Micro Marine Protected areas for Semporna

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A Roadmap To Develop A Second Sipadan

The role of Micro Marine Protected Areas as a step towards development of the Semporna Barrier Reef Marine Conservation area

 Sipadan has unique geography and location.

BUT the sharks, turtles, fish and other biodiversity can occur in other places.

With this roadmap, Sabah could have many areas with as much tourism potential as Sipadan.

This project document describes practical steps and actions from many organisations and individuals to help develop sustainable ecotourism and rebuild a healthy ecosystem with reef sharks and breeding fish stocks in the Semporna District. This is a discussion document, please email Info@tracc-borneo.org with information, sightings, suggestions, improvements

Endangered Humphead wrasse -
These are still being eaten!

Table of Contents

Roadmap 2

Step 11 Sites for Micro MPA 6

Appendix I Site characteristics and choices 8

Appendix 2 Monitoring & further work 9

Roadmap

Step 1 The economics

Tourists come to Sipadan to be wowed by amazing fish, sharks and turtles. All tour operators compete for Sipadan permits.

More permits or alternative great dive sites would enable the industry to expand.

Step 2 Why is Sipadan unique?

Primarily because it has been protected and the fish, coral and shark populations are healthy.

There are beautiful reefs in many places around Semporna, but Sipadan has more big fish and the only abundant sharks. This is not Sipadan!

Step 3 What do visitors want to see?

Primary attraction is sharks. The bigger the better. Plus turtles and charismatic big fish such as the humphead wrasse.

Black tip reef sharks populations can recover BUT only if we stop eating them!

Step 4 What works

Langkayan island in SIMCA is a totally protected area North of Sandakan and has shown that reef recovery is possible. To expand diving tourism and create a 2^nd Sipadan we need multiple additional areas where shark populations can recover without conflict with existing villagers.

Step 5 What works for ecotourism

In Sabah with many artisanal fishers, only areas with 100% no fishing can create world class ecotourism sites. Small sites with total protection are better than bigger sites with only partial protection.

Step 6 The best protection is ownership

Artificial reefs like this have been built by resorts to attract marine life.

Resorts which are responsible for their own reefs are the best environmental wardens. Many resorts in Semporna have invested money in rebuilding reefs for their guests. At the moment these underwater structures are not legally protected.
 

Step 7 Learn from Forests

The simplest solution to avoid conflict with local residents in the development of Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) is to learn from the terrestrial parks in Sabah:- Mount Kinabalu, Maliau Basin and Danum Valley were chosen because there were few or no people to create conflict as well as for the amazing biodiversity.

Step 8 What works for enforcement

Small protected areas close to ecotourism centres are the easiest to enforce. The house reef from each resort can become a small MPA with enforcement by Honorary Wildlife wardens.

The Darvel Bay reefs are too difficult to patrol and get limited visitors. The NE Semporna Islands, (Mataking, Pandanan, Timba Timba and Pom Pom Island) and the Roach reefs have no village and few fishermen. Mabul and Ligitan have big village communities with many fishermen.

Step 9 Aggregation sites need special protection.

Sites with large populations of fish, sharks, turtles or rays need a localised MPA with regular enforcement and patrols.

• Sri Amil/Ligitan has unique, WORLD CLASS schools of Mobula Rays, These need focused conservation efforts.
• Pom Pom Island has a small population of severely endangered Humphead wrasse.
• Pom Pom Island, Mataking, Pandanan, Timba Timba have large populations of Turtles using the seagrass beds.
  
  

  

  Bumphead parrotfish are a major attraction on Sipadan BUT
  are eaten everywhere else

Step 10 Awareness of existing regulations

Proposed Protection for Endangered Marine life in Semporna

Location	Species	Action	Conservation status
Complete district	Turtles	No hunting/harvest (National & CITES protection)	Critically endangered
Complete district	Giant clams (Tridacna & Hippopus Spp)	No hunting/harvest (State wide protection)	Vulnerable (some species very rare)
Complete district	Whale shark	No hunting/harvest (National & CITES protection)	Vulnerable
Complete district	Humphead wrasse	No hunting/harvest (CITES protection)	Endangered
Complete district	Bumphead parrotfish	No hunting/harvest (CITES protection)	Vulnerable
Complete district	Manta & Mobula Rays	No hunting/harvest (CITES protection)	Threatened to regionally extinct
Complete district	Sharks	No targeted fishing. Bycatch by commercial fishing monitored & regulated	Threatened to regionally extinct

These are works in progress, please email with suggestions to Info@tracc-borneo.org

Aggregation sites for Mobula rays are a National treasure and should be totally protected. 
 

Step 11 Sites for Micro MPA

Proposed Micro MPA for Endangered Marine life in Semporna

Location	Species	MPA size	Enforcement
Roach reef	Black tip reef sharks Coral reefs	500m long X 250m offshore from reef edge	Easy
Kapalai	Coral reefs	500m long X 250m offshore from reef edge	Limited conflicts
Mataking	Turtles, Big eye trevally, Barracuda Coral reefs	West side of Mataking Besar X 250m offshore from reef edge	Easy
Pandanan	Turtles, Bumphead parrotfish Coral reefs	1500m long X 250m offshore from reef edge	Easy
Pom Pom	Turtles, Sharks, Humphead wrasse, Bumphead parrotfish Barracuda, Coral reefs	West side of Pom Pom X 250m offshore from reef edge	Easy
Timba Timba	Turtles, Bumphead parrotfish Coral reefs	??	Village conflicts
Mabul	Coral reefs	?? Possibly Paradise 1 to SWV	Village conflicts
Seaventures Oil rig	Coral reefs	250m circle?	Village conflicts

These are works in progress, please email with suggestions to Info@tracc-borneo.org

Schools of jacks give photo opportunities at many locations. These are at Mataking island but there is no protection in Sabah for tourist attractions.

Step 12 Benefits

12a Environmental Benefits

These proposed Micro MPA will increase biodiversity and allow broodstock fish to develop and breed. The larvae from fish and other species will populate many reefs all over the region. The sites which have no villages will also protect a large number of endangered Turtles.
The public awareness program can also show villagers the destruction caused by blast fishing and the reef restoration effort needed to regrow reefs.

12b Economic benefits

For very little economic cost, the Semporna district will have a series of improved dive and snorkel sites that will help grow the numbers of tourists visiting. Protecting sharks and rays makes the most sense, A UMS study showed that dead sharks are worth RM5 million to Sabah while live sharks are worth RM200 million.

This pile of sharks is worth less than $100 US.
Every diver to sabah would pay an additional $100 to be able to dive with sharks!!

12c Relative benefits

The proposed Micro MPA are a very small proportion of the reef area in Semporna. These areas are very small for healthy big fish populations and tiny for shark areas but they represent a goal which could be achieved.

12d Benefits for nearby communities

MPA in other areas have shown that if 20% of a reef is protected then there are increased benefits to the other 80% of the reef because of export of adult and juvenile fish. The locations suggested as primary sites for Micro MPA are all chosen because there is no local village.

12e Equitable benefits

This proposal does not address the multiple user issues on islands with large local villages. Mabul. Kalapuan, Dinawan etc will each need community consultations to achieve different solutions.

Step 13 Administration

Administration of the Semporna Barrier reef Marine Protected Areas will need to be shared between the Private sector (Resorts, Hotels etc), the Government (District office, Wildlife Dept.) and NGO's (WWF, TRACC, Green Semporna Etc)

Reef restoration by TRACC grows coral to
restore reefs destroyed by blast fishing.

Appendix I Site characteristics and choices

Endangered Species Sites Comparisons

	Turtles	Humphead Wrasse	Bumphead Parrotfish	Giant clams
Sipadan	Abundant	Common	Few	Common
Roach reef	Rare ??	Rare ??	Rare ??	??
Kapalai	Rare	Rare	Rare	Rare
Ligitan/Sri Amil	??	??	??	??
Mataking	Abundant	Rare	Rare	Rare
Pom Pom Island	Abundant	Common	Common	Common
Pandanan	Abundant	Rare	Rare	Rare
Other sites	Few	None	None	occasional

These are works in progress, please email with suggestions to Info@tracc-borneo.org

Reef Shark Sites Comparisons

	Grey reef shark	White tip reef shark	Black tip reef shark	Coral Cat sharks
Sipadan	Few	Abundant	Few	Rarely seen
Roach reef	??	??	Common	??
Ligitan	??	??	??	??
Pom Pom Island	Rare	None	None	Common
Other sites	None	None	None	occasional

These are works in progress, please email with suggestions to Info@tracc-borneo.org

Coral cat sharks have been sucessfully reintroduced to Pom Pom Island

Appendix 2 Monitoring & further work

The monitoring tasks will change as the reefs start to recover but the following is a summary of the scope of work required to create a Marine Protected Area. Much of this information is available.

• Biodiversity surveys to identify what species are present in the area.
• GIS based Habitat survey to map the resources and identify where they are.
• Identify priority areas and tasks for conservation.
• Baseline surveys using standardised techniques for monitoring of critical near shore habitats, including mangrove, sea grass and reef communities.
• Development of a management plan.
• Conduct surveys for Sharks, Turtles, Sea Birds, giant clams, sea cucumber, Fish & Coral
• Replant coral onto damaged reefs. Develop reef restoration techniques and assess effectiveness.
• Clear the beaches of debris to encourage turtle nesting.
• Monitor and record all instances of nesting and egg laying, turtles, birds, fish, coral etc.
• Liase with the Wildlife dept. to remove introduced species such as cats to encourage the return of the sea bird populations.
• Work with Wildlife, UMS, Fisheries and others to determine which rare species have been
• removed from the island and determine if re-introductions of rare species is appropriate.
• Improve awareness of the rich biodiversity within the MPA by taking photos, video and publishing these.
• Write regular Internet, Blog, newspaper and magazine articles
• Liase with ESSCOM, PGA and wildlife rangers to monitor violations of the MPA.
• Conduct regular assessments of the effectiveness of the marine protected area.
• Work with academic institutions to host Train the Trainers courses for future teachers, lecturers and academic mentors.
• Mentor all volunteers, students and visitors to be environmental ambassadors for marine conservation.

Recycling plastic bottles - the TRACC way

Pom Pom has lots of pelagic fish but they pass by without stopping.  We saw some lovely schools of rainbow runners and spanish mackerel.  TRACC and the Celebes beach resort are trying to keep these pelagic fish here with a series of fish aggregating devices.

Nurul making a bottle bubble

So what do these high tech FAD's have to do with recycling.  We are making our FAD mostly from recycled materials.

Kathy & Nurul with the complete FAD

The FAO (Food & Agriculture organisation of the United Nations) diagram shows a really complex system but they work very well.  In the pacific, these are set adrift and they attract fish for the massive purse seines that supply you and I with tinned tuna.  These FAD's are so efficient that Greenpeace and others are trying to get open ocean FAO's prohibited.  We are using these FAD's as part of our protected area programme.

The FAD central rope is attached to a large rock on the seabed at 30-50 metres depth.  The top of the FAD is supposed to be at 5-10 metres but one of the first lines was a little long and actually reaches the surface at low tide.  To attract the fish and give some bulk and interest from the FAD we have added lots of plastic bottles.

So will this simple system work, Check back soon.

Bob tying on the bottles.

Muck diving in Seagrass

After the fantastic diving on Pom Pom, none of the vols were keen to go and explore a Kalapuan seagrass bed on a Sat morning which was our fun recreational diving day.  The boat stopped and we got out and stood on the bottom.  Which way is the deep water? Stupid question, the seabed was flat for about 2km.

Long leaf seagrass, grows to almost 2ft tall

This is a worm of some sort.
I will look it up when we get back

Seriously stinging burrowing Anemone

A few metres away we found our first patch of seagrass,  The visibility was good and when you are only looking 2 feet, you can really see the cool small stuff.  Several seahorses, pipefish and cuttlefish were seen as well as green camoflaged file fish.  Of course, I had the camera and didn't see any of these. I had chosen to use a tank not snorkell - easier to take photos except I hadn't realised the fact that my boobs were scraping the seabed and stiring up the muck was a major disadvantage. 

All the hard substrate we found was covered
with oysters and sponges

Fortunately the tide was coming in and the water was getting deeper so I got enough depth to wallow without touching the mud.  The other secret I learnt was that if you face the current the sediment washed behind you. Don't dive behind me.  Eat my muck cloud "sucker".




The biggest surprise was that this was fun and different.  We all spent 90-120min in wading depth water with people standing up and calling to each other about the critter they had seen.   Lots of different biodiversity here,  After the party tonight we will all have to study the books to find out just what we saw.

Muck diving on Pom Pom

The diving has been fun.  I can see why people travel across the world to go muck diving in Mabul or Kapali.  Personally I think Sipadan is overrated, watching out into the clear blue water for something that might be there on the deep reefs of pom pom is really exciting.
These banded pipe fish are some of my favorites,  They are always together and always in the same place.

The pom pom Volunteer project has offered me a lot I shall be sorry to leave.
Rebecca pom pom project volunteer sept 2011

Turtles galore

The pom pom volunteer project run by TRACC is about seeing turtles.  They are - after all - why we are here.

But there are so many and they just hang around.  Our records so far are 21 on 1 dive and 8 on a snorkell. 

Turtles nesting

Do our turtles move between here and Sipadan - it is only 50km - we will be tagging the turtles to see if the populations are different or mixing.

Welcome to Pom Pom Volunteer blog

We are volunteering on Pom Pom island near Sipadan to replant a coral reef, protect the turtles, rays & sharks.

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