Sipadan Island, pride of Sabah and of course Malaysia, and arguably the world’s top dive destination has been shortlisted as one of the contenders to make the New 7Wonders of Nature list, which seeks to determine the world’s top seven “clearly defined natural sites that have neither been created by nor significantly altered by humans for aesthetic reasons.”
Sipadan is Malaysia’s only oceanic island, rising 600m from the seabed. It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct volcanic cone. This took thousands of years to develop. Rarely seen diving sights are a common occurence in Sipadan: eg, schools of greenback turtles & big-eye trevally in tornado-like formations.
According to the organisers, the purpose of the campaign is to :
Significantly raise awareness of the incredible variety and beauty of nature around us. As our slogan says, “If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it!” This is something that is very important - more awareness and more tourism income means that these natural treasures can be better preserved for future generations.
Among the contenders for the new 7 Wonders of Nature list are :
(1) the Galapagos Islands - Ecuador - famed for their vast number of endemic species and was visited by Charles Darwin, contributing to the his theory of evolution by natural selection.
(2) Bora-Bora Island, some say this is the world’s most beautiful island - French Polynesia
(3) Rock of Gibraltar - UK (called the pillar of Hercules!!!!)
(4) Mount Everest - the highest mountain in the world!!!!! Nepal & Tibet - 8,848 metres (29,029 feets)
(5) Grand Canyon - Arizona, USA
(6) Ayers Rock - Australia
(7) The Amazon - South America (1.7 billion acres)!!!!!
(8) Black Forest - Germany
(9) Niagara Falls - located between Ontario, Canada & New York, USA
(10) Danube River - Europe
(11) Dead Sea Lake - Israel, West Bank Palestine & Jordan - the deepest and saltiest hypersaline lake in the world at 378 metres below ground.
(12) Great Barrier Reef - Queensland, Australia - the largest coral reef system in the world - spanning 2,600 metres in length
In the final phase of the campaign, the 21 finalised sites will again be put to popular vote. Voting will continue throughout 2010 and into 2011. During this period, the New7Wonders World Tour will visit each finalists, in order for them to present themselves to worldwide voters.
The final 7 will be announced sometime 2011.
Each human in the world is entitled to one vote in phase 1, 2 and 4.
Voting is online: www.new7.wonders.com/nature
Spread the news far and wide! To all Malaysians - vote for Sipadan Island!!!!!!
(source - www.new7.wonders.com & http://bengodomon.com)
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