Wet suit model on Pom Pom Beach

All beaches need more of these  :-) Beautiful ladies in the latest design of wetsuit.  Sun, Sea, Sand, Scuba complete with Marine conservation, awesome diving and models,  fantastic especially since the lady is also very talented and a committed conservationist.

In November 2015 we were lucky enough to have a visit from Cynthia a keen enthusiastic Ocean saver from Texas USA,  She dived with TRACC to see how we conserve coral reefs, she planted corals and helped us with the biggestsharkinborneo.  We discussed tactics and explored ways to save the sharks, turtles and biodiversity of the planet.


 Become a volunteer in 2016 here

Rescued sharks 

Conservation projects 2016

For more information, please check our website or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org 

The main website is at tracc.org
Check out our social media posts on our activities
on fb tracc.borneo
on twitter tracc_borneo
on google + tracc 
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PS, we can't always guarantee that there will be a model on the beach but we can guarantee awesome diving and snorkelling :-)

INSTALLATION ART BY THE BAY @ KK 2015 - Intro

Tracc is participating in INSTALLATION ART BY THE BAY @ KK 2015. we are building an art installation to demonstrate in a fun interactive way that the oceans are being abused, overfished especially for large sharks and polluted by plastic, which kills turtles.  Our art when it comes together emphasizing that there are an estimated 5,000,000,000,000 (5 trillion)  pieces of plastic in the worlds oceans and many of these have come together to create huge plastic concentrations.  The largest plastic island in the pacific is 10x the size of Sabah.

Biggest hammerhead shark in Borneo -
Sign in Malay says don't eat my fin!

As part of our GEF/SGP coral reef conservation project we are involving the local community in larger - global - issues to help thm understand that the protection they give to their reefs is only a part of a movement to help reverse environmental damage.  These pictures are the start of the construction process for the "biggest shark in Borneo".  Please follow the progress of this shark through our various social media.

Follow on Facebook, google+, twitter or instagram
simply search #tracc or #traccblog and let google do the work.

Dino and Shakirrah design the logo.

Khairul makes the head

Max and Miti Make the fin

Art requires serious concentration

Sign says Don't eat shark

International and local artists at work.

Yugen and lucas practice their skills.

Khairul makes the tail

Everyone had fun.

Making a shark makes a change from making a coral reef :-)

Shark cave reefs

This week, our Malaysian community workers and our international volunteers have been making shark hiding reefs. This is the TRACC version of proactive marine conservation. Our philosophy is that if we see a problem, then we should work towards a solution.

From the plastic recycler, we aquired a number of large flat trays which were ideal for the roofs for caves for sharks. We attached crate reefs filled with plastic waste (cutup water bottles) which increases the surface area for sponge and cryptic organism settlement as well as providing a myriad of small spaces for post larval and juvenile fish crabs and other tasty small organisms to hide. The design gives a sheltered cave environment similar to the caves we have seen being used by bamboo and coral cat sharks. The upper surface of the cave and the crate supports will be planted with corals which will eventually completely camoflage the artificial reef structure.

During our surveys, it was noted that there was a lot of food for benthic sharks such as coral cat sharks, brown banded bamboo sharks epaulete sharks and nurse or leopard sharks. Unfortunately the sharks are rare if not completely absent from the reefs where we are working. When the proposed new Marine Protected Area, Tun Mustapha Park MPA is finally gazetted then we hope to witness an increase of fish life as the overfishing is brought under control. With sustainable fishing, we should eventually see an increase in small sharks numbers. We hope that a demonstration of the value of community action such as our SGP/GEF project near the Tip of Borneo (Simpang Mengayu) will lead to more projects around the region using the techniques we are developing to improve and rebuild the reefs close to each village.

The whole assembly of the shark cave reefs is fixed to the sea floor by glass bottle reefs attached to each corner. Because of the size the reefs were assembled on land and then taken underwater in pieces. The various parts were put back together and large cable ties were used fix all he components into place. The area of seabed chosen has considerable wave action so the reefs were staked to the seabed using steel rods. A total of 12 shark cave reefs were made and positioned in three different areas.

The finished shark cave reefs look suitable for lobsters as well as bottom living sharks, only time will tell which marine creatures take up residence.

Rescued coral cat sharks released on Pom Pom Island

On a trip to a live fish resturant in Kota Kinabalu, one of our volunteers was so dismayed by the sight of live coral cat sharks for sale in the aquariums that they bought all the sharks to save them from being eaten.  The sharks remained in the rstaurant tanks until we could organise the transport across to Semporna and out to the island.  The initial purchase was 12 sharks but the restaurant aquired an additional 13 before we came to collect our live sharks so we eventually bought and transported 25 small coral catsharks.  These were transported to the island in a large ice chest filled with water and oxygen.  There was no mortality or signs of stress when the sharks were released into the sea at high tide in front of the TRACC camp and Celebes Beach Resort.  Some of the sharks swam off but most were content to hide in or near the rocks on the reef slope.
The next morning no sharks could be found but since they are nocturnal we expected them to hide during the day.

The sharks were seen occasionally on night dives over the next month so hopefully they will settle down and become resident.

Stay posted as we report on sightings and shark activity.

Video 2015 

update  jan 2016