Redang Island is groaning under the weight of day-trippers and both nature and locals are suffering, warns marine advocate Julian Hyde.
IN JUNE, Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) was one of several organisations that raised concerns about a video taken of Teluk Dalam, Redang Island, with so many boats lined up along the beach that it was scarcely possible to move between them.
The community marine conservation group that we support on Redang (Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG) led local efforts to raise awareness of this growing problem.
(Feature pic: Some days, the Teluk Dalam beach is neck-deep in day-tripping boats, 90% of which are from the main land | Photo by imanredang)
The new airport for Tioman has been averted. Now, tourism needs a good relook, writes Reefcheck Malaysia’s Julian Hyde.
AS SCIENTISTS grow increasingly concerned about biodiversity loss and the accompanying loss of critical ecosystem services, the time has come to revisit tourism policy – and practice – in Malaysia.
This is particularly relevant following the recent decision by the government to abandon plans for a new airport on Tioman. The plan projected a four-fold increase in visitor numbers – from 250,00 per year to a million.
(Feature pic: Seeing fish or people? Tourists galore at a snorkelling site in Tioman | Pic by Alvin Chelliah/Reefcheck Malaysia)
The proposed airport in Tioman island will destroy part of a fringing reef and island hill forest, as well as put a landing strip right in front of two villages.
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MANTANANI native Mohd Faizul bin Madali is twiddling his thumbs waiting for the pandemic to end and tourists to return.
He is a divemaster and has been without work since lockdowns began in March 2020, relying instead on his family to support him.
“Previously, my life was diving, eating, sleeping,” says the 22-year-old. “Now, it’s eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping.”
He says virtually everyone in his village of 100 people has been dependent on tourism. The same is true of the other, larger village on Mantanani, the only inhabited island of a small group off Sabah’s northwest coast.
Back to fishing
With tourists still unable to visit, many islanders have returned to fishing as a way to make a living. As Faizul remarks, there are very few alternatives: “Where else are we going to get an income if not from the sea?”
When asked if they use fish bombs, he is quick to respond: “No, no, no! Not any more.” If fish-bombing is taking place around the islands, he is adamant the perpetrators are “outsiders, maybe from Kota Kinabalu [on the mainland]”.
Faizul has reported to the authorities the intrusion of non-local fishing boats during lockdown, incensed that they used nets in shallow waters, destroying the coral.
“I felt sad because the coral used to be alive, but they killed it. Thank goodness there are laws [to tackle this]… Tourism also depends on corals being beautiful and healthy. Who wants to look at dead corals? And Chinese tourists are very particular!”
Faizul (second from right) joins other Reef Check Malaysia divers to “plant” new corals on a Mantanani reef destroyed by fish-bombing (All images: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)
A certified “eco-diver”, Faizul is also part of Reef Check Malaysia’s Mantanani Youth Club, a capacity-building conservation initiative, and takes an active part in the NGO’s reef surveys.
Unlike other islanders, however, he has not turned to fishing to make ends meet: “How would I know how to do that? What I can do is bring people diving and teach them how to dive.”
With tourism hit by the pandemic and local people struggling to make ends meet, many fear a resurgence of this destructive fishing method.
AT THE sound of a muffled “boom”, the divers pause and look uneasily at each other and their divemaster. Luckily, the blast seems far enough for the group to continue exploring the colourful reef.
Fish-bombing is the stuff of nightmares for the diving industry in Sabah. Not only does it put off the tourists, it also devastates marine life and endangers the fishers themselves.
(Photo: An unexploded, homemade fish bomb off the Mantanani islands, Sabah | Image by: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)
Sabah’s beautiful islands can be managed so that tourists, nature and local livelihoods co-exist.This is the second of a two-parter on ecotourism in Macaranga’s Taking Stock series. .
FOR YEARS now, mass tourism has been impacting the environmental health of coral islands off Sabah’s west coast. Among them is the Mantanani three-island group, located off the northwestern tip of Borneo.
But there are far fewer tourists now as the pandemic stifles travel. Some islanders are using the lull to try new businesses and better manage their environment.
(Photo: Sun, sea and surf have turned Mantanani into a major tourist draw. Pic by Reef Check Malaysia)
