Malaysia is essentially a maritime country. This is because Malaysia spans more than 19 degrees of longitude, with more than 4600 kilometres of coastline and bordering four major large bodies of water which are Straits of Malacca, South China Sea, Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea. Coral reefs in Malaysia are about 4,006 km2 with over 550 species contributing to the nation's economy.
According to a study, Coral reefs have been a major attraction for tourists to visit our country. Redang Island, Tioman Island and Perhentian Island are among the best to do snorkelling activities. It is estimated that coral reefs contribute 2 billion Malaysian ringgit every year to the economy. The expansion of these resources has given an opportunity to the government and the private sector that are involved in this industry to gain more profit.
There are many tourism activities that can cause coral reefs to damage or die. All factors can have hazardous impacts towards these species. These coral reefs are threatened by tourism sea activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, cruise trips, irresponsible tourists and the list goes on.
Reef Check Malaysia annual report in 2019 showed the status of coral reefs in Malaysia were in fair condition which is the percentage of live coral cover is 40.63% rather than 42.42% in 2018. Redang Island is located some 25km from Merang, off the East coast of Terengganu, Malaysia. The island has a population of approximately 1,500, only a small proportion of whom work in tourism, the main industry on the islands. Redang Island has been gazetted as a Marine Park since 1994. Redang Island is a popular resort destination because there are more upmarket images than nearby Perhentian.
Activities such as diving and snorkeling are the main tourist activities. Both fringing off-shore reefs and submerged reefs can be found in the area. According to Reef Check Malaysia, a total of 12 coral reef sites were surveyed in Redang and 50% of the sites were in fair condition. 8% were in good condition and the remaining 42% were in poor condition. No reefs were in excellent condition. Overall, the reefs around Redang Island were in fair condition with live coral cover of 28.49%.
With the high number of tourists visiting, coastal development is bound to happen to cope up with higher demands and expectations. When we talk about coastal development hazards it is an action that affects the natural environment by human activities and products and this also contributes to the conditions of the coral reefs.
Reef Check Malaysia’s General Manager, Mr. Jullian Hyde said “For corals to thrive, they need clear water and plenty of sunlight for the algae to produce food. Imagine the water goes turbid and polluted, the sunlight cannot penetrate and there will not be much sunlight for the algae to produce food. Therefore they will die.
“The land clearing either on the mainland and cultural practices that are run off from land, cities, and pollution which goes into the water has the same impact on the coral reefs as clearing land on the island. The marine ecosystem will suffer” he warned.
Because of the acts of human beings and also the effect of tourism shows that there is an obvious difference of how coral reefs used to look like before and how they look like now. Before, the corals looked absolutely beautiful and full of life and filled with other marine life as their home. This is where the coral reefs are in a healthy state and unharmed.
“I have seen divers lying down on coral reefs and breaking reefs to get a picture of a certain type of creature. I have seen snorkelers who cannot swim standing on coral reefs because they think it was rock”
“There are some operators with good standards but there are too many that do not have good standards in being firm and abiding by a series of rules that the tourists are allowed to see but not to touch. There is not enough of that going on in Malaysia today,” he added.
But now, we are at a stage where it is absolutely saddening to see the situation of our coral reefs which are dull and lifeless and no other marine life can be seen around them. This itself shows that something must be done for the hope of our coral reefs
In order to prevent this issue from becoming widespread, few steps can be taken to preserve and conserve our coral reefs. General manager of Reef Check Malaysia Mr. Julian Hyde shared “in order to take care and protect our coral reefs, we each need to be more aware of the environment and the ecosystems whether you are an industrial lover or marine lover.
“It's like if you go to somebody's house you don't take and paint the walls or start throwing around or deliberately damage the table. You are a guest, you treat your neighbor's house with respect. Why do we not do that with natural ecosystems?
“Seriously, have some respect here. Because not only do they look nice, or they are a source of food but they are important for a number of ecosystem services. They do things for us that we need. Like the oceans produce oxygen, coral reefs produce fish and trees produce fruit. Without these 3 we would cease to exist, so can we all please treat nature with a little bit more respect please,” he begged.
Many steps have been taken in order to spread awareness regarding this matter. Global brands have taken part and made many campaigns to spread awareness. Big brands such as Adobe and the Pantone Color Institute have teamed up with the Ocean Agency and launched a campaign that uses creativity to inspire change. Glowing Glowing Gone is a campaign to raise awareness and support necessary to save coral reefs.
Adobe and the Pantone Color Institute were able to analyze the images provided by the Ocean Agency to create three new colors: Glowing Yellow, Glowing Blue, and Glowing Purple. The three new colors are available as both Pantone colors for brand use and in digital tool kits for Adobe products.
On June 3rd 2019, The campaign kicks off with a design challenge. The creative community can use the Glowing, Glowing, Gone colors in designs or products to help bolster awareness for coral reef conservation. In an article by the Adobe Blog stated that the Glowing Glowing Gone campaign started with a challenge to mobilize the creative community to use the new range of glowing colors and create attention-grabbing art and designs that raise awareness of glowing corals and the warning they represent. The art and designs will be promoted to inspire global support for action and will be showcased at key environment decision-making events.
On the other hand, our locals have made efforts to raise awareness with the “Cintai Tioman” (Love Tioman) campaign. The campaign project aimed at boosting the resilience of coral reefs around the island by reducing local impacts.
According to The Star, their strategies include reducing solid waste generation, lowering sewage pollution, decreasing impacts of construction projects, cutting down impacts from tourism activities, improving management of the Marine Protected Area as well as conducting scientific programmes to provide data required for managing and monitoring Tioman.
Brought together by their shared passion for marine science, conservationist couple Alvin Chelliah and Chen Sue Yee moved to Pulau Tioman to be part of an important project that would transform the livelihoods of the islanders as well as increase the ecological resilience of the island’s coral reefs.
Dr Siti Nurtahirah Jaafar, an expert and also lecturer from School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) said “when talking about public awareness, we need to prepare and bare in our mind that there are many level of society we are dealing with; children, parents, teenagers and so forth. Because we do not know the background of each group, we cannot generalize that everyone knows about marine life.
“One of social media benefits is that it allows people to start sharing information online. The public starts to know by sharing the awareness about our environment, the ocean, marine life and coral reefs. As marine scientists, we start to spread awareness to younger groups such as at primary schools, secondary schools and then we start to ask the higher level students to spread awareness through social media.
“Nowadays, Malaysians start to love the islands, people start to know how precious our islands are and become more aware of marine life, the importance of coral reefs to the longevity of our lives and the sustainability of our nature. Coral reefs are like a big city for marine life. If we lose this big city, we will definitely lose our main source of protein too. Hence, it is very important for us to protect our marine environment.”- she ended.
Our coral reefs have always been one of the proudest things our Malaysian seas has to offer. Looking at the rate of how our coral reefs are doing, it makes us wonder. Have we been fully neglecting this “Sea-Rious” issue of our prized possession just for the sake of having fun? And whether our efforts are enough or should we be doing more? You decide.
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