KUALA LUMPUR (12 JUNE 2022): World Ocean Day is celebrated worldwide every 8 June 2022. For the people of Reef Check Malaysia, every day is ocean day as they work to sustainably manage coral reefs in Malaysia.

Reef Check Malaysia’s team are split across the islands in Mersing, Mantanani Island and Semporna in Sabah and Tioman Island in Pahang. Each team has been hard at work this World Ocean Day with involvement from the local communities too.

In conjunction with World Ocean Day, the team in Mersing conducted a beach cleanup at PantaiTeluk Cina, Pulau Sibu - a beach not easily accessible to villagers. As part of the #cleanseascampaign, 7 people were involved in the cleanup and a total of 447kg of trash were collected.Reef Check Malaysia was also invited to participate in a conservation activity in conjunction withWorld Coral Day on the 1st of June 2022.

7 volunteer divers from the Department of Fisheries and 1 representative from Reef Check Malaysia conducted maintenance activities at one of the coral replanting sites at Pulau Mentigi, Pulau Tinggi. Among the activities that took place were brushing off algae on the structures and removing barnacles.

Not forgetting the general public, the team at Mersing conducted a virtual zoom presentation for the Mersing community via Facebook Live through the Majlis Daerah Mersing’s Facebook account. The talk, “Kepelbagaian Ekosistem Marin diMersing - Tanggungjawab Bersama” was done in celebration of World Environment Day on 5 June 2022. A virtual tour of the island and eco-diving and talks on the importance of protecting the ecosystem and an introduction of the various ecosystems in Mersing was part of the presentation.

“It’s great to see that World Ocean Day is getting more recognised these days. People start topay more attention to issues we have and have joined hands in taking actions to save ourocean.” shared Nazirul Amin Azmi, Programme Manager of Cintai Mersing.

In Sabah, the team headed to Mabul Island for the Reef Check Ecodiver course with youthsfrom Mabul and Mantanani Island. This course was held in collaboration with Green Semporna, an environmental youth non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Semporna

On another Sabah series of activities for World Oceans Day, the team also completed their annual Reef Check survey for Mabul and Kapalai Island with trained Eco Divers. Their dedicated volunteers also did underwater clean ups after finishing the surveys. This survey issupported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah (KEPKAS).

Heading over to Tioman Island, the team held a beach cleanup and reef rehabilitation with MTG Capital Sdn Bhd. The ‘Reef Rehabilitation and Beach Cleanup’ campaign done on the 5th and 6th of June 2022 was done in conjunction with World Oceans Day. During the event, 15 people planted 100 corals and collected a total of 9 bags of trash, amounting to 70 kg of trash was collected.

Not wanting to miss out on the celebration, Reef Check Malaysia’s General Manager, Julian Hyde joined 140 people from Yayasan Sime Darby and Sime Darby group of companies at Pantai Kelanang for a cleanup for World Ocean Day. The group successfully collected 1,074 kgof trash all in a day’s work.

“We hope this effort will extend beyond the World Ocean Day celebration and that all stakeholders will continue working collaboratively in taking better care of our ocean.” added Nazirul.

For more information on the work that Reef Check Malaysia does, visit https://www.reefcheck.org.my/. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep updated with their work.