We ran an education programme followed by poster designing. We chose the 6 winners and took them all on a Discover Scuba Diving session for their prizes. I only hope the kids had as much fun as we did!

The overall winner will have their design made into a turtle conservation t-shirt that will be on sale in our dive centre. Watercolours is also going to give t-shirts to the entire school, including the teachers (that’s about 200 t-shirts) in order to further promote care of our turtles.

Thanks to Reef Check with helping us in giving this presentation and for helping organise the colouring materials and children! Project AWARE kindly donated money for printing costs and this is much appreciated.

Both visited Watercolours recently and we’re happy to see some great picture on their websites. Thanks for stopping by the Perhentians and diving with Watercolours. Was great to meet you both.

We can be seen here:
http://petitesbullesdailleurs.fr/2009/07/04/les-yeux-dans-le-bleu/
http://www.zesea.com/Zeblog/

This was a bad one but luckily we were able to remove the net relatively quickly. It’s not just the fish that suffer of course, just think of the damage to the corals…

When Natalie Gruzlewski was told she was going to the Perhentian Islands, she had no idea where on earth they were…. click here to view the episode and read more….

The Perhentian Islands are simply beautiful - with careful management and planning we can keep them this way before the environmental pressures begin to become too noticeable!
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Terengganu’s Perhentian Islands are “arguably the most beautiful islands in Malaysia,” so says the Lonely Planet guide. Though the islands have dodged major developments so far, they are starting to creak under the strain of burgeoning tourist arrivals.

Sandy beaches, clear waters and great diving aside, the islands also boast forests that harbours a rich diversity of flora and fauna. This year, herpetologist Dr Lee Grismer from La Sierra University in California discovered a few new gecko species that are endemic to Perhentian.

Caron, who joined Grismer and a couple of other researches on their expedition this year, says, “You can spot monkeys, monitor lizards, and various insects in a 30-minute stroll just behind our resort.”

Though repeat visitors to Perhentian like the Addingtons think the islands haven’t changed dramatically compared to destinations like Redang and Tioman, they are starting to notice the effects from the increasing tourist arrivals and new resorts.

Read more here… ‘The Star‘

The Perhentian islands — Perhentian Kecil and Besar — have been a tourism destination since the 1980s and started out as a small-scale backpacker destination. Today there are about 20-odd beach chalets with several upmarket resorts and 20 to 25 dive operators.

One establishment, Watercolours Resorts and Dive Centre, started out as a dive centre in Perhentian in 1995 with an environmental slant. One of its founders, Anke Caron, even had her own turtle hatchery and used to buy eggs from the poachers at slightly above market value.

“Tourists used to donate money to help buy the eggs. But Anke closed the hatchery because the beach is eroded and now there’s a government project,” says her husband Peter Caron, a diver and former environmental consultant.

Today, Caron runs a weekly Reef Talk at the dive centre, a free one-hour presentation open to the public. He talks on coral reef ecology, why it’s important, the threats to coral reefs and what we can do about it.

Watercolours also operates as the only reef check facility on the island, under the Sustainable Island Programme with ReefCheck Malaysia. They have surveyed virtually every reef on the islands, collecting data, monitoring the health of the reefs and documenting their potential decline.

Read more here….

From top left clockwise: Rosa, Ewan and Kharul (boatmen), Rusdi (kompressor), Anke, Kharul (kompressor) and Kimmi (boatman). And the little one looking between the drinks is Sofia.

You can help us on our next beach-clean, which is scheduled for early October after Hari Raya.

If you book on a snorkelling trip and this happens then please show your dissatisfaction. And please email me with the details so I can continue to highlight the environmental concerns we have on the islands. The photo below show tourists holding a turtle at Redang Island, but we have seen this happen here all too often too.

Read further details here