Month: February 2022

IMO: Sailing is amazing, the wind in your hair, the tiller and mainsheet in your hand, the feeling of the water between your fingertips. It is like a dream. That is why I am going to tell you about it

I have learnt all that I know from Maryborough Sailing club.

The tiller is basically the steering wheel at the stern of the boat. It is connected to the rudder, which goes in the water. It steers like a canoe. If you face it one way, it will go the other way. Never be too violent with the way that you steer, or you may capsize. Never let go of the tiller if you can help it.

The centre board is the part that you insert into the sailing boat. It stops it from drifting and gets it to go straight. If you do capsize on a small sail boat, you have to push on it to get it off its side before the sail goes under the sea.

There can be 2 different sails on small sailing boats. If you are on a small boat where only one big and one small person can get onto, or a double hulled boat with 1 sail, there is one sail called the Main sail. This sail controls the speed of the boat. Never let go of it. If you are on a 2 sailed boat, the sails are the Main sail, and the Jib sail. The Jib has to be on the same side of the boat as the Main sail, so that there isn’t much resistance. If you let it flap, the boat will slow down. The Jib sail is connected to 2 ropes called Jib sheets. These ropes control which side of the boat that the Jib is on.

Foot straps are used so that you don’t fall out of the boat while you are tacking (turning slowly 90 degrees), or jiving (turning 90 degrees really fast. Watch out for the boom (metal pole attached to the Main sail)), because that can hurt if you don’t duck.

One more thing, make sure that you NEVER EVER GO SAILING ALONE!!!! Otherwise if you get lost or stuck, no one will know where you are and no one can help you. So tell people where you are going.

Sadly, many creatures are at risk of extinction, but we may be able to help. Here are some of them and some facts about them.

Vulnerable:

Name: Atlantic Cod (Gadus Morhua)

It’s popularity for being on a dinner plate led to the vulnerability of this delicious fish. Several stocks deflated in the 1990s because of overfishing. Their population hasn’t fully recovered yet.

Name: Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus Cristatus)

It’s the only type of sea-going lizard in the world, and it lives in the Galapagos Islands, where its predators are dogs and cats brought by settlers. I have no problems with pets, but keep an eye on them.

Name: Rainbow Parrotfish (Scarus Guacamaia)

Since its mangrove nursery habitat is being destroyed, this beautiful beaked reef resident has less safe places for its babies. Other than that, some threats are overfishing, pollution, and coastal development.

Name: Common Seahorse (Hippocampus Kuda)

It seems that its name is misleading, as its vulnerability is caused by being caught to be put in aquariums and sold. It also is caught for use in medicines.

Name: Great White Shark (Carcharodon Carcharias)

Even though it is the scariest shark in the sea, this feared fish is not as invulnerable as you might think. It is a hunted by game fishermen and commercial fishers because of its fearsome reputation, not for food, who catch it for fins, teeth, and jaws.

Endangered:

Name: Blue Whale (Balaenoptera Musculus)

The Blue Whale is the biggest animal on the Earth, it was almost hunted to extinction in the first half of the 20th century, it is estimated that there are less than 5,000 Blue Whales left even though it started to be protected since the 1960s.

Name: Sea Otter (Enhydra Lutris)

In their ecosystem, Sea Otters are an important keystone species. They eat sea urchins, that, if they had the chance, would eat all of the kelp forests that act as homes and food for many other species.

Critically Endangered:

Name: Coelacanth (Latimeria Chalumnae)

It was once thought to be extinct, a Coelacanth was caught off the Comoros Islands in 1938 led to a hunt for this ‘living fossil’. Another species of Coelacanth has been found living near Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Name: Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricata)

Turtles have slow reproduction rates, which makes them vulnerable. They also are hunted for turtle meat and for their beautiful, decorative shell.

Data Unknown:

Name: Tucuxi (Sotalia Fluviatilis)

Tucuxi is a river dolphin that is found in coastal waters and estuaries (bodies of water found where rivers end) around northern South America. These small dolphins are at a increasing risk from fishing nets, tourist boats, and river pollution.

What could we do?

We could ask for a breeding program to help preserve our worlds animals, before we lose them forever.

Source:

Everything you need to know about sharks and other creatures of the deep By DK Penguin Random House.