Felix
KOTA KINABALU: A video of fishes, said to be in hundreds, jumping and acting peculiarly at the Tawau port may be a sign of a looming disaster, or not.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah geologist, Dr Felix Tongkul said peculiar fish behavior are often times linked to tsunamis.
He explained that tsunamis are triggered by earth movements.
However, he is not overly concerned with the strange fish behavior in Tawau, even as a researcher because “animal behaviour are caused by many circumstances; earth movement (very rare) being one of them.”
He gave this input when asked about the viralled video of an incident that occured quite recently in Tawau.
He added that numerous researhes have been carried out on animal behavior, include marine life such as fishes with regards to earthquakes and tsunamis.
A search on the internet on strange animal behavior led this reporter to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) where it was mentioned that the earliest reference the USGS have to unusual animal behavior prior to a significant earthquake is from Greece in 373 BC.
“Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake,” the website mentioned.
The website mentioned that a lot of research is being carried out on animal behavior links to disasters such as earthquakes but most are by scientists in China and Japan.
UMS does not offer such studies, said Dr Felix.
Dr Felix was also asked if there were seismic stations that could detect earth movements in Tawau.
“Yes we have. Earth movement is constantly monitored. However Meteorology Department has not issued any significant earth movement,” he said.
He was also asked if perhaps the strange behavior could be a sign of the looming ‘big one’ in Lahad Datu that he mentioned several years ago, shortly after the occurence of the Mt Kinabalu earthquake June 5, 2015.
To this, he replied:” Not sure. “