Proactive steps have been taken by Sarawak in coral rehabilitation and conservation, says the deputy minister. — Bernama photo
MIRI (June 18): Sarawak government is monitoring closely the health of coral reefs in the state’s waters, with Sarawak Forest Corporation (SFC) working closely with all stakeholders, says Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Sebastian Ting.
The state government, he added, is also collaborating with Reef Check Malaysia, national oil corporation Petronas and other organisations in the rehabilitation and conservation of coral through education programmes.
“Yes. SFC is conducting annual coral health assessment at number of permanent transects in Miri-Sibuti Coral Reefs National Park (MSCRNP),” he said when asked about the actions taken by Sarawak government in monitoring the coral health, especially those in marine parks and dive sites, due to global warming affecting marine ecosystem and its impact on the diving tourism industry here.
In neighbouring Sabah, which has among the best diving sites in the world, scuba divers have expressed alarm over severe discoloration of corals in the Kota Kinabalu waters, due to rising sea temperatures.
The SFC is the management authority for Totally Protected Areas (TPAs) and wildlife in Sarawak, including marine TPAs and marine wildlife, and all hard and soft corals are listed as protected species under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance, 1998.
Proactive steps had been taken by Sarawak in coral rehabilitation and conservation, said Ting.
“A total of 1,750 units of artificial reef known as reef balls were deployed in the MSCRNP under the Eco-Marine Project – a collaboration between SFC and Petronas from 2016 to 2019 to restore and rehabilitate degraded reefs.
“Under this same project, a number of (SFC) staff have been trained to carry out reefs health assessment in collaboration with Reef Check Malaysia,” he said, adding that Sarawak also emphasised on conservation education and public awareness programme such as annual reef clean-up with stakeholders, and series of local communities engagement being undertaken annually.
Miri is a popular dive destination due to an abundance of pristine patch reefs, with the MSCRNP, lying at depths ranging from 7m to 30m, having an average visibility of 10m to 30m.
The diversity and accessibility of corals and other marine life on the reefs is among the best in the world, and the nearest site is barely 10 minutes from Miri Marina Bay.
The reefs house a wide diversity of marine creatures including soft corals like leather corals, sea whips and many others.
Meanwhile, Miri Nature Society vice-chairman Musa Musbah said coral bleaching had been noticed here by divers many years ago.
“It is not only caused by the rising temperature, as run-offs from polluted rivers and huge oil-palm plantations carrying pollutants like fertilisers, insecticide and weedicide, have also caused leaching and green fungi growth on the corals.
”All plantations should dam their farm-land drainage and recycle the run-off or process it before draining it into rivers,” Musa said.