Guest guest Posted October 30, 2003 Report Share Posted October 30, 2003 This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2003/10/28/features/6559670 & sec=\ features ________________________ Tuesday October 28, 2003 Methodical marine monitor By MICHAEL CHEANG Corals are an incredible reservoir of biodiversity but sadly, they are being increasingly threatened by overfishing, poison fishing, pollution and sedimentation. About 16% have been lost in the last five years, with another 27% severely threatened. The health of corals should be the responsibility of the local community and Reef Check, an international programme, paves the way for participation at grass-roots level. A LITTLE data goes a long way. That is the philosophy behind Reef Check, an international programme that works with communities, governments and businesses to scientifically monitor and manage coral reef health. Among its goals is to educate the public about the coral reef crisis and create a global network of volunteer teams trained in Reef Check & #8217;s scientific methods. It is hoped that this team can then regularly monitor and report on reef health to determine the extent of human impact on the reefs. “You don & #8217;t have to be a scientist to contribute,” says Saras Ethirmannasingam, an environmental consultant and volunteer at Malaysian Nature Society (MNS). “It is a volunteer programme where anyone can conduct the checks. The data is collected by ordinary people who are genuinely concerned about the reefs. Conducting reef checks is a good way to find out how much damage has been done to the coral reefs, by pinpointing the key indicator species such as butterfly fish, snappers, coral shrimps and sea urchins. “Even though we know that reefs are being destroyed, hard scientific evidence is needed to back our claims. The data gathered from reef checks will help us to convince the authorities that something needs to be done,” adds Saras. Recently several organisations, namely dive operator Dragonet Diving, MNS, Coral Redang Resort, Pelangi Redang Resort and Ayu Mayang Resort, organised a Reef Check in Pulau Redang. The four-day project which kicked off on Oct 16 was part of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors & #8217; Project AWARE (Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education). It brought together about 50 divers, 20 of whom were selected to form a core group of divers who will be trained to conduct reef checks. The rest underwent basic courses on marine life conservation and identification. The process Reef Check requires the surveys to be conducted on the best reefs in the area. Checks were conducted on six sites around Pasir Panjang, namely the North and South ends of the Pasir Panjang house reef, nearby Pulau Paku Kecil, Mini Mount, as well as the shallow and deep reefs of Pulau Lima. The depth of each reef check site ranges from shallow (2-6m) to mid-reef (6-12m).The process is actually quite simple. The volunteers first lay a transect line across a distance of 100m using a measuring tape. The check is then conducted along this line, within a width of 5m (2.5m on each side). One pair of volunteers will record data on the fishes, another will record invertebrates, while the last pair will be covering substrates, which include determining whether the area covered by the transect line consists of hard or soft coral, sand or rock. After the line has been laid down, the fish belt transect is conducted first. The divers assigned to count fish have to swim slowly along the transect line, stopping to count the target fish every five metres. At each stop, they have to wait one to three minutes for the fishes to come out of hiding before continuing their count. There are 16 stop-and-count sessions along the four 20m transect segments. The volunteers & #8217; task is made easier as they do not have to detail every single species that crosses the transect line. Only data on the key indicator species is required because they are considered high value species that are threatened by commercial fishing. These include the barrimundi cod, butterfly fish, humphead wrasse, bumphead parrotfish and snappers. Low numbers of these species would indicate overfishing in the area. After the fish belt transect is completed, the next pair sets off on the invertebrate belt transect. Their task is to identify key indicator invertebrate species such as giant clams, triton shells, sea cucumber, Crown of Thorns starfishes and pencil urchins. They also have to look out for signs of coral diseases, bleaching or damage caused by anchors or other factors. The last pair in charge of substrates has to determine whether the area consists of hard or soft corals, sand, recently killed corals, rock or rubble. Since hard corals are reef builders which form a base for other species to live on, the more hard coral there is in the area, the better coral coverage it has. An area with 60% or more of hard coral indicates that it has excellent coral cover and is thus healthy.Besides collecting data, the divers have to take note of important or rare occurrences such as the presence of whale sharks, manta rays and turtles. The results From the data collected from the six sites over a period of two days, three of the sites are in good condition. They are the North house reef (56.9% hard coral cover), Mini Mount (57.5%) and Pulau Paku Kecil (54.8%). The other three sites which registered fair coral health are the South house reef (45% hard coral cover), and the deep (33%) and shallow reefs (47.8%) of Pulau Lima. “There is more to data than mere numbers,” says Badrul Huzaimi, national coordinator for Reef Check in peninsular Malaysia. “The real value of the data collected will only be apparent five or 10 years down the road. The idea is to get data that can link all the reefs in the country so we can get a better picture of how our country & #8217;s coral reefs are faring overall. “Currently, we do not have sufficient data on the health of our coral reefs as we do not have enough scientists and marine biologists to conduct checks on all the reefs. And this is where Reef Check data comes in; the volunteers do not need a scientific background, they just need to be divers. “Reef checks are best done quarterly, and the locals operators are the best-placed people to conduct them regularly,” says Badrul. Saras adds: “When Dragonet Diving approached MNS to do a conservation project here, we decided that a reef check would be most appropriate for Redang. Rehabilitation works such as putting up reef walls would not serve any purpose if we continue to ignore the fundamental cause of destruction, which is the over-development of Redang. “It is important to get local resort operators involved because they are the ones who know how many divers frequent the reefs. Besides, they are around the reefs most of the time,” says Saras. Yap Chuan Bin, managing director of Ayu Mayang Resort, concurs with Saras. “Maintaining the reef is the responsibility of everyone. I & #8217;ve always wanted a survey on the reefs to see how fast they are deteriorating. The capacity of the island is getting close to overflowing, and as a result, the reefs are suffering. However, since this is the first data collection, we would not be able to know anything until another reef check is conducted. So the reefs should be monitored constantly.” Dragonet Diving director cum instructor Vincent Chong hopes that the divers will learn more about marine life and can identify the species better after conducting the reef checks. “Previously, they have only been admiring the fish. Now they can identify which species are important for coral health and can determine whether that particular reef is faring well,” says Chong.<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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