Protect Coral Reefs in Malaysia

Recently Tioman Development Authority and Alam Flora organised a one-off recycling buy-back programme called Trash to Cash on Tioman Island. The recycling buy-back programme was well received by Tioman communities. Many peoples on the island brought their recyclable items to the recycling buy-back centre, sold them and gained cash in return. Although there is an on-going recycling programme on Tioman Island which is run by Reef Check Malaysia, it is limited to glass, plastic bottles, aluminium cans and e-wastes due to limited resources and the distance of the island from mainland. The recent recycling buy-back programme included other recyclable items such as used cooking oils, papers, cardboards, irons, alloys, steels, leads and coppers. Reef Check Malaysia is going to approach Tioman Development Authority and Alam Flora and find way to turn this one-off recycling buy-back programme into a regular programme on the island.

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. They often get stuck on reefs which can damage corals and trap marine life such as shark, turtle and fish. Very often they cause death or injuries to the trapped marine life by restricting their movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe.

This year alone, more than 2 tonnes of ghost nets were removed from Tioman Island. If this is not done, the nets can continue to catch and trap its victims. Given the high-quality synthetics that are used today in making fishing nets, the destruction can continue for a long time. Therefore, it is imperative that these ghost nets are removed from the reefs as soon as possible every time after a report was received. The success of these efforts on Tioman Island was due to the collaboration between Reef Check Malaysia, Department of Fisheries Pahang, Tioman Marine Conservation Group and Tioman Dive Association.