KOTA KINABALU: Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun has called on Sabahans to support and protect the population of sharks that are heading towards extinction to ensure the tourism industry would not be affected badly.
He said the tourism industry, particularly diving activity, is depending on the sharks as most of the divers want to see them in the natural habitat.
Therefore, there is a need to protect the sharks population, which is now only 20 per cent remaining in the Sabah waters.
He said diving activity is contributing to the growth of tourism in Sabah. Last year, it contributed a turnover of RM237 million to the tourism industry.
“Just imagine if the sharks’ population is heading towards extinction, divers will move to other countries and it will affect the tourism industry,” he said after launching the Imperial Gourmet Soup Challenge-2012 Sabah Protect Sharks, organized by JCI Tanjung Aru at Suria Sabah Shopping Complex here yesterday.
Masidi said the only industry that is totally owned by Sabahans is tourism as almost 90 per cent of the tourism operators and staff are Sabahans.
“If we look at the other industries such as plantation, 80 per cent of the workers are Indonesians and 70 per cent of the construction workers also foreigners.
“If the tourism industry is affected because of the sharks extinction, the first persons affected are local people. Therefore, I would like to urge the people of Sabah to protect and take care of welfare of the workers in Sabah by protecting sharks.
“It is wrong for us probably to protect the sharks so that the future of Sabahans can be protected and they can make money from the industry.
“It is more on whether we love shark fins more or we love Sabahans less,” he pointed out.
Masidi stressed that without sharks, he assured the diving industry will just collapse because the Indonesians and Southern Filipinos are coming up with it. It is a matter of time before they catch up with us in Sabah.
Commenting on the enforcement of the Fisheries Act to protect sharks, he said it had not been done yet as they had proposed to the related federal ministry to carry out amendment to the Act.
“We would ask for amendment to protect all types of sharks in Sabah. Even now, there is existing protection on certain type of sharks. But we want all the sharks to be protected in Sabah to ensure we can the save the population of sharks.”
On the Imperial Gourmet Soup Challenge to find an alternative to sharp fin soup, Masidi said it was carried out by JCI Tanjung Aru to encourage people to have an option in soup other than shark fin soup.
“Shark fin is considered a very prestigious soup and normally served during wedding ceremony. What they are trying to show today is that there is other alternative prestigious soup and the reason why they have this challenge is to prove to the people that there are other soups to impress the guests.
“The challenge is to educate the people not to eat shark fin soup as the sharks are heading towards extinction,” said the minister.