The Mersing islands initiative is supported by MISC Group through its Heart of the Ocean marine biodiversity conservation programme, which aims to improve ocean health by supporting coral reef conservation, increase reef resilience, and reduce plastic litter in our ocean.

Removing Threats from Our Reefs

We conducted two reef clean-ups and coral predator removal activities at the reefs of Pulau Aur and Pulau Pemanggil in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries, Johor.

Through the first activity, we removed 10 kg of trash consisting mainly of ghost nets during the reef clean-ups. At the same time, we also successfully removed 39 Crown-of-Thorns starfish (COTs) at these two sites, and this was done using a vinegar solution injection.

Reef Survey with the Island Community

This year, we kicked kick-started our yearly Reef Check surveys with the island community. We surveyed two sites at Pulau Lima and Pulau Tokong Sanggol with the help of one EcoDiver from Pulau Sibu, Zuhdi Nordin.

We’d like to thank Rimba Resort, for supporting the survey by providing us with diving tanks! This year, 32 survey sites have been identified for the Reef Check survey programme, and we’ll be sharing more information about them in the next edition of our newsletter.

Alternative Livelihood Opportunities for the Community

Alternative livelihood are activities with lower impact towards the environment and provides an additional source of income for the community. Through consultation activities done in March with 25 island communities from Pulau Sibu, Pulau Tinggi, Pulau Pemanggil and Pulau Aur, they have indicated their interest in exploring alternative livelihood opportunities. Among the preferred opportunities are food and beverages service providers and recreation activity operations.

The findings that were derived from this consultation process will be used to design training programmes to equip the community with relevant skills and help them generate a supplementary source of income.