APA KAITAN ANTARA MELAYU DAN IKAN PAUS ?

(Pelik Tapi Benar ... 60 ekor ikan paus mati terdampar di Pantai Opoutere, New Zealand)

Insiden ikan-ikan paus terdampar di beberapa persisiran pantai dunia seperti dirakamkan di media massa dan alternatif adalah suatu fenomena unik namun amat menyedihkan !

Para penyelidik membuktikan kemungkinan ikan-ikan paus ini sudah menyerah kalah dalam menempuhi cabaran ‘survival’ spesisnya di dalam senario pengurusan bio-sfera yang kian berkecamuk.

Bangsa Melayu yang sering digambarkan Tun Dr Mahathir sebagai bangsa yang sentiasa mudah lupa, juga sentiasa bergelumang dengan dilemma yang serupa.

Sepertimana ikan-ikan paus tadi, begitulah juga nasib Melayu yang sekian lamanya masih tersekat di fasa 'survival' gara-gara padang permainan politik dan ekonominya 'disempitkan' oleh bangsa lain dan lebih menyedihkan lagi, disebabkan oleh bangsanya sendiri.

Lihat ini ...

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Mystery ... about 60 pilot whales died after becoming stranded on Opoutere Beach in New Zealand

NEW ZEALAND, 1 December 2004 - A third stranding of pilot whales within 24 hours - this time on New Zealand's North Island - is likely to be part of a pattern, not a coincidence, say researchers.

About 60 pilot whales died on Opoutere Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula after going ashore on Sunday, about the same time as the King Island stranding in Bass Strait, in which 73 pilot whales and 25 dolphins died.

Next morning another 50 pilot whales became stranded at Maria Island on Tasmania's east coast and 19 perished.

The three sites are separated by land masses, as well as thousands of kilometres of open ocean.

"It's horrific that this is happening on such a large scale," said Museum Victoria curator Mark Norman. "This is not something you can write off as one whale getting the direction to the beach wrong."

As scientists yesterday began to perform autopsies on the animals, they also took tissue samples to seek common links that might show whether it was anything more than an extraordinary coincidence.

In an effort to understand why so many whales became stranded, theories focused on human noise, natural geomagnetic disturbances and the movement of prey.

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, called for a halt to the seismic testing for oil and gas using airguns north-west of King Island, which he said was also occurring a year ago when whales died in two Tasmanian strandings - nine sperm whales in one event, and 110 pilot whales and 20 dolphins in another.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said no scientific research has shown any lethal effect of seismic testing on whales. But increasing concern is being expressed, by organisations such as the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and the World Conservation Union, about the effect of noise on whales.

Pilot whales are believed to navigate using the earth's magnetic field. Research by Cambridge University's Dr Margaret Klinowska on stranding sites found that whales may make navigational mistakes where geomagnetic contours lead them ashore.

The magnetic field is influenced mainly by Earth's molten outer core. Solar storms can also disrupt electrical circuits.

There is speculation this could affect animals that depend on magnetic fields for navigation

"But nothing of significance has been happening in recent days," said Garth Patterson, services manager of the Ionospheric Prediction Service in Sydney.

That leaves prey movements. Autopsies are yet to reveal what the stranded whales were eating, but pilot whales normally feed in the deep ocean on squid and fish. Squid specialist Dr George Jackson of the University of Tasmania said there was no known mass spawning event in the region that might have drawn whales in.

"I guess all you can say about that is that it's really difficult," said Philippa Brakes, a scientist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. "Is this a pattern or a coincidence? I think you would have to say it's a pattern. It's more than likely to have one cause. And governments need to put more money into research."