Recycling Centre opens at Pulau Sibu
Our team in Mersing began recycling programme at Pulau Sibu with the support of the Mersing District Office and the Pulau Sibu local community. A recycling facility was built as a collection and sorting centre for glass, plastic and tin materials before transporting them to the mainland at Mersing for recycling.
Three sets of recycling bins were also built with assistance from the local youths, and seven more bins are currently under construction. These bins will be placed throughout the village for the island community to dispose their recyclables.
MISC Volunteers Join Reef Conservation
25 employees from MISC Group volunteered as part of the Employee Participation Programme (EPP) for the Heart of the Ocean Programme at Pulau Sibu in August. MISC’s volunteers together with Reef Check Malaysia team members in Mersing conducted reef monitoring using the Coral Health Chart. The survey data was added to the CoralWatch global database that could be analysed to indicate coral health over time or pick up trends of bleaching and recovery.
A beach clean-up was also carried out, and it managed to gather more than 155kg of marine debris. The EPP volunteers also participated in the first community hosting activity involving four families on the island, helping to gather their feedback on alternative livelihood opportunities to generate economic activities with a lower impact on the environment and provide an additional source of income.
In order to increase local stakeholder's awareness of safe boat operations and reduce the environmental impact of their activities, the EPP volunteers also helped to organise a safety talk on boat handling, which involved a total of 22 participants among local tourism and boat operators in Mersing.
Mooring Buoys Installed as Reef Rehabilitation Thrives
Our colleagues installed two mooring buoys at Pulau Harimau and Pulau Hujung with the help of the Pulau Besar community to reduce the impact of anchoring on coral reefs. Monitoring was conducted at the Besar Baguz reef rehabilitation site and it was observed that previously rescued corals are now growing healthily on the reef rehabilitation structures.
