Semporna Expedition Yields Rich Biodiversity

WWF 20 Dec 10;

Kota Kinabalu: The Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition concluded on 18 December 2010. The preliminary results indicate that Semporna may have the world’s highest marine biodiversity. Eighteen scientists from Malaysia, the Netherlands and the USA spent three weeks examining the reefs of Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. The biodiversity team documented the species richness for mushroom corals, reef fish, shrimps, gall crabs, ovulid snails, and algae. The reef status team documented the health of the coral reefs.

Mushroom corals are a family of corals of which most species live freely on the sea bed, from the shallow reef flat down to the sandy reef base. The expedition documented 43 species of mushroom corals in Semporna. The previous highest recorded richness of this family was 40 species at several sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. “Mushroom corals can be used as a proxy for other coral richness. Where we find high richness of mushroom corals, we usually find extremely high richness of other corals,” says Dr Bert Hoeksema, Head of Department of Marine Zoology, NCB Naturalis.

The roving census of fish counts clearly demonstrates that Semporna is one of the richest areas within the Coral Triangle. Dr Kent Carpenter, Professor at Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University states, “At some of the more diverse reefs, fish species counts rivalled the highest counts that the fish team found in the Philippines and were greater than what they have encountered in Indonesia.” The fish team encountered 844 species of fish in Semporna.

The coral reef status team used a modified ReefCheck methodology to assess the health of the reefs. 12 kilometres of transects were laid in the course of 60 dives. The preliminary results show that the reef status ranged from poor to excellent condition. 5% of the transects had “excellent” live coral cover, 23% had “good”, 36% had “fair”, and another 36% had “poor” live coral cover. Signs of coral bleaching and suspected coral disease were observed at various sites. While Semporna has several sites with good coral cover, nearly all sites showed significant human impacts including fish bombs, discarded fishing gear, and solid waste.

The extremely high levels of coral reef diversity and the relative poor health of the reefs combine to mean that much more effort must be made to manage and conserve the important reefs of Semporna. Not only is it a world class diving destination, it may well be one of the Coral Triangle’s top hotspots for marine biodiversity, and hence, the world’s. Many thousands of local people also rely on these rich reefs for their livelihoods and income.

Watch videos of the expedition team members conducting research and telling about discoveries, as well as stories of local communities in Semporna at:

http://blog.ncbnaturalis.nl/?tag=semporna-marine-ecological-expedition

Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition is made possible in part by funding from Adessium Foundation.

-END-

World's Highest Marine Biodiversity Found In Semporna
Bernama 20 Dec 10;

KOTA KINABALU, Dec 20 (Bernama) -- Semporna in the east coast of Sabah may have the highest marine diversity in the world, concluded a team of 18 scientists involved in the just-concluded Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition (SMEE) 2010.

Scientists from Malaysia, the Netherlands and the United States of America(USA) spent three weeks examining the reefs of Semporna, a priority conservation area and documenting the richness for mushroom corals, reef fish, shrimps, gall crabs, ovulid snails and algae.

In a press conference, here today, Dr Bert Hoeksema, Department Head of Marine Zoology in the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity (NCB) Naturalis, the main sponsor for the project said they found 43 species of mushroom corals, the highest number since the previous record of 40 in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

"Mushroom corals can be used as a proxy for other coral richness. Where we find high richness of mushroom corals, we usually find extremely high richness of other corals," he said.

A total of 844 species of fish, over 90 species of coral shrimp and over 100 species of algae were also found from the study at 62 surrounding sites.

The expedition team also discovered a couple of coral shrimp and gall crab species that were new to science, and a rare mushroom coral species, the lithophyllon ranjithi.

Semporna, which lies within the boundaries of the Coral Triangle, has a rich mix of reef types - fringing reefs, patch reefs, pre-atoll reefs, a barrier reef and oceanic reefs (Sipadan Island) that have not been fully studied. Many species in the extremely diverse habitats remain undiscovered.

The expedition also found that only five percent of the live coral were in excellent preservation while 23 percent had good cover, 36 percent, fair cover and 36 percent in adverse health.

Human impact especially from unsustainable fisheries is posing a direct treat to the corals which is a food, shelter and substrate provider for the species.

"We saw nets, traps, lines, craters in the coral reefs from blasting, unexploded detonators�," related Dr Bert.

He stressed on urgent action for conservation before over-fishing, destructive fishing (fish bombing), pollution, and development destroyed the haven for rich marine life. He also suggested that diving tourism, which the area is famous for, be spread out to other localities.

SMEE was co organised by WWF-Malaysia, NCB Naturalis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and University of Malaya, in collaboration with Sabah Parks, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Old Dominion University.

-- BERNAMA

Sabah rules in sea life
The Star 21 Dec 10;

KOTA KINABALU: A 17-day study of coral reefs off the Sabah east coast Semporna district has reaffirmed that the area has the world’s highest marine biodiversity.

But the study involving Malaysian and Dutch researchers unearthed some disturbing information – the area is under serious threat with only 5% of coral studied deemed in excellent condition and another 23% in good condition.

The study was jointly organised by WWF-Malaysia, the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity (NCB) Natura­lis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Malaya.

Expedition co-leader Dr Bert Hoeksema of NCB said the Nov 29 to Dec 18 study found a staggering 43 mushroom coral species in waters off the 50 islands off Sem­porna.

He said the previous recorded richness of this family was 40 species at several sites off Sulawesi, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Dr Hoeksema said the study found 844 fish species and more than 90 coral shrimp species, rivalling the highest counts in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Dr Hoeksema disclosed this yesterday when releasing preliminary results of the expedition.

But he said researchers found that nearly all the areas studied had been impacted by damaging human activities – fish bombing, discarded fishing gear and solid waste.

He said researchers also heard 15 explosions due to fish bombing and found several unexploded fish bombs “that were just a few days old”.

Dr Hoeksema said the researchers found discarded fishing nets on the coral “and these were like death blankets over the reefs”.

WWF Malaysia chairman Datuk Tengku Zainal Adlin Tengku Maha­mood said the expedition had showed the waters off Semporna as “amazingly right in comparison to the other hotspots for marine diversity in the Coral Triangle”.

“We cannot save what we do not love, and we cannot love what we do not know.

“We have now increased our knowledge of the rich reefs in Semporna and we must work harder to save them,” he said.

Videos of the expedition can be viewed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/2010SMEE.

Rich coral reef in Semporna
The Star 22 Dec 10;

KOTA KINABALU: The Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition which concluded on Dec 18 indicated the district may have the world’s highest marine bio-diversity.

Eighteen scientists from Malaysia, the Netherlands and the United States spent three weeks examining the reefs here.

The team documented species richness for mushroom corals, reef fishes, shrimps, gall crabs, ovulid snails and algae, while a reef status team recorded the health of coral reefs.

Mushroom corals lived freely on the sea bed, from the shallow reef flat to the sandy reef base. The expedition documented 43 mushroom coral species in Semporna.

Previously, the highest recorded richness of this family was 40 species at several sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

One of the researchers Bert Hoeksema said mushroom corals can be used as a proxy for other coral richness.

“Where we find high richness of mushroom corals, we usually find extremely high richness of other corals.”

Another researcher Kent Carpenter said the roving census of fish count showed Semporna was one of the richest areas within the Coral Triangle.

“At some of the more diverse reefs, fish species counts rivalled the highest count the fish team found in the Philippines and were greater than what they had encountered in Indonesia,” he said.

During this expedition, the fish team encountered 844 fish species.

The coral reef status team used a modified ‘Reef Check’ methodology to assess its health.

Some 12km of transects were laid in the course of 60 dives.

Preliminary results showed the reef status ranged from poor to excellent condition.

About 5% of the transects had ‘excellent’ live coral cover, 23% had ‘good’, 36% had ‘fair’, and another 36% had ‘poor’ live coral cover.

Signs of coral bleaching and suspected coral disease were observed at various sites.

While Semporna has several sites with good coral cover, nearly all sites showed significant human impact including fish bombs, discarded fishing gear and solid waste.

The extremely high levels of coral reef diversity and the relative poor health of the reefs combined meant more efforts must be made to manage and conserve the important reefs of Semporna.

Not only it is a world class diving destination, it may well be one of the Coral Triangle’s top hotspots for marine bio-diversity.

Thousands of residents around the district also relied on the rich coral reef for their livelihood and income.

Videos of the expedition team members can be accessed online at blog.ncbnaturalis.nl