(Series No 1)

Receive early message of the Nature Animals and Ocean Living Reaction before the Disaster

Before the12/26 Tsunami incident, elephants started to jump, squeal and run to higher places. While the dogs ignored to get out from the houses, red cranes gave up their nests at the lower areas, the animals in the zoo tried to hide themselves, the earthworm came out from the earth in groups.

12/26, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and other countries were badly hit by the tidal wave. Thousands died, but we seldom found any animal cadaver. Is that because the animals get an early message from nature? Or they have a foreboding?

As natural disasters happen unexpectedly, after the 12/26 Tsunami, people from all around the world initiated a largest ever international disaster relief. After clearing the mess, we started thinking - is there any sign from the animal world prior to the natural disaster occurrence? Or any signal from them?

Dr. Aileen Tan: Sign prior to the natural Disaster

Rather than spreading this thinking without any basis, we have interviewed Dr. Aileen Tan, an ocean biologist from University Science Malaysia (USM). We hope that by her sharing of professional knowledge, she might help to clear the doubt of the public and elaborate different kinds of animal reactions prior to the natural disaster.

Dr Aileen Tan is an ocean biologist from University Science Malaysia. She is also a researcher of USM's Muka Head Research Center. She always brings her team to carry out research in the deep ocean and have a lot of in field experience.

In the interview, she said that even though the recent tsunami has claimed hundreds of thousands of human life, but there were no single animal corpses found in the most severely affected areas like India, Sri Lanka, or Thailand. The death of fishes found on shore is caused by the lack of water and sudden change of air pressure after they were rushed on shore by tidal wave.

Animal sense is stronger than human being

Dr Tan said animal's feelings and senses are always stronger than those of human beings. This is because they are able to hear lower frequency sounds than the human ear. Therefore, their sensing ability of the environment is stronger mainly because they have different habitats than humans. To understand the factor that causes animal to respond prior to the tsunami, we first have to understand what tsunami is.

According to Dr. Tan, tsunami is caused by earth quake. During a volcanic eruption, the seabed will vibrate and cause the earth quake. Sound waves will also be generated.

Sound frequency directed animals to run away

She said the combination of these three events (earth quake, vibration of seabed and sound wave) will generate Infra-sound. This is a very low frequency sound. This sound is compressed under very low frequency (normally lower than 20 HZ).

"This sound is could not be heard by humans. Furthermore, this infra-sound moves in a very long wave length." She adds that animals can hear this type of sound frequency. This explained why prior to the occurrence of a natural disaster, many animals are able to run away, she explained.

The signal from ground, sound wave and air pressure

How could animals get the signal that tell them the natural disaster is going to happen? Dr Tan said different kinds of animal have their respective "receptors". Animals on the ground receive ground signal. They sense the shaking of lithosphere before a severe earthquake happens. Mice and snakes starts to come out from their caves. Animals on ground and in the zoo start to fidget, move around uneasily, trying to escape from the place they feel dangerous to be in.

"Bats receive signals from Sonar- a kind of sound vibration; birds flying in the sky will sense the change of atmosphere pressure and escape from the scene to save themselves."

Sea Quake has strong destructive power

She said that because earth consists of 75% water and only 25% ground, sea quakes that happen deep under the ocean may have severe impact on land. It is even more severe than an earthquake.

As this quake happened in the seabed, it affected a wide area - from the epicenter spreading to the Indian Ocean - causing tragedy on thousands of lives. A quake on land affects only a particular part and does not spread to the other parts of the world.

Learn to communicate with animals

"A tsunami caused by a sea quake happening in the seabed causes a change in atmosphere pressure. Human beings cannot feel the difference while animals are able to do so. Therefore, it is urgent for human beings is to learn to communicate with animals that have the ability to sense the early signal of disaster. Let them forecast the natural disaster for us."

She said according to China's record, the unusual behavior of animals can be detected 3 days prior to a natural disaster. For example, the snake in the underground cave will sense the shaking of lithosphere. Therefore they will all escape from the cave and scatter around.

If human beings’ observation is strong, they will question why snakes and mice suddenly come out from their caves. This might be an early sign of a natural disaster. The sensitive person may have the chance to escape from the tragedy.

"The Japanese government uses puffer fish or other fish to detect the earth quake or natural disaster. It is because a few days prior to a natural disaster, this type of fish will appear on the surface of sea in a large quantity."

(Series No 2)

Fish Get Scared And Lose Navigation Ability; Fisherman Get Plenty Of Marine Products Before Disaster

Earthquakes and tsunamis are life-threatening natural disasters to humans. But fish and creatures living under the sea also get scared as well. After the tsunami, the underwater world has changed silently. What makes the sea creatures predict natural disasters more effectively than human beings?

Before the tsunami, fishermen noticed that areas normally without fish suddenly become abundant. Why did these fish suddenly lost their way and surrender themselves to the fish net?

Fish response can help human beings escape from the disaster

An expert on ocean living, Dr Aileen Tan of USM said this is related to the vibration caused by the quake. The fishes’ reaction can help human being to escape from the natural disaster.

Earthquakes normally generate two kinds of waves, she said. The first is called Primary Wave (P-wave), the second type of wave is called Secondary Wave (S-wave). The primary wave is a preliminary signal of earthquake or tsunami while the S-wave is really destructive and life threatening one. The small vibration of sea bed that happens prior to the volcanic eruption or sea quake is the P-wave.

The P-wave moves faster than S-wave in the sea. The difference in speed is about 2 - 4 km per second. This explains why Penang in Malaysia was swept by tsunami 3 hours after the sea quake and tsunami happened in Indonesia, she said.

S-wave is life threatening

Aftershock in the morning are generated by the P-wave. Due to the difference in speed, we only feel the S-wave 3 hours later, she said. As the geographical location of Sri Lanka, India and Phuket is more far off Indonesia, they were attacked by tsunami later than us.

Dr. Tan said marine living can detect the P-wave earlier than human beings. Therefore, there are some reasons to explain why the fishermen who go out to the sea a few days before the tsunami easily caught a lot of fish.

Deep sea refers to more than 4,000 feet below sea level. Generally, towboats can only catch fish in around 1000 feet below sea level. Sometimes, fish that live between 2,000 – 4,000 feet below sea level may swim to around 1,000 feet below sea level.

Fishes have their own navigation system. Under normal circumstances, fishes, unlike humans, do not need to touch a certain object to confirm their existence. They have a special sensor. Fishes will know the location of fish net by using the reflection of the signal they sent out earlier. This way, they do not easily get trapped in the fish net.

However, after sensing the vibration in the sea, the fishes started to feel restless. While trying to escape from the vibration area, they lost their navigation ability and easily get caught by fish net. That’s why, a few days before the tsunami, fishermen can easily caught plenty of fishes, said Dr. Tan.

Fishes lost their navigation ability

"Sharks, rays and a few other kinds of fishes are very sensitive to electrical power. By using a special detecting organ, they can detect the ultra weak electrical power (up to nanowatt) that is generated by sea quake."

Dr. Tan said this implies that fishes have electrical and magnetic sensing ability. Their sensitivity to magnetic field enables fishes to balance and navigate themselves in the deep see.

Unlike humans, fishes do not communicate through mouth. Their communication organ is a sensing line attached to their body. Fishes use this sensing line to send signals to the internal nervous system, she said.

"To fishes that are active at night (scientific name: Noktumal Fish), because they do not depend on eye sight to observe the environmental condition, they are very dependent on the sensor on their body. Their sensing ability to the change of environment around them is stronger than other fishes. "

According to her, the dead fishes that were found on shore after the tsunami were cultured fish, not those from the shallow water or deep sea water.

"Many people think that when the tsunami happens, after sensing the vibration, fishes will swim toward the shore. It was the opposite. Theoretically, fishes will swim to the deeper ocean, and not towards the shore. "

If we study tsunamis seriously, it brings the most destructive effect to the coastline. When a tsunami travel towards the coast line, it accumulates energy like a wall, becomes very high and destructive. However, if you are in the middle of deep sea, the wave is only moving in a very high speed. You will not be covered by the tidal wave, she said.

If there were fishes in the shallow water area then, they will also swim to the deep ocean. This is because the magnitude of vibration in deep sea is weaker than the shallow water. The speed there is also slower.

Those fish that found dead on the shore were breed aquatics or cultured fishes. After sensing the vibration, they failed to escape because they are trapped by fish nets and cages. When tsunami happens, the strong tidal wave destroys the fish nets and cages. The fish were swept and died on the shore.

(Series No 3)

Sudden Change Of Pressure Caused Bronchial Blow Out

Many People think that the fishes that were found dead after the tsunami were swept by tidal wave onto the shore. However, Dr. Aileen Tan explain, the factor that caused their death were the flood-tide and ebb-tide that repeatedly occurred every 7 minutes. Why did this natural phenomenon suddenly become so horrific?

Dr. Tan said the air and water pressure in the sea is normally higher than the atmosphere. During tsunamis, fishes are rushed on shore, facing the sudden change in air pressure, then swept back to the deep sea, and back again on the shore.

The drastic change in air pressure caused the bronchial tubes that fishes use to breath to blow out. This is the main reason for fishes to die. In the case of humans, for instance, when we take the airplane or dive, we must gradually adapt to the surrounding pressure before we head for higher pressure area. We cannot ascend and descend suddenly.

Every 7 minutes Flood-tide and Ebb-tide

When fishes is rush onto the shore by tidal wave, they are totally exposed in the air. Following the second tide, they were brought back to the deep sea. Within a few minutes time, the tidal waves rushed the fish back to the shore. The repetition of drastic change in air pressure caused the bronchial breathing organs of fishes to expand and contract continuously, which eventually caused them to die onshore.

According to Dr. Tan, during the tsunami period from 12 noon to 7 in the evening, flood-tides and ebb-tides repeated every 7 minutes (as there were still have aftershock in Indonesia). In normal days, these tides only happen every 6 hours - flood-tides and ebb-tides happen twice daily.

"Just imagine, on the day of tsunami, every 7 minutes the affected areas have flood-tides and ebb-tides. The frequent changes in their surroundings did not give fishes enough time to adjust themselves. Furthermore, most of the fishes were from fish ponds, or cultured fishes. Their adaptive power was not as good as the fish in the deep sea. Their breathing systems could support this type of drastic change at all. "

Only earthquakes above a measurement of 7 can cause tsunamis. Therefore, when Penang continuously experienced minor shakes, it eventually causes the strange phenomenon of frequent flood-tides and ebb-tides.

"I believed the amount of fish in the deep sea that died because of the tsunami is negligible. A few days earlier, after feeling the shock frequency, they have either escaped to the deep ocean or lost their navigation."

Culture fishes mostly are prepared for the festive season

Dr. Tan said "80% of the fishes that died in the tsunami are cultured fishes. They are being prepared for the coming Chinese New Year Festive season. Hence, most of them are still growing up, not so big in size."

She said most fishes that were found dead were Grouper or Siakap, which are generally cultured.

Differentiating fishes from deep sea and fishes from fish pond is rather easy. It could be observed with their size. Fish are caught from the sea, even if they are from the same species or caught at the same time, have different sizes. Fish from fish pond or cultured fishes have almost the same sizes, she said.

"The photos from newspapers show that most of the fishes found dead at Teluk Bahang is almost same in size. This showed that those fish were from damaged fish ponds near the beach."

(Series No 4)

Power of Tsunami is tremendous; Corals in shallow region were damaged

The beautiful beach side vacation hotspots were not able to withstand the destruction of the tsunami. But what about the underwater world's beautiful corals? Were they affected by the tsunami as well?

Dr. Aileen Tan of USM said judging the destructive power of the tsunami, corals were also affected, as they live in the shallow areas of the sea.

Corals are marine living creatures that depend on sunlight for survival. Generally, they live in shallow areas. When the tsunami happened, the billows struck these corals from high angles with tremendous energy. They were destroyed instantly.

"Not all corals are for the view and admiration of tourists or divers. Like all zooplanktons, corals are actually the natural food for fishes and other sea creatures."

Long term effect to marine product

The destruction wrought by the tsunami will have long term effects on marine life. Until now, the general public has not restored their confidence to seafood. Even fishermen can catch fish successfully from the sea may find that there may not have any demand in the market. Therefore, we must view this issue from a long term perspective, she said.

Right now, we are unable to officially estimate the actual effect that tsunami brought to marine life and natural habitat of the sea. Theoretically, after a tsunami destroys a large quantity of corals and zooplanktons, fishes will face lack of food. Whether it will cause severe effect to the marine ecology, it is still pending for the scientists' research and investigation.

Marine Zoology will be rebuilt

After the investigation, scientist will propose a way to rebuild the natural habitat of the ocean enabling corals, fishes and other ocean life to live in their original habitat, she said.

It is still too early to tell if there are changes in the quantity of fish. Normally, this is determined by the frequency of fishing activities. Currently, the market demand to fishes is not high. Some fishermen do not go out fishing so frequently. Other fishermen stop their activity because their damaged fishing boats are still under repair.

Fishes eat zooplankton, not corpse

Now, the most critical question is, after tsunami, are the fishes poisonous?

After the tsunami, the general public believes that fishes may have eaten the human corpses that were floating in the sea and become poisonous. Regarding this thinking, from a scientific point of view, what are the explanations?

Dr. Tan said initially, many people refuse to consume seafood. However, fishes currently available in the market are not from the coastal area. They are fishes caught by fishermen using trawls in the deep ocean. The rule for trawl boats is that they are not allowed to carry out fishing activity near the coast.

"Hence, fishes we buy are from the middle of the sea; while corpses that are struck by tsunami are floating along the seaside. Furthermore, fishes do not eat corpse at all. Most of the fishes eat zooplankton."

Fishes that survived the tsunami are those that have successfully escaped to the centre of the sea or the deep ocean, while human corpses are floating along the seaside. Therefore, there is no direct relation between fishes and corpses. "

Fishes will never swim to the surface to get food

"Let us make an example, when you are fishing, will you throw the fishhook with fish worm deep into the sea or let it float on the surface to the water? Sure, you will throw it deep into the sea for the fish to get hooked. Using the same principle, corpses are floating on the surface of water, they will not sink. The natural responses for fishes are that they will not swim to the surface of the sea just to eat a living fish worm, the rather that a dead corpse?"

From an academic point of view, there is no direct relation between fishes and corpses. These are just the rumors spread to an innocent public. Since the Health Minister has announced that seafood is safe to consume, and sampling tests done on the seafood in the market showed that they are not poisonous, people will eat seafood as usual, she believed.

Necrogenic germs cannot survive in living stomach

According to Dr. Tan, if a live fish eats a dead fish, or human corpse, the only things that are poisonous on the dead fish or corpse are the Necrogenic germs that are already putrid. However, there is no way for germs to survive in the stomach because the stomach has acidic fluid for digestive purposes.

"Germs can decay a corpse. However, if germs attached on a corpse decay in the stomach of the fish that eat it, then these germs will still eventually the mankind, with or without a tsunami."

If the germs are not digested in the fish’s stomach, then this living fish that eat the corpse with germs attached on it will be destroyed by the germs.

Common sense: do not eat dead fish

Even without the tsunami, when people notice that the fishes in the market are not fresh, they will not buy it. Therefore, those dead fish found the sea side are considered not fresh. It should not be consumed as food. This is common sense. And those fishmongers will not be so unethical to treat dead fish as fresh fish and sell it in the market, she said.

"Some experienced fish breeders who notice the abnormal behavior of fish after they have been shocked by the vibration in the water will sell their fishes prematurely with cheaper price; even they do not exactly know that the tsunami will strike their cultured fish pond. If they manage to sell the fishes prior to the tsunami strike, they will reduce their loss significantly."

(Series No 5)

Strange picture of fishes on Internet are specimens in museum

After the tsunami, the Internet was full of articles about strange fishes found on the sea side of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India a few days before the disaster. These articles were attached with photo of strange fishes. How reliable are they?

Dr. Aileen Tan said that a professor from one of the museums in Australia have sent an e-mail to biologists all around the world to clarify this item recently. He made clear that this was a hoax. No doubt, those fishes are from the ocean, but they are the specimens from that museum, not from the disaster scene.

The professor pointed out that those marine creatures were caught during their research when they had a deep sea expedition. He was one of the members of the research team. Further more, those pictures from the Internet were carelessly attached to the label of the museum.

There is no deep ocean around Malaysia

"Additionally, the definition of deep sea refers to area 4,000 meter below sea level, like the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean. The Straits of Malacca and South China Sea surrounding Malaysia are considered shallow sea. "

The average depth of Straits of Malacca is less than 100 meters. The maximum depth of sea area around Penang is 56 meters. The deepest area of South China Sea near the state of Sabah is 1,600 meters. This is outshone by the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. Therefore, it is impossible to have ocean fishes found here, she said.

"If it was true, why it was not reported in ABC, BBC and the local media?"

Marine Ecology Cycle Change: Expedition team awaiting the answer

Will the strike of tsunami change the ecological cycle of the sea?

Dr. Aileen Tan from USM explained that even without the tsunami or other natural disaster, the sea has its periodic cycle.

For example, oysters do not breed in April every year. Sometimes, they change the way they breed according to the temperature and other factors to adapt to the environment.

Absolutely, the tsunami will change the sea ecological cycle. However, it is still too early for scientists to tell if the changes are positive or negative, she explained

Back to the sea to find the answer

"We must go back to sea to find out the answer. By comparing the sea ecology before and after the tsunami, we can get a solid conclusion."

If this is a negative change to the ecological system, which means all sea creatures will become extinct after losing their habitat. If this is a positive change, maybe the tsunami swept a lot of zooplankton on the sea side into the sea, increasing the food sources in the sea. Fish and prawn will have more food. The whole ecological system will improve, she said.

Dr. Tan told that 2 months before the tsunami struck, the Deputy Dean of Marine Studies at USM, Professor Zulfigar, lead a 82-member research team to an expedition to the South China Sea. They departed from Penang and went through the state of Sabah. The whole research took 42 days to study the biological science and biology of Malaysian's sea and island.

Wait for funds to further research

"If the Ministry of Science and Technology allocate funds again, our research team will go out to the sea to study again. Then, we will have the separate data of the sea before and after the tsunami. This comparison is more convincing in analyzing research data, especially the ecology of sea. "

If we invite a new scientist to do the research, the best thing he can do is to analyze the condition after the tsunami. He does not have any similar comparison data to refer to. Luckily, we have kept the valuable data before the tsunami strike, she explained.

"We have collected specimens, studied the habitat of sea creature, and reviewed the sea environment. We may not have to repeat our previous journey. We only concentrate on the affected sea area to get our research data."

Disaster scene is the main spot for research

Dr. Tan said as most of the affected parts are costal, when we "revisit" our previous journey to collect specimens and data for research, we will confine ourselves to the affected area only. We will study the degree of destruction and compare with the previous data.

"Now we are pending for approval from the Ministry of Science and Technology. Upon approval, we will go out to the sea, study and analyze the effect of tsunami to the ecological system of the sea."

Set up the Tsunami warning System to educate the public

Dr. Tan said the Malaysian government is now trying to apply the system from United States in order to set up a tsunami warning system.

"Actually, Japan is a country with more experience in this field. This is because the percentage that they faced earthquakes and tsunamis is higher."

She added that the Japanese Government collects all the useful data according to their previous experience. Then they set up a computer program and whenever they detect any abnormal shake frequency, their warning system will start to play a role.

"They install their sensor deed in the sea. Then they transfer the message through the satellite."

She said Japanese fisherman usually use the satellite system to help them in seeking fish. When they found the buyers in the market, that is the time they catch the fish. When they found fishes, they will automatically inform the government. The government will proceed with investigation according to the fishermen's report.

However, in her opinion, the most vital thing that we should learn from the Japanese is their successful public education. Starting from the schooling age, the government trains their people how to escape when disaster occurs.

"I have a friend from Japan who called me recently. I was told that she swum at the Batu Ferringgi beach with her daughter. When she saw the abnormal wave, she noticed that there is something wrong and run away from the place together with her daughter. "

Unfortunately, many Malaysians do not leave the beach even after the live guard requested them to do so. They never take care; therefore the number of death is so much. Thus, she thinks that our government should do more on the public education.

A tsunami can make everyone worry and become sad. Thus, as human beings in the modern technology era, we should pay more attention to the minor changes in our surroundings in order to escape from the next disaster.

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