Our 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.

Getting to know the coral reefs

Since 2007, Reef Check Malaysia has been conducting coral reef surveys in Johor around the Mersing Islands.

Through continuous partnership with the Department of Fisheries and supported by Majlis Daerah Mersing, our survey every year aims to answer these questions:

• What is the current condition & health of the reefs?

• What are the impacts these reefs are facing?

Our survey findings also provide crucial information to local agencies and marine park managers to make informed decisions that would help improve the Mersing Islands marine park's condition.

Sharing our survey findings with the island communities also helps to increase their awareness and understanding about the current condition of the reefs surrounding their island.

What do we look for during a reef survey?

Other than coral cover and indicator species survey, the impact survey is also conducted to identify and record incidents due to the impact of human activities on corals such as ghost nets, anchor damage and pollution.

The photos on the right are some examples of damages observed during our recent reef survey.

What do our results say about the mersing islands’ coral reefs?

The Mersing Islands are home to many beautiful and unique reefs. We have surveyed up to 27 reef sites in the area last year, covering islands such as:

• Pulau Sibu

• Pulau Tinggi

• Pulau Besar

• Pulau Pemanggil

• Pulau Aur

• Pulau Dayang

In 2020, we learned that the average coral cover was around 45%, which means that the reefs are considered to be in "fair" condition. With our current conservation efforts, we hope to improve the condition of the reefs in the Mersing Islands over time.

Many of you may be wondering, with less activities in the waters in the past 2 years, is the health of our coral reefs improving?

We are curious about this too! Just recently, we have completed our reef surveys with two additional reef sites for 2021 and currently in the process of analysing the data. We hope you will look forward to the survey findings which we will share in our next newsletter.

In the coming months, our team in the Mersing Islands will be reaching out to various stakeholders to communicate our survey findings, in hopes to increase public participation and support towards marine conservation efforts.

beach cleanup

International Coastal Cleanup Day was celebrated in the month of September as part of a global initiative to raise awareness about ocean pollution, educate the public on the importance of keeping our waters clean and safe for marine life, and inspire the community to volunteer and be part of the action.

In an effort to keep the beaches and the ocean free of trash, we spent some of our time on land to clean up the beach after one of our reef surveys at Pulau Tinggi.

In a small team of 3, we collected up to 13 kg of trash in just half an hour. A simple activity like this can help protect our reefs in a small but meaningful way.

water quality survey

In addition to the coral reef surveys, we have also conducted water quality surveys with the Department of Fisheries to determine the nutrient levels of the waters in Pulau Sibu, Tinggi, Besar, Pemanggil, and Aur.

At each site, we collected water samples and physical parameter data which will then be transported to the laboratory for further analysis and processing.

We hope that the results of the water quality survey would enable us to better understand the condition of the waters on and surrounding the islands and how it is affecting the health of the surrounding ecosystems, including the coral reefs.