Reef Check Malaysia's Annual Survey Report 2024 Completed

We have just finalised the report on our 2024 annual coral reef survey programme in Malaysia. I thought it might be useful to share parts of the conclusions and recommendations to an audience who perhaps are not regular readers of our annual survey report.

For those of you are interested, it will be published on our website here; for those of you who don’t need that much data – we will be publishing a shortened version by the end of February.

Conclusions from the Report

Here’s the headline: from 2023-2024 there was a slight decline in Live Coral Cover (LCC), one of the key reef health indicators. This measures the percentage of the reef itself that is live coral – either hard coral or soft coral.

And the 2024 surveys indicate that LCC declined from 45.9% in 2023 to 44.7% in 2024, continuing a trend that originates from 2022.

Ok, it’s only a couple of years, and not really that much change, I agree…but we need to look at the broader historical trend. Here’s the data for the last 18 years.

Analysing Trends in the Health of Malaysia’s Coral Reefs

Granted that it is a bit unstable in the first couple of years due to low numbers of surveys as the programme got started. However, this graph, which shows trends in LCC (and other substrate indicators) going back to the beginning of our surveys, reveals some stark trends:

• First there was the impact of the 2010 bleaching event, which saw LCC drop by about 10% from 2010 to 2011

• Then there was the “first great recovery” (my slightly tongue-in-cheek description!!) from 2011 to around 2013, when LCC returned to pre-bleaching levels

• After that there was a slow slide, from around 50% LCC in 2013 to around 43% in 2019. We think this coincides with the growth in tourism experienced in the post-2008 financial crash era

• Then the “second great recovery” – from 2019-2022, when LCC again recovered to earlier levels around 50%. This period, clearly, coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw greatly reduced tourist numbers…coincidence?

• Finally, the more recent years since then, which show a slight decline from a high of 50% in 2022 to the 44.7% seen in 2024. A drop of just over 5 percentage points – 10% of coral cover lost in just two years.

Bearing in mind that:

a) this is aggregated national data;

b) the situation does vary a little in different locations; and

c) there was that little coral bleaching event in 2024, the results of the 2024 survey programme should ring alarm bells for all stakeholders – whether in government, the tourism industry, or among local communities.

Action is required now to improve management and conservation of Malaysia’s coral reefs.

Malaysia’s Coral Reefs are Deteriorating

The data suggest that the health of Malaysia’s coral reefs is deteriorating. Other key findings from the surveys are:

• The deterioration in coral reef health noted in our 2023 survey programme has continued into 2024. 63% of the islands/areas surveyed saw a decrease in Live Coral Cover (LCC), a key coral reef health indicator.

• As in previous years, the abundance of most fish and invertebrate indicators continues to be low, suggesting either historical over-fishing or on-going fishing pressure. This raises a concern about poaching in those survey sites that are in protected areas. In Sabah, 64% of the reefs recorded dynamite fishing damage.

• Disturbance and pollution indicators highlight the trends in the trajectory of reef health, with both local and global impacts evident during surveys. Approximately 83% of the islands/areas surveyed are impacted by discarded fishing nets and trash and 56% are impacted by anchor damage. Malaysia’s reefs have not been spared from the 4th Global Coral Bleaching Event, with coral bleaching documented at nearly 90% of the islands/areas surveyed.

Coral bleaching documented at nearly 90% of the islands/areas surveyed in 2024

The reduction in LCC noted above is indicative of impacts arising from a variety of human activities including unsustainable tourism, fishing, land clearing, pollution and other activities. These, combined with the recent large-scale coral bleaching event, are among the causes of the deterioration in reef health and urgent action is needed to address this decline.

And here is a cheery thought: what would the graph look like without those two periods during which reefs recovered? LCC could be as much as 10% lower than it already is, at around just 35%.

All is not lost – saving our coral reefs

We always say “all is not lost” and we are going to say it again this year…with the caveat that I believe we are running out of time to conserve reefs in their current form, before they go through a phase shift to an algae-dominated ecosystem.

These are much less productive than coral reefs – so fisheries output will be reduced, affecting the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale fishers in Malaysia, not to mention national food security. They are also much less attractive to tourists – potentially affecting the livelihoods of thousands of more people who work in the tourism industry.

So, what can we do? I’ll save the serious stuff until everyone has recovered from the Chinese New Year food coma😊. Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone!!

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