LANGKAWI: The Marine Department will set up control towers at all marine park islands in the country soon.
Its director-general Abdul Jamal Mydin said the setting up of the tower was the department's move to monitor the safety of tourists engaged in snorkelling or scuba diving in the marine parks.
The control tower would help the department to cripple encroachment activities among unscrupulous fishermen on the island.
The Marine Department will set up control towers at all marine parks islands in the country soon like this one in Pulau Payar in Kedah. — NST picture by Shahrizal Md Noor"The construction of the control tower will be conducted in phases.
"The first phase would involve the construction of the tower at the main six marine park islands namely Pulau Payar in Kedah, Pulau Tioman in Pahang, Pulau Sibu Tinggi in Johor, Labuan and Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian in Terengganu," he said at the launch of the Pulau Payar Marine Park's control tower here yesterday.
At the moment, there are only two marine parks, which have been equipped with a control tower.
The other island is Pulau Redang in Terengganu.
The towers were established with the cooperation of the Department of Civil Defence (JPAM).
Jamal said each of the towers would be manned by seven workers -- four staff from the Department of Civil Defence and three staff of the Marine Department trained by the JPAM.
There are five marine parks, made up of 42 islands, in Kedah, Perak, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Sabah.
Every year, almost 500,000 tourists visit the marine parks in the country.
Meanwhile, nine popular snorkelling areas in Kedah, Pahang and Terengganu have been closed from July 2 until Oct 31.
The snorkelling areas were closed to allow works on preservation of corals.
This is the first time the department is forced to shut down dive sites in the nine areas after a two-degree Celsius rise in ocean temperature.
The ban, which came into effect early this month, is on until October.