Ma­la­sia: a pe­sar de la prohi­bi­ción, la pes­ca con di­na­mi­ta

Tun Sa­ka­ran Ma­ri­ne Park, also known as Sem­por­na Is­lands Park, is the first ma­ri­ne pro­tec­ted area in Ma­lay­sia whe­re lo­cals live wit­hin pro­tec­ted areas, own part of the land and rely on the use of ma­ri­ne re­sour­ces.

The Sem­por­na Is­lands Pro­ject (SIP) was laun­ched in 1998 as a co­lla­bo­ra­tion bet­ween the Ma­ri­ne Con­ser­va­tion So­ciety (MCS), Sa­bah Parks, WWF Ma­lay­sia and Na­tu­re Link. The aim was to crea­te a bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion and sus­tai­na­ble use plan for the Sem­por­na is­lands and re­efs co­ve­ring an area of ​​ap­pro­xi­ma­tely 350 squa­re ki­lo­me­ters.

Sin­ce 2004, the Light­hou­se Foun­da­tion has sup­por­ted the Ma­ri­ne Con­ser­va­tion So­ciety (MCS) on a va­riety of pro­jects, no­ta­bly strengt­he­ning al­ter­na­ti­ve sour­ces of in­co­me and mi­ti­ga­ting dy­na­mi­te fis­hing.

The pro­ject is com­ple­ted, the fi­nal do­cu­ment is avai­la­ble for down­load.

Mariculture as an alternative source of income for coral fishermen in Sabah

The­re is a long tra­di­tion of using ma­ri­ne in­ver­te­bra­tes in the Sem­por­na area and, as a re­sult, sto­cks of sea cu­cum­bers, crus­ta­ceans, giant clams and ot­her mo­llusks have de­cli­ned. The re­sour­ce-ef­fi­cient ma­na­ge­ment of the­se spe­cies has po­si­ti­ve ef­fects on both em­ploy­ment and eco­no­mic be­ne­fits for the lo­cal peo­ple as well as the con­ser­va­tion of the co­ral reef com­mu­nity.

Fish bom­bing cau­ses sig­ni­fi­cant ha­bi­tat des­truc­tion, loss of bio­di­ver­sity and ne­ga­ti­ve im­pacts on fis­he­ries, tou­rism and eco­no­mic de­ve­lop­ment. Des­pi­te being ille­gal, it still per­sists in Sa­bah be­cau­se it yields a re­la­ti­vely lar­ge ‘cat­ch’ in a short time and with little ef­fort. Scien­tists es­ti­ma­te that 19% of re­efs have al­ready been des­tro­yed and anot­her 35% could be lost wit­hin 10-40 years as a re­sult of over-ex­ploi­ta­tion, coas­tal de­ve­lop­ment, tou­rism pres­su­re, ma­ri­ne po­llu­tion - and des­truc­ti­ve fis­hing prac­ti­ces.

Fish bom­bers use stealthy tac­tics to avoid being caught and in­crea­sed sur­vei­llan­ce and en­for­ce­ment are ur­gently nee­ded to halt this prac­ti­ce. In­crea­sed con­trol is ur­gently nee­ded to stop this prac­ti­ce. For this pur­po­se an acous­tic sys­tem has been de­ve­lo­ped that will de­tect and lo­ca­te fish bombs in real time and allow im­me­dia­te ac­tion to be ta­ken to ap­prehend the per­pe­tra­tors.

Sa­bah Parks staff has been in­vol­ved and trai­ned in all data gat­he­ring and ope­ra­tio­nal pro­ce­du­res and the fin­dings will be wi­dely dis­se­mi­na­ted, so enabling use of the met­ho­do­logy in ot­her pro­blem areas.

Restoring degraded reefs

Re­pai­ring re­efs on a big sca­le is very dif­fi­cult and ex­pen­si­ve, but small steps can be ta­ken to make a dif­fe­ren­ce. The Ma­ri­ne Con­ser­va­tion So­ciety and Sa­bah Parks are de­mons­tra­ting ‘con­ser­va­tion in ac­tio­n’ at key si­tes in the Ma­ri­ne Park by ma­king and set­ting up ‘co­ral fra­me­s’ in bom­be­da­reas. The­se spe­cia­lly-de­sig­ned units have been de­sig­ned and tes­ted by Sea­marc Ptv from the Mal­di­ves. They are made from rein­for­cing bars which are readily avai­la­ble lo­ca­lly and are easy to hand­le and get into the wa­ter.

The aim of the pro­ject is to bring an end to fish blas­ting and to pro­mo­te re­co­very of co­ral re­efs that have been de­gra­ded or des­tro­yed as a re­sult of this prac­ti­ce. The dri­ve to stop fish blas­ting will be th­rough a com­bi­na­tion of edu­ca­tion, en­for­ce­ment and com­mu­nity en­ga­ge­ment.