and in the Roman Catholic belief, there are 7 sacraments. Of course, the 7 Deadly Sins and the 7 Virtues that are well known in Western culture may also come to mind. Further East, Buddha walked 7 steps at his birth. And in the North American heritage, 7 is the definitive number in Cherokee cosmology. In Islamic tradition, 7 is used to symbolize infinity and is also the number of heavens and earths. Ancient Egyptians saw the number 7 as a symbol of eternal life. In Japanese mythology, you will find 7 Lucky Gods. In Hinduism, the cycle of rebirths goes through 7 stages before the soul attains moksha, or salvation, and in everyday Indian life, the 7 levels of consciousness play an important role, connected to the 7 main chakras of the body.



Musically, 7 is the number of notes in the traditional Western major scale. Throughout world music, literature, film and television, as well as in the sports world in many cultures, the number 7 has featured frequently—a sign of how powerfully it appeals to people everywhere and during different eras. Looking at modern communications, 7 is also the number of digits in an American or Canadian telephone number, excluding the area code. We use a 7-day week in the vast majority of today’s world. And many people say they are "in 7th heaven" when they are really happy.


7= memory + challenge

But beside these manifestations that are part of and deeply rooted in the cultures around the world, 7 is simply a practical number that makes life easier for all of us. Since George A. Miller, a respected professor of psychology at Princeton University, introduced his theory of "the magical number 7" in 1956, our short-term memory is generally considered to have the capacity for around 7 elements. While some scientists may speak of even less than 7, what this really means is that the average human (children included) can remember 7 digits, letters, words, or other units with just a little brainwork. This small effort is what solidifies it in our memory. So a system of 7 elements, such as the New 7 Wonders of the World, is something that every human can follow and remember by challenging his or her brain a little bit.

With the New 7 Wonders of the World, humanity has, for the first time, created what we are calling Global Memory, 7 things that everyone can remember and in which they can participate.
source from www.news7wonder.com

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