Our colleagues on Redang recently signed an MoU with SK Redang in October 2023. This marks the start of a collaboration between us and the school. We also had the opportunity to meet some of the students, who were eager to find out about our activities. The school allowed us to display five educational posters at the school to kickstart this project. We expect to begin actively conducting educational programmes in the school in 2024.

As we are eager to expand the Green Fins programme to Redang Island, our colleagues conducted assessments at a few registered SCUBA Diving shops on the island. The Green Fins membership is free, and the assessment will help ensure the dive shops adhere to the 15 Point Code of Conduct and carry out their dive or snorkel operations in an environmentally-friendly manner. More information on Green Fins can be found at https://greenfins.net.

To further our efforts in reef conservation in Redang, RCM partnered with Laguna Resort Redang and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), under the Reef Care programme. As Reef Care partners, the resort and UMT recently conducted reef rehabilitation efforts on the island. Our Redang Marine Conservation Group (RMCG) also participated in this effort, as it enabled them to gain knowledge and master the skills related to rehabilitation of reefs.

At the end of October, our Cintai Redang colleagues attended participatory management session together with ‘Majlis Pengurusan Taman Negeri Terengganu’, with regards to the gazettement of Pulau Rhu as a State Park. The meeting, held at the Pejabat Daerah Besut was conducted to discuss the feedback and next steps to be taken by the respective parties and stakeholders, as well as address any other matters regarding this project. More meetings will be held in the future, to ensure the gazettement process runs smoothly. In mid-November, RCM and RMCG representatives met with ‘Majlis Pengurusan Taman Negeri Terengganu’ once again. This discussion focused on sharing of opinion regarding the management plan that can be implemented. This plan will help increase the focus of the state government towards protecting the environment in Terengganu.

Our RMCG team has busied themselves this last quarter. Upon receiving reports of ghost nets stuck to reefs at a dive site, the team worked together to remove the nets, which also had some crabs entangled to it too. The ghost nets, weighing 40kg was successfully removed and handed over to the Department of Fisheries to be disposed. They have also been conducting regular, scheduled monitoring, maintenance and data collection of coral growth at the reef rehabilitation sites. At the end of the year, the RMCG team, together with some local youths, attended a short course conducted by our RCM colleague on Redang. They were exposed to topics that covered coral reef ecology, Crown of Thorns starfish (COTs), coral reef restoration, coral bleaching and ghost nets.