From the

Courtyard

Issue 78

June 2013

Sharks: Magnificent creatures that require protection

by Edward Debono and Francesca Vella

‘Sharks’: The first thing that probably comes to mind is the notorious movie Jaws, but are these crea-

tures really the man-eating monsters that they’re portrayed as being in films and in the media? This

cannot be further from the truth, and the NGO Sharklab-Malta has been working hard to improve peo-

ple’s understanding of sharks and show that these creatures are critical, amazing, diverse, spectacular

and misunderstood.

This organisation was set up five years ago with the aim of carrying out research, educating and rais-

ing greater awareness about all Elasmobranch (Sharks, Rays, Skates and Chimaeras) around Malta and

within the Mediterranean.

Sadly, because sharks cannot reproduce fast, their numbers are decreasing due to overfishing and if

change doesn’t happen soon then many species will simply disappear forever. Sharks and their rela-

tives often die in fishing nets targeted for other fish, and you can come across shark meat like mazzola

or pixxiplamptu at fishing markets like the one at Marsaxlokk.

sac scouts

newsletter

From the Courtyard

feature of the month

SHARKS!

What’s on

July 15—20—

Scout Trp to

Sicily

July 27—Pasta

Night

Issue 78

June 2013

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From the

Courtyard

Issue 78

June 2013

Sharks are at the top of the food

chain, so they play a very important

role for all species of marine life

by keeping populations healthy and

balanced, and controlling disease. They

are highly migratory and are a critical

component of the oceans, which pro-

duce more oxygen than the rainfor-

ests, remove about 48% of the atmos-

phere’s man-made carbon dioxide, and

control earth’s temperature and

weather. Destroying shark populations

could destroy our oceans and our life

support system.

Sharklab-Malta is determined to

make a difference, primarily by stress-

ing the need to change our perception

of these animals, and by showing that these magnificent creatures need to be appreciated and under-

stood for the roles they play here around Malta and around the world.

The organisation also carries out research to find out which Elasmobranch species live around Malta,

which ones travel through our waters and which ones need our help to continue to survive. Sharklab-

Malta volunteers visit the fishing market (pixkerija) in Valletta to gather information about the species

that would have been caught, as well as their size and sex.

Sometimes eggcases of species of small sharks such as the Smallerspotted Catshark (which grows to a

maximum of 50 to 60cm) are recovered from dead sharks and they are taken to the aquaculture centre at

Forti San Luċjan in Marsaxlokk. In most cases, the eggs develop, and once they hatch and are healthy

enough, Sharklab releases them to their natural environment.

The organisation regularly organises a variety of activities such as snorkelling and diving, beach cleanups

and eggcase searches along beaches.

Further information can be found at www.sharklab-malta.org or on the organisation’s Facebook page.

Did you know...?

There are 440 different species of shark and they are found in every ocean, with some species

also found in rivers

You’re more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark

Blue Sharks, which used to be a common species throughout the Mediterranean and around the

Maltese Islands, have seen their numbers drop by more than 90% in the last 10 years alone

Most sharks as we know them today developed 64 million years ago, during the age of the dino-

saurs

Sharks are closely related to skates and rays, such as the Common Stingray, which you can some-

times spot while snorkelling in areas such as Golden Bay

Shark skin inspired the development of high-tech swimsuits that boosts swimmers’ speed… until

these were banned in major competitions such as the Olympic Games

SHARKS!

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From the

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Issue 78

June 2013 G

SL

’s n

ote

June 24th

June 24th

would have been Cubbie’s 88th

birthday. We always used to celebrate with Cubbie on

the Wednesday closest to his birthday where we would buy a cake and have a drink together.

Unfortunately, from this year on we can only do so without him. All leaders and rovers present

at the meeting on Wednesday 26th

June shared a toast in his honour.

Summer activities

The main forthcoming events for the summer are as follows:

July 15th

to the 20th

– Summer Group Trip to Alia, Sicily. A Group of 29, 17 SAC members and 12

8th

Swieqi Girl Guides will be camping together in Alia and enjoying some adventurous activities

together besides educational tours around Sicily.

July 27th

– Annual pasta night fundraising activity to collect funds towards Cubbie’s bust which

we shall be installing near our HQ towards the end of September/beginning of October. Mem-

bers, friends, families and former group members are encouraged to attend and join in the fun.

Summer camp – first week of September at Ghajn Tuffieha camp site

Hq Improvements

In the last few weeks a lot of work has been done at our HQ to improve it. The flooring in the cub

room and troop room is now complete. A rafter was also built in the cub room to try and resolve

some of the ever increasing problem of space requirements we have. We have also started

works to improve the look of the façade at the back end of our HQ. The ramp to improve access

and the platform to hold the bust have already been done and a little paint work is all that is left.

Thanks go to the dedicated Rovers who manage to do most of these jobs between work or study

time.

Reorganisation

As GSL, I feel that there is a need for some reorganization in the Group. In the coming weeks I

shall be holding some meetings with Rovers and present leaders to try and give the sections a

boost in some areas. This subject has been mentioned in recent leaders meetings but I felt that it

would be best to address this in summer.

Election for Chief Scout at IHQ

The National Scout Council has in recent weeks announced the election for the post of

Chief Scout that will be held on Saturday 22nd June 2013 in Gozo and on Monday 24th

June 2013 in Malta.

The Nominated Candidates are:

Dr Gregory Attard, MD

Dr Arthur Azzopardi, LLD

Our Group wishes both candidates the best and looks forward to working with whoever is

elected.

GSL’s NOTE

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On Wednesday the 19th, the Cub Scouts were lucky enough to spend their two hour weekly meeting with

representatives from The Malta Society for Scale Modelers. The session started with a brief talk about the

association; when it was founded, what they do in their weekly meetings, their model exhibitions, as well

as their successful awards from International Competitions and Shows. The Cub Scouts spent the rest of

the meeting constructing, fixing and gluing tiny parts together to build aircraft models with the assistance

of these members from the society.

MODEL MAKING WITH THE CUBS

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The Malta Society of Model Makers is a non-governmental and non-profit making organization that or-

ganizes lectures, visits to museums, historical places, dinners and other social events. IPMS Malta

(International Plastic Modeler’s Society) was established in January 1981. The society’s main objective is

to increase scale modeling within the Maltese society and to change the public’s perception from that of a

hobby to that of an appreciated art-form. The main event of the society is the annual exhibition which is

organized in March at the Catholic Institute in Floriana and promotes the talented work of local members.

The Aviation Museum at Ta’Qali holds a permanent exhibit consisting of aircraft models and dioramas for

anyone to see.

IPMS Malta has its premises centrally located

at Blata l-Bajda where members meet every

Wednesday evening after 18.30 to discuss the

latest scale model project either finished or in

-progress, to exchange ideas and discuss mod-

eling techniques.

The Malta Society of Model Makers have

taken part in various international competi-

tions some of which are the IPMS Nationals

(UK), Euromilitaire (UK), World Expo (Glasgow,

Roma, Boston, Girona), IPMS Athens (Greece),

Herzog von Bayern (Germany), Kulembacht

(Germany), MFCA (USA), Atlanta (USA), Le

Petit Soldat (Italy), CSMS (Catania), A.M.T.

Valencia (Spain).

MODEL MAKING WITH THE CUBS

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From the

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Organised by the troop’s SPL Matthew Spiteri and the newly appointed ASL Isaac Schembri, the Scolym-

pics was held during the special meeting on Wednesday 3rd

July. Scolympics combines the scouting knowl-

edge together with the international sporting event the Olympics. This time round there were seven

events, in which the four teams made up of different patrols had to compete in.

No Olympics is complete without the opening ceremony together with the lighting of the torch, which has

to remain lit during the whole event. The Scolympics opening ceremony was a scout version of the Lon-

don Olympics held in 2012 and on a much smaller scale. The torch was made from a metal bucket hung

on a tripod, the flags carried represented the Scout Association, Country and Group. To add to the effect,

‘Chariots of Fire’ was playing in the background.

Folowing the ceremony, the leaders explained the rules of each event and the games begun. The first

event was the mallet throwing followed by the tug of war. After the latter was finished, a bright idea

came upm that leaders should compete against all the troop present. This led to mayhem, with the rope

slicing in half and everyone piling up on top of each other.

The scolympic version of dueling took place after this followed by the classic non-olympic event, the egg

and spoon race. One has to mention that no one actually dropped the egg, that has to be a world’s first! A

series of races followed, with the first being the pallet race; all the team has to stand on one pallet whilst

throwing another pallet which they have to jump on to, this keeps on going until the team crosses the

finish line. The hurdle race followed, obviously the hurdles were not to Olympic standard, and in fact

benches were used for such race. The last two main events were the wheelbarrow race, where one team

member had to grab another member by his legs who would run on his hands and a miniature version of

the scout game ‘Alpha to Bravo’ where team members had to race back and forth to fill in a bottle using

nothing but a wet sponge.

By the time all these events were finished, team yellow, black and green where all in chance to win such

honorable sporting event, so the judges decided to make-up a couple of more events to identify the win-

ner. The first was who can create the tallest freestanding human structure, followed by ‘who can catch

Mike first’. Michael our ASL is actually quite a fast runner, and took the 20 or so participating members a

reasonable amount of time to catch him. In the end, the winner of the first edition of Scolympics was

awarded to the green team, composed of Daniel Busutill (Team Captain), Andrea Cuschieri, Matthias Bar-

tolo and Daniel Pace.

SCOLYMPICS 2013

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From the

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The Venture Unit is organizing and planning quite a few activities for this Summer 2013. Here’s what we

have planned so far and what we are looking forward to do:

>> On the 3rd

of July we are having a Sleepover at HQ during which Jamie will host his own activity for the

night.

>> On the 10th of July David is organising a paintball battle for all of us. Take cover!

>> If no one has noticed yet, we're bringing back the Doughnuts to be sold at HQ during meetings.

>> We're having a Relax Camp from the 2nd

till 4th

August at Ghajn Tuffieha where we can sit back and re-

lax whilst also having a few no stress activities!

>> During the middle of August the Unit is having a Crevassing exercise organized by Liam with the help of

Isaac Schembri.

>> Towards the end of August we should be having a Gozo activity which is being planned by our Venture

Leader Matthew Zarb.

>> On the 28th of August we're going to have a night-hike organized by David and Andre.

Apart from these activities, each week a unit member organizes his own activity to be done on Wednes-

day, after we have finished our meeting. For these past few weeks we have had the Tower project by

David, a Challenging activity to test the Unit’s skills and abilities by Liam and a Scavenger Hunt by Andrew.

We have welcomed two new ventures, Matthew Spiteri and Andre Causon and they have already tasted

the thrill and fun of being a Venture, where your leader doesn't decide what activity the group is going to

do but the members themselves plan out activities and challenge themselves to their limits. Read more

about what they think of Venturing in the next page.

For this summer we hope to plan and finish all the activities we have set out to do, not only for our enjoy-

ment but as we all were disappointed that last year we didn't manage to hold any activities since we spent

the whole summer renovating the Mousehole.

This year we are doing our utmost to have the time of our lives as Ventures and as friends since this may

be our last summer together before a few of our members become Rovers. Planning activities and setting

a date can be a problem at times because Family, Friends, Education and now even Work have to be kept

in mind as they may interfere. Even as I write this article I am at work (shh don’t tell my boss!) but I try to

make the free time that I have and finish my priorities for the Scout Group.

Personally I am sure that this summer we're going to have a blast having fun and doing activities as a unit

and as friends.

Venture Unit Chairman

Liam Curmi de Gray

VENTURES GET READY FOR SUMMER

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From the

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My First Venture Meeting—Andre Causon

My first venture meeting wasn’t the usual 2 hour meeting. This

meeting was actually an activity called ‘The after-exams venture

sleepover’. This overnight activity started with a pioneering pro-

ject. From this pioneering project I could understand the differ-

ence between the Troop and Unit, as never in the years I spent

in the troop have I built a tower as large as this one.

After a couple of hours building the large tower, during which

we all contributed with ideas and designs, as well as manpower,

we finally could start relaxing and decided to play a game of

cards. Here I could get to know more about the rest of the Ven-

ture Unit as characters show mostly during games.

It is activities like these, apart from the people that the Unit

consists of, is what made me decide whether I should continue

the scouting life or not. I have always waited for the moment of

becoming a Venture since I had joined the Troop and now I

know why. Hopefully we will have more exciting activities like

this one in the near future.

The Mega Tower—Matthew Spiteri

This was my first big venture activity ... and it

certainly did not disappoint! This week’s meet-

ing was a special one, since we were to sleep

over at the HQ and that therefore meant that

we could take as long as we wanted on our ac-

tivity. That week’s activity was planned and lead

by David Pace. We were to build a mega struc-

ture and out of an option of 3 we decided upon

the mega tower, a tower so big it surpassed the

roof. We set to work and started by round lash-

ing 2, 4-metre spars together and repeated this

3 times until we had 3 really long poles. Next we

used a figure of 8 lashing in the middle of these

poles to turn them into a huge tripod. It took

quite a lot of man power to open it and as soon

as we had, we immediately set on tying support

bars between all three legs. Each time we finished a support bar we kept on climbing higher and

higher until we reached the top of our hour glass structure. At one point we were so high up, we

decided it was too dangerous to continue without a safety line. So with the help of our quarter-

master Gabe and George we set up a safety line and harnessed ourselves to the line and kept on

climbing high and building as we went. Next we focused on building the platform. It was quite

hard since we were building it upside down. Thankfully we had the safety line and felt confident

enough to keep on going. Finally after hours of tying and lifting we finished our mega structure.

We were all extremely proud of it and took turns sitting on the platform high up in the air. It was

a huge success. The next challenge was taking it down !

VENTURES GET READY FOR SUMMER

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From the

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June 2013 VENTURES GET READY FOR SUMMER

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A needless observation for most, Headquarters has been going through an extreme makeover in

recent months. Though for most of our members this is a first, this is a process which happens

every few years, some would call it a needed upgrade, but to others (especially myself) it is an

evolution. As the members in the crew and leaders change, so do the mentalities of how the

headquarters should function.

During this latest attack on the bowels of our scouting home, I have had the pleasure of partaking

in most of these changes, and the experience has been surprisingly entertaining. Most dread the

concept of inventory, listing every single item the group possesses in order to decide on whether

or not it is worth keeping. It's at this point that I would like to point out that our headquarters

makes an episode of the television program "Hoarders" look like dealing with an overpacked

wardrobe. It has been a dive into the unknown, and an interesting one at that.

As we find ourselves sifting through the remnants of the works of past scouting generations, I

find myself seeing the building as a proverbial Peter Pan, here we have a building that despite its

age is the embodiment of all the youths who have made it their second home over the years.

One can also say that it is also the embodiment of a person going through a midlife crisis and

constantly trying to keep up with the latest crazes of its current generation of inhabitants.

Though I think most would prefer to stick with the Peter Pan analogy.

I'm talking about all this as I have had first hand experience in unearthing some of the catalogue

of tales held within the building's walls. It's already enjoyable for me when I come across the

remnants of things I had a hand in making, using and on occasion destroying in my 10 year stint

as a scout, which is nothing compared to the years accumulated by some of my peers, only re-

cently did I come across the few surviving pieces of the old kitchen, the rebuilding of which was

the last major update of the headquarters before this, as well as the rusted pieces of an old salt

water purifier which was used at a venture camp some years back. The real brilliant part is not

just rediscovering my own memories, but learning the stories of the older generation. As I would

come across some oddity, and curiosity would get the better of me, I would bring it to the atten-

tion of one of the older members.

Their initial reaction is usually one of surprise, having forgotten themselves that these things are

still at Headquarters. This reaction is normally replaced with a look of joy as they find themselves

remembering the tale of how we came about this possession. Usually these tales involve in-

stances of epic negotiation skills, followed by the grand feat of actually getting it to HQ. I say this

with special reference to the old trailer on the roof.

Although taking care of HQ is an obligation all members should eventually be a part of, it's amaz-

ing how this work unearths stories which continue to inspire us all to do bigger and better things,

and as a rover I feel it is a duty of ours to inspire the younger generations to not only learn from

our mistakes and accomplish the same things we have, but to also excel even farther than we

have. Then obviously continue to inspire those who come after them to do the same!

George Zammit Montebello

Rover

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG