THE 11th MABUL MARINE WEEK

Coral reefs around the world are undergoing rapid changes chased by natural and man-induced factors. These days, even natural phenomena such as storms, the changes in sea temperature like El Nino & La Nina and the crown-of-thorns starfish population outbreaks are linked to human activities. It is more worrying when fishermen use destructive methods to harvest fish and other marine organism from coral reefs. The most destructive means of fishing known to this region is fish bombing.

Divers can assist Mother Nature in rehabilitating some of the damaged or degraded reefs. Mabul Marine Day (MMD) is a program where concerned divers and snorkelers from various parts of the world come to Mabul Island, Sabah, Malaysia in mid-July each year to participate in the programs organized by the pioneer of MMD, Sipadan Water Village Resort (SWV).

The Mabul Marine Day is a program adapted from Japan's "Marine Day" which is a national holiday in Japan by SWV, under conservation programs under professors, marine consultants and directors of SWV. This program aims to create awareness among fishermen, local communities, snorkelers and divers on the importance of conserving the marine environment around Mabul for the present and most importantly for the future generation.


MMD COOL FACTS:
- The highlight and also the coolest activity is the coral transplanting.
- The talks are educational and informative but not really crowd-pullers.
- Coral transplanting is so easy. Even a beginner can manage to find a good spot and plant theirs well.
- The SWV Dive Masters main priorities include making sure beginner divers do not destroy corals while trying to plant one... No joke mates...
- Your coral is tagged with your name so everyone knows you transplanted it.
- The SWV Dive Masters are your coral's babysitters. They will monitor and and measure your coral at regular intervals and updates on the transplants are posted in the resort blog.


MMD RESULTS & RECORDS:
- There are 448 coral fragments transplanted over the past 10 years.
- The overall rate of survival: 56%
- Growth and survival rates vary with species. Fastest growth rate is with Acropora sp while the highest survival rate is with Seriatopora sp.
- Causes of transplanted coral mortality are: Predation (27%), bleaching (25%), sedimentation (16%), loss (23%) and breakage (9%)

ITINERARY MABUL MARINE WEEK 2008

19 JULY 2008

• 0830 Senamrobic (Aerobic exercise)

• 0930 Opening Speech from District Officer

• 1030 Gotong Royong (Community Cleanup)

• 1130 Gather all the rubbish to each Zone

• 1200 Lunch

• 1400 Underwater Cleanup

Beach Cleanup

School children program

• 1600 Group Photo session

• 1800 Presentation by SWV staff

• 1900 Buffet Dinner at the restaurant

• 2000 Cultural Dance Performance

• 2200 Session end

20 JULY 2008

• 0800 Briefing of coral transplanting

• 0820 Coral identification

• 0900 Embark to dive site selected for coral transplanting

• 1100 Recheck the transplanted coral)

• 1145 Group Photo Session

• 1200 Lunch

• 1500 Normal One Boat Dive

• 1900 Buffet Dinner at the Restaurant

• 2100 Presenting Certificate to all participants and signature on the MMW banner

• 2130 Performance by SWV Staff

• 2145 Closing Ceremony

23 July 2008

• 0800 Normal Three Boat Dives

• 1600 Briefing of underwater clean-up

• 1730 Group Photo session

• 1900 Buffet dinner at the restaurant

• 2030 Opening speech by Mabul Marine Week Chairman

• 2045 Culture dance performance by SWV Staff

• 2100 Presentation by Dr Masayoshi Hayashi

• 2130 Photo Presentation by SWV dive team

• 2200 Session End

24 July 2008

• 0800 Normal Two Boat Dive

• 1400 Briefing of coral transplanting

• 1420 Coral identification

• 1500 Embark to dive site selected for coral transplanting

• 1545 Group Photo Session

• 1630 Recheck transplanted coral

• 1900 Buffet Dinner at the Restaurant

• 2100 Presenting Certificate to all participants and signature on the MMW banner

• 2130 Performance by SWV Staff

• 2145 Closing Ceremony

Some info on the activities during Mabul Marine Day

Interested? Contact me for more information and participation.

From Houston to Sipadan

Smiles at Sipadan (from the left): Aaron, Jonathan, Me, AP and Mandy

Hello mates! Its June and its peak season all around the Celebes Sea, like always... We got visitors from all over the world diving and snorkeling at the Great Sipadan Island and last week we did some really cool dives and man did we have fun!

I didn't bring my camera this trip so I didn't manage to get pictures of them schooling Grey reef sharks, snappers, fusiliers, batfishs, jacks, barracudas and bumphead parrotfishs, the turtles, white-tip sharks, humphead wrasse and other big stuff... All in one dive at Barracuda Point. Yeah, all in one single dive. And in the afternoon another group saw a big school of hammerheads... I missed out so many good chances for good pictures... Sad ain't I? :(

But thanks to Kriss from Scubazoo we managed to get them all video'd! Check out scubazoo.com for some amazing footage and other great products.

Anyway, the wheather at Sipadan wasn't the best as it was kinda rainy, windy and cloudy but still it was great diving at my old favourite site, it was even greater meeting new friends along the way and this time new buddies from Houston (Go Yao Ming... I mean go Rockets!): Aaron's friendly sister and cool nephew Mrs Ong & Jonathan, Jonathan's wrestling coach Alan AP (aka Ass Pwner) and his pretty girlfriend Mandy. Hope to see them again probably this Christmas I hope. So guys, thank you, stay healthy, stay awesome, stay cool and stay wet :P

P/S: Hey Aaron and AP, send me pics you guys took so I can put it up here for all to be amazed.

Marvellous May!

Hello folks!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I still don't have internet at my new home and I have been moving around a bit too much lately as well. But anyway hope everyone enjoy this lotsa-picture-goodness-post. And since I won't be writing much, I hope these pictures do tell a thousand words.

Special thanks to: The Reef Dive Resort (Mataking Island), WWF and TRAFFIC as well as Sipadan Water Village Resort (Mabul Island).

Later folks!

Scenaries

Arriving to Mataking

A lonely ship...

Beautiful Mataking kecil

Sunset at Mataking beach

6.30pm at Mataking


Footprints; a tribute to Mataking

Candlelight dinner at Sipadan Water Village Resort

Magnificent Sipadan

Fishooo

Green Turtle by Aaron Soo

Pink Frogfish

Pygmy Seahorse by Aaron Soo (Its frowning!)

Long-nose hawkfish by Josey

Boxer Shrimp by Josey

Skunk anemone fish by Josey

Whip-coral goby by Josey

Black sail-fin goby

Gold-spec jawfish by Josey (Its pissed off I bet...)

Friends!

Nina, Josephine and Julia during the study in the field for the Humphead wrasse

Josey and Nina at the mangrove spa

Josey & Me

James and his Mango Vodka. Happy Birthday buddy!

Benjamin and his awesome and delicious birthday cake!

Tanduay rum!

Thanks to Aaron and Josey for the fish pics!

Diving at Sipadan during the Harvest Festival. From left: Josey, Me, Aaron, Danny, Ben and his girlfriend

Sugarcane?

Congrats to Aaron (100 dives) and Josey (150 dives)! Thanks to Dive Master Ramil (far left), Alan (Orange) and Boatman Jabar (far right)

SWV bartender Naomi says "See you again"