Ocean Elements Sdn Bhd - PADI Dive Centre S-34051 recently organised an underwater cleanup event under the Project AWARE “Dive for Earth Day” and a coral reef survey under the “Green Fins” banner, from 24 – 26 April 2009 at Tenggol Island. This year’s event was attended by 14 divers as well as 2 staffs from the Marine Park Department, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment Malaysia.

 

This program was a follow-up to the underwater cleanup event held at the same location from 28 – 30 August last year. During that event, more than 100kg of rubbish comprising mostly of tin cans, plastic and metal parts were removed from the Teluk Air Tawar bay area. Most of the rubbish came from the fishing vessels taking shelter in the bay area in between their fishing runs. This year’s event focused solely on removing the huge bundles of mooring lines and fishing nets that have been discarded by fishermen over the coral reefs for years. During the three dives conducted in the bay area, more than 80kg of lines and nets were successfully brought to the surface for disposal.

 

The divers also participated in the “Green Fins” coral reef survey, an initiative by Marine Park Department Malaysia and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Ocean Elements was recently appointed as one of the “Green Fins” dive operator and Tenggol Island was picked as the location for our very first survey. The surveys were conducted at three locations around the island and the results were submitted to the Marine Park office for their analysis and statistics.

 

Ocean Elements is planning to organise a meeting with officials from the Dungun City Council which has jurisdiction over Tenggol Island, the Marine Park Department and the Fisheries Department in order to discuss and tackle the issue of rubbish dumping by fishermen over the reefs in the bay area of the island. It is hoped that with good cooperation from all the different parties, in future there will be no more need to conduct underwater cleanup projects there.

 

 

Director / PADI Scuba Instructor # 481315

Ocean Elements Sdn Bhd – PADI Dive Centre S-34051

5 Jalan Gelenggang

Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur