Diving with responsibility at Redang

Ridzwan A. Rahim, New Straits Times 28 Apr 10;

Avid scuba diver RIDZWAN A. RAHIM thinks there may be merit in limiting the number of visitors to Redang.

I feel like a water-baby these days. I love snorkelling and scuba diving. And even the simple pleasure of jumping off jetties and boats to swim in the clear waters of our islands.

And I do prefer paying less for my island holidays.

But I can understand why the authorities are looking to increase the cost of staying in Redang Island.

Recently, the Terengganu State government announced that from now on, only five-star resorts and hotels will be allowed to operate on the island.

What that means in ringgit and sen is this: Expect to pay some RM1,600 a night for your future Redang getaway.

That’s a quantum leap from the few hundred ringgit that you can get from budget resorts currently operating on the island. Lots of people have already started moaning.

The reason for the move, according to Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, is to protect the island’s fragile natural beauty, especially its coral reef and marine life.

Because of the affordable accommodation, too many people are visiting Redang, he said. As a result, pollution and environmental damage have gone out of control.

“We want to turn Redang into a niche market to control the number of visitors. We are concerned about the environmental damage that is happening on Redang,” he added. Redang is widely regarded as one of 10 most beautiful islands in the world.

It is so beautiful that in the late 90s, a Hong Kong production team chose the island as the location site for the film, Summer Holiday, starring Richie Ren and Sammi Cheng.

The screening of the film in 2000 gave the island a huge amount of publicity and created a surge in both local and international visitors.

And they have not stopped coming since, in particular because a trip here is very affordable.

Businessman Neoh Jiun Yih came to Redang with his wife, child and five of his staff.

He paid for everything, including airfare, to reward the staff for hitting their sales target.


“I’m very happy for my staff. Some of them had never been on an island trip before, never taken the plane before,” he said when met recently in the island.

“I spent a total of RM5,500, including flight tickets and three days, two nights full accommodation for seven. That’s the great thing about this place.

“But if we go with what the State government is suggesting — that is, RM1,600 per night for a single person — this trip will be impossible for a small business owner like me,” said Neoh.



Protecting Redang’s Natural Treasures



For me personally, Redang has a special place in my heart. This was where I overcame my fear of water and other obstacles and completed my Padi Open Water diver certification.

One of my most memorable dives was at the Bahagia shipwreck, a cargo ferry that lies 15m under the sea. It has been there for the past six years. You can swim through the ship’s small toilet without having to pay 30 sen.

More recently, my friends and I chanced upon a brand new shipwreck in Redang. The two Vietnamese boats, each about 30m long, were at a dive site called Sandy Bottom.

Our dive master said we were the first to visit the shipwreck as the boats sank only about two days earlier. It was a pleasant surprise.

But, as I mentioned earlier, I can understand if the government wants to somehow control the number of divers coming to the island.

Ever since taking up scuba diving more than a year ago, I am more aware of how interaction with humans can have an adverse effect on the fragile marine environment.

One of the misconceptions people have about the marine life is that they are there for touching.

If they find a turtle, for example, they would try and see if they can ride on it.

They think the whole point of taking up scuba diving is so that you could go down there and touch things or ride on things — something you can’t do when snorkelling. This is wrong.

As a scuba diving student, I was taught from very early on that diving is a passive activity. You are free to observe the marine creatures but never to touch them.

In fact, our instructors told us to keep our arms folded most of the time, and to move slowly and silently so as not to disrupt the natural rhythm of the marine life.

We were also forbidden from wearing gloves, because with gloves, you are more likely to touch things.

I follow these rules religiously.

However, things can still go wrong. For example, during underwater photography.

I am not a photographer but I now see that if you intend to dabble in underwater photography, you must have good buoyancy control — the ability to suspend in mid-water.

Without this skill, a photographer will constantly kick, scull or wave to stay in place or worse, hold on to or step on a coral.

Sometimes, the photographer gets too engrossed in the activity without realising that his gauge has gotten unclipped and is dragging across the coral reefs, destroying them.

Of course, some allowances can be made. For example, when there’s strong undersea current, you have no choice but to hold on to something.

The point is, accidents can and will happen. We cannot design a system that does not allow people to make mistakes.

But we must do all we can to minimise mistakes, to tell people that they must avoid contact with the sensitive marine life.

That is why the use of fins (or flippers) for snorkelling is banned in Redang. There have been instances in the past where snorkellers used their fins to rest on the corals.

Making It Really Special

We want people to enjoy our country’s beautiful islands but we want them to do it responsibly. Otherwise, our children and their children may not get to enjoy what we have today.

Now about the proposed pricing. Most of the visitors to Redang are locals and personally, I don’t know anyone who can afford a RM1,600-per-night stay.

So it must be not for Malaysians.

Redang risks losing tourists to alternative destinations like Pulau Perhentian, or even Pukhet or Bali, which have become affordable now with cheap AirAsia flights.

I don’t think people are not willing to pay, but it has to be substantiated.

Perhaps packages can be tailored for different segments of the market.

The problem with scuba divers, though, is that we are typically not fussy. We are happy with a decent room, decent buffet meals and Internet access.

We don’t need LCD TV, Astro or mini-bar. We don’t spend much time in our rooms anyway. Which is what budget (RM320 for 3D/2N) accommodations like Redang Pelangi Resort where I stayed at, is already offering.

So it’s going to take a lot — A LOT — of imagination on the part of the resort and the State government to come up with something that will make us pay RM1,600 a night.

One idea is underwater videography. Based on my experience, resorts can make a handsome profit from this.

On a diving trip in Sipadan last year, someone approached our group, offering to shoot videos of our dives, edit them and burn them to DVD.

Guess what? We agreed. We paid him RM1,000 on top of the RM2,000-plus per person that we had already paid for accommodation. But we got a nice little something to bring home.

People on holiday want to relax. They don’t want to have to fiddle with anything, much less cameras or video editing. But they want to bring back memories. If the place is special enough, and if the price is right, they will be more than willing to pay.

MAN not the only ones to blame

ALL it takes is just one careless act by an irresponsible holidaymaker to destroy reefs that take hundreds of years to form.

But human interaction is not the only cause of damage to the fragile marine environment. There are a host of other factors as well, many of which are beyond our control.

Corals are sensitive to water temperature and global warming has a catastrophic impact on coral reefs. Corals bleach and die when their upper temperature threshold is exceeded.

The El Nino phenomenon of 1998 destroyed much of the world’s coral reefs through mass bleaching. Some of these corals are still in recovery process now.

Other natural threats include storms and, on this side of Malaysia, monsoons. They bring about powerful waves that can damage corals and churn up seabed, causing sedimentation that can block sunlight needed by the coral.

And then, there’s disease. Bacteria, fungi and virus may attack coral polyps and kill them.

There is also damage by reef animals. Crown of Thorn starfish is among the biggest natural predator of corals. A single starfish can devour as much as six square metres of coral a year. Therefore, an outbreak in their number can destroy entire reefs.

Which is why, during ocean clean-up exercises, divers hunt for the Crown of Thorn.

Other threats include damage caused by fishermen through destructive fishing practices (using cyanide or explosives) and fishing boats that anchor on coral reefs.