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| Happy with his coral biscuit |
Our final coral planting exhibition for spring 2015 was held on the 6
th
& 7
th of June, aiming to educate people visiting the sunset music
festival on the occasion of the World Ocean Day and World Environment Day. The entire science team was up at the crack of dawn to prepare for
all the coral planting work to be conducted that day. Kit accompanied by his
younger brother Yong Sien packed all the coral planting essentials, I meanwhile
conducted a fish market survey whilst Jason and Emily collected corals of
opportunity ready for the days coral planting followed by a late night information stall at the music festival.
In the
previous blog post I outlined the methodology for
public coral planting, today I shall expand more into the booth and
what we try and explain to people. Educating the general public is a large part
of conservation, particularly environmental education for the new generations about the importance
of being sustainable.
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| The Science Team |
Turtles
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| Jason Talking about Turtles |
Here at Kudat three kinds of turtles used to be present in
abundance, they are as follows; Hawksbill, Green and Olive Ridley. However to
date all populations have been severely depleted due to historical egg
poaching, with Olive Ridleys turtles likely locally extinct. Numbers of Greens
are protected by the activities of community projects such as KTCS but there are
still many threats facing these creatures.
Ocean plastic pollution is one of the main threats facing these
beautiful creatures. We at TRACC have performed autopsies on turtles and very
often, as reflected in the literature, find that blockages of the intestinal
tract are the primary cause of death. It appears that plastic bags in the ocean
resemble jellyfish are one of the most common causes of this threat.
So what can you do?
Firstly one thing that everyone can do is simply reduce the
amount of plastic they use in their everyday life. One of the easiest and most effective ways of
doing this is simply not using carrier bags. Buy yourself a lifelong shopping
bag and immediately help reduce your carbon footprint. The average active use
of a carrier bag is under 30 seconds and yet it can take hundreds of years for
this to biodegrade. Also buying in bulk can considerably reduce plastic in
packaging terms, and also save you money! Lastly, the simplest of all, don’t
litter!
Another threat that faces sea turtles is egg collection.
Turtles are air breathers and need to come onto land to lay eggs. They lay on
average 6 times a season and leave large and very evident tracks leading to
their nests. Here in Malaysia the eggs are considered a delicacy, one single
nest of turtle eggs can be equivalent of an entire months wages, so its no
surprise that historical nest raids have dramatically reduced turtle numbers over the years. At the time of writing it is currently illegal, but with so many beaches
its impossible for the police to enforce any kind of law regarding this matter.
Here at TRACC, we have collected and hatched in excess of 3000 eggs since 2013.
We try and put the message across that the maximum value of turtles, is in
ecotourism for the community, rather than a one off payment for an individual.
Shark fin soup
Shark bycatch / fisheries are another issue that we are
trying to educate the public about. Sharks are scientifically defined as fish,
however they belong to the subclass Elasmobranch, which also contains rays,
skates and sawfish. All members of the subclass
Elasmobranchii, in comparison to the majority of other fish subclasses, have long life histories (that is
they take a long time to mature, gestated etc). This in turn means that sharks
are more prone to being unsustainably fished. Shark surveys conducted
across the world all point to significant global reductions in populations of
sharks, See
HERE for ours.
Shark fin soup is a causes of massive increases in shark
fisheries. Shark fin soup is a luxury item in Chinese culture, and Malaysia has the second largest import of shark fins in Asia. To obtain maximum profits,
it is common practice for sharks de-finning to take place on the vessel and their body to be thrown
overboard (sometimes still alive). By doing so much more shark fin (the most
profitable part of the shark) can be brought to market.
For more information about shark conservation click
HERE
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| Jason explaining about dynamite fishing |
Another threat which we are trying to mitigate is that of
blast (aka dynamite) fishing. This sadly is exactly as it sounds. Its roots lie
within the occupation of the Philippines by America. Historically WW2 grenades
were thrown into the water, they would then explode, killing everything in its radius
and fish would simply be collected.
Sound like a pretty easy way to fish? It is! Super effective
as well as very time efficient. However these bombs also cause massive coral
damage, no coral means no fish, therefore the few people who bomb fish are in
effect, destroying their livelihood and also the livelihood of other artisanal net
fishers for short term gain. For more information on blast fishing click
HERE.
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Putting the biscuit back into water
asap to reduce stress on the coral |
Here are some of the days coral planting pictures.
Again i'd like to say thank you to all those who participated and a HUGE thank you to my team of scientists; Kit, Jason and Emily for continually working with a positive, can-do attitude, even when working into the night. Great work guys.
Thanks also to the Small grants programme (SGP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). #thegef
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| Our best looking biscuit? |
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| The future generation planting the future coral! |
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Mixing a thick paste of the
coral planting cement |
More info about learning to dive or volunteering to help save the ocean with TRACC in Malaysia
- Turtle Snorkellers - Divers
Rocky shore Zonation practical for the Cambridge (CIE 9693) A level Marine science course. TRACC teach this class once each year from January to April. The first fieldwork practical of the course was a study of the zonation on the man made wooden jetty on Pom Pom Island, Sabah Malaysia. 
The results showed clear concentration into discrete zones by both barnacles and snails. The barnacles were concentrated into the zone from 50cm above cd to 90cm above cd with a few on the shady North legs at upto 110cm. 
It is clear that the snails are actively choosing the shady jetty legs and if they are on the sunny side legs then they find the shadiest spot. On the shady legs they can also rest between tides higher up the leg presumably because it is cooler.
First one to go was Butterfly fish, the survey was done at the Northern Tip divesite.
Today we went diving at the wall at North Tip of Pom Pom Island, Borneo.
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