Turtle watching is even more popular on the islands this year. Snorkelling boat operators have been swimming down and grabbing turtles to bring to the surface for snorkellers to see. Tourists are holding on to the turtles, or swimming so close to them and stopping them from coming to the surface for a breath of air.
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.
In a presentation made at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Reef Check Executive Director Gregor Hodgson announced that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region have largely recovered from the devastating bleaching event that killed up to 90% of corals on some reefs in 1998. He reported that 10 years later, recovery has occurred more quickly and more completely than expected. Caribbean reefs, however, are losing about 3% living coral every four years due to a combination of human impacts.
Getaway is an Australian travel show shown on channel nine. They visited the Perhentians and Watercolours this week to film a few dive sites and around the islands. A big thanks to Chris, Rochelle, Tangles and Nat and the Getaway team for choosing Watercolours to show them around. We had a good time
Congratulations guys on getting a whale shark encounter at Tokong Laut this morning. The grinning divers are Jules, Wid, Petra, Sarah, Jonny and Claudia.
Derrens ‘mates’ couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed for his birthday request for snorkelling with turtles. Luckily Anke and me were happy to take our new friend out for an early morning swim. Happy birthday Derren! If you don’t know who Derren is then just listen for the loud bloke in the restaurant. No, not Brian; the other loud bloke.
Well done Google for banning adverts for shark products (and other endangered species) from Google Ads.
Endangered Species
Don’t promote products obtained from endangered or threatened species.
Advertising is not permitted for products obtained from endangered or threatened species. This includes, but is not limited to, the sale of products derived from elephants, sharks, tigers, whales, rhinoceroses, or dolphins.
Last year Anke and I had the privilege of accompanying Dr Lee Grismer, Jesse Grismer, J.R. and Chan Kin Onn on their jungle exploration for new species of reptiles and amphibians.
Lee, Jesse and J.R. returned this year and together we explored the Susu Dara Islands. I have actually lost track of the number of new species we have discovered on these trips but i think we are up to 4 geckos, 1 skink and a caecilian. They are all in the processes of being described but I can now reveal our first find:
Only found on the Perhentian Islands of Malaysia, the Perhentian Rock Gecko (Cnemaspis perhentianensis).
The discovery of so many new species on the Perhentian Islands, many of which are most likely not found anywhere else, is just another indication of why careful planning before development on the islands is imperative!
Air Berani beach was cleaned on Wednesday by the Chatsworth International school on their visit to Watercolours on the Perhentian Islands. Well done everyone!
We collected a lot of rubbish again, including my personal record of 6 nappies in one clean-up (yuck). Thanks to everyone who took part, in particular Tracy Tomtene who is a photographer/journalist who will write an article on environmental issues of the Perhentian Islands (www.traceytomtene.com). We noticed that many plastic bags had washed on the beach after falling from the rubbish platforms. We have informed the authorities that the rubbish platforms are inadequate for the volume that is produced on the islands these days.
Pictured is the beach clean, the rubbish we collected, and Sam and Maaarten who retrieved a fishing net from the reef on the same day.
We’ve just completed more reef surveys as part of the Sustainable Island Programme. Another talented bunch of divers from KL came in to help monitor our reefs and to have lots of fun in the process. Apart from an abortive attempt to survey Tokong Laut (not enough corals at the right depth - sorry, my fault guys) the surveys went very well. A full report on the MUW forum (click here). The Roll of Honour:
SIP #3 Participants:
1.Lady Boss Shafi 2.bijan 3.bajaulaut 4.Buoyantvenus 5.Daniel Lim 6.Trigger Fish
Videographers:
1.RoCKET 2.RoCKET’s assistant, labu
We would like to send out a MASSIVE thank you to the divers who give up their time to help survey or reefs, Shafi and the rest of the Wild Asia team, the Reef Check dudes and of course Sime Darby Plantations who make all of this possible with their environmental awareness and generous funding. Whenever I get down about environmental impacts I know that I can cheer myself up by looking around me at all the enthusiasm and talent in the individuals and organisations who are fighting to make a difference.
We’ve just had a fantastic bunch of people visit Watercolours to survey the reefs of the Perhentian Islands. The surveys were part of the Sustainable Islands Programme, a joint collaboration between Reef Check and Wild Asia. The programme is sponsored by Sime Darby and we are very grateful for their input and help. Until i get some info and photos on our blog for you to see, why not visit Malaysian Underwater to read their report. There are a number of photos that are worth looking at!
The Roll of Honour. We would like to thank:
(Shafi) Shafinaz Suhaimi, (Deepblu) Izwar Zakri (Scubabunny), Nur Lela Musrom (Mun) Tang Kah Mun(Miezegreat) Ummi Haslinda (Eve) Evelyn Wong (Belle) Belle Tang (Watercow) Daniel Chua (Jgshuwei) John Goh Shu Wei, Cheah See Siang, and Lee Yeon Huat.
A big shout out to the video guys too: RoCKET (Emran Taib), Ariffin, Ted Adnan & Helmy.
Izwar Zakri is credited for this fantastic photo.
Just in case you were interested, we are using the Reef Check survey methodology to monitor the health of our reefs and to indicate any potential declines in reef health. You too can participate, just see our Reef Check Eco-Diver course.
We’ve just had our first wedding at Impiani. Perhaps you saw this featured on the tv? Congratulations to Reeza & Shukreen! The day was simply fantastic.
Save the turtles of Terengganu! Please support our campaign!!!!
The turtle eggs of our islands are not protected at the moment as the turtle conservation project is not running. This is resulting in all the eggs being poached. It is still legal to sell turtle eggs in Terengganu (with the exception of leatherback eggs). We are asking the state government to make the sale and consumption of all marine turtle eggs illegal and to further protect the turtle eggs of the Perhentian Islands and beyond.
Please send an email to savetheturtles@watercoloursworld.com to register your support. We will hand all emails and a petition in at a later date. You only need to write a couple of sentences, such as:
I would like to ask the State of Terengganu to make the sale and consumption of all marine turtle eggs illegal and to install better protective measures to prevent the poaching of eggs from nesting turtles.
Email to savetheturtles@watercoloursworld.com with a suitable title.
We just did another! Thanks to our Impiani guests for helping out on this one. We collected a further 53 bags of plastic and polystyrene and even an old tv set! Combined with yesterday’s beach clean that amount to 75 bags of rubbish. Pat yourselves on the backs everyone!
We’ve done 2 beach cleans this month. This one collected 22 bags of plastic and polystyrene from our beautiful Tiga Ruang beach. A special thank you to Luca (age 5) who participated with mum. Well done everyone!!!
