Malaysia: Perils behind fish bombing

Roy Goh New Straits Times 17 May 13;

EDUCATIONAL IMPACT: Raising awareness of its threat among students through drama

SEMPORNA: A DRAMATIC step was taken to teach students here about the dangers of fish bombing recently.

A drama competition with "anti-fish bombing" as the main theme was held in the district here to raise awareness on its impact.

Some 200 students from five schools participated in the competition, which was organised by World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) and supported by a group of volunteers who call themselves Green Semporna.

Team Nakoba from SMK Tagasan took top honours with their sketch titled "Loving Sea", followed by Team Humagad and Team Sahasa, both from SMK Datu Panglima Abdullah.

Present were representatives of Sabah Parks, which is working with WWF-Malaysia in the fight against destructive fishing, including fish bombing, one of the biggest threats to marine resources in the region.

WWF-Malaysia Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Eco-region programme manager Robecca Jumin said the competition was held to raise awareness of the impact of fish bombing that continues to destroy marine resources and highlight the importance of marine protection.

She explained that the coral concentration in the Semporna Priority Conservation Area is the largest in Malaysia, and the rich mix of habitat types and ecosystems provides a high level of biodiversity.

"Healthy ecosystems are important for fisheries and tourism, two key income generators for Sabah.

"The drama competition is part of a series of WWF-Malaysia's efforts to instil in our younger generation the awareness and importance of marine resources.

"They are our future leaders and from young, they should be conscious of the role they play as custodians of the rich natural resources that Semporna has," Jumin said.

"The dependency of Malaysia on fisheries and other coral reef resources has increased over time. However, 97 per cent of reefs in Malaysia are under threat of overfishing, including destructive fishing, land-based pollution and unsustainable tourism development."

Semporna has the largest percentage of coral cover in the country. Coral reefs play an important role in the fisheries and tourism sectors. The beauty and diversity of the coral reefs attract thousands of tourists from all over the world, and the number of tourist arrivals has put increasing pressure on marine resources.

Last year, a total of 2.88 million tourists were reported to have visited Sabah.

This has highlighted the value of tourism as a key income resource as well as highlighted the need to focus on sustainable tourism and protection.