Reef Alert 2010 - Dayang-Aur

What is reef check about?

It was founded in 1996 by marine ecologist Dr. Gregor Hodgson, the Reef Check Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to conservation of two ecosystems: tropical coral reefs and California rocky reefs. With headquartersin Los Angeles and volunteer teams in more than 90 countries and territories, Reef Check works to create partnerships among community volunteers, government agencies, businesses, universities and other non-profits.


Reef Check goals are to:

1. educate the public about the value of reef ecosystems and the current crisis affecting marine life;
2. to create a global network of volunteer teams trained in Reef Check's scientific methods who regularly monitor and report on reef health;
3. to facilitate collaboration that produces ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions; and to stimulate local community action to protect remaining pristine reefs and rehabilitate damaged reefs worldwide.


Reef Alert

A joint project started by Gill Divers in collaboration with SMU, SMUX Diving team and Blue Water Volunteers, to monitor the reefs in Pulau Dayang and Aur. As diving becomes a popular sport amongst people of all ages, some dive operators including Gill and MPAs are concern of the health of the reefs in Dayang, as well as the other human impacts on it (e.g. coastal pollution, over fishing, animal behaviour and climate change). Reef Alert was set up and it has been an on-going project for 5 years. Reef Alert is not the same as Reef Check but they both serve the same purpose of educating the youths and promoting eco-tourism in these reefs.

This year, I have the privilege to be a trainee scientific officer and here's my findings of the programme.

Reef Alert makes a point to monitor one of the popular sites for training, for example, Lang and one to two other sites around the islands. This form of monitoring not only keeps track of the health status of the common training grounds, but also helps to monitor the recovery and health of the reefs. With that, MPAs can employ proper monitoring schemes, management and protection for the coral reefs. It is up to us.

Methodoloy:

The methods of the survey follows closely to that from Reef Check, created by Dr. Hodgson:
- 4 transects of 20 m long each, equally spaced out by 5 m
- 2 depths are monitored: 5 m (Shallow) and 8 m (Deep)
- 3 types of data: fish, invertebrates and benthic


What fish?

We record fishes that are usually either environmental indicators or food fish, aquarium fish, and any other fish that are well sought after by people.

- Butterflyfish (Aquarium)
- Angelfish (Aquarium)
- Sweetlips (Food)
- Snappers (Food)
- Humphead wrasse/Napolean wrasse (Food)
- Bumphead parrotfish (They are reef destroyers! Breaks down corals into calcium carbonate powder)
- Other parrotfish (Heterogeneity of coral reef)
- Barramundi cod (It is a type of grouper and involved in food fish)
- Groupers (They are usually ground dwellers and only 30 cm and above are noted; food fish)
- rare animals such as sharks, dugongs, whaleshark, turtles, etc are noted


What invertebrates?

- Banded coral shrimp (Aquarium)
- Long spined urchins (Grazers - implication of nutrient loading, eutrophication and leaching of nutrients into the seas)
- Pencil urchin (Aquarium)
- Collector urchin (Aquarium)
- Sea cucumber (Food) (Noted species are White teatfish, Holothuria fuscogilva; Sandfish, H. Scabra; Prickly redfish, Thelenota ananas; Greenfish, Stichopus chloronotus; Crown-of-thorns, Acanthaster planci)
- Lobsters (Food)
- Triton snail (Predator of crown-of-thorns)
- Giant clams (Food and Aquarium)



Benthic transect?

This tells us the condition of the reef and the current profile of the reefs. The proportions of each type tells us how much of the reefs have been damaged or sustained damages.

- HC (Hard corals)
- SC (Soft corals)
- RKC (Recently killed corals) - Not bleached corals
- NIA (Nutrient indicator algae)
- SP (Sponges)
- RC (Rock)
- RB (Rubble - 0.5 - 15 cm)
- SD (Sand)
- SI (Slit)
- OT (Others - animals and other algae)

The outcome of the survey will be written in a report and submitted to Malaysian authorities. Hopefully this data will come in useful for the marine parks in Malaysia, and for dive operators to be more aware of their activity usage.

The students too have learnt not only how tedious surveys can be, but the importance of reef protection and conservation. Also, that conservation is no easy task. It requires much commitment, passion and drive to push on for the good of the reefs. While we cannot simply just stop divers from using the sites as training grounds, we hope that divers practice good diving skills such as improving buoyancy, finning and awareness of the three dimensional area of the seas.

During my training, I too came across much life on the reefs.... :)

The sweetheart of the seas - clownfish


Giant clam (Tridacna crocea)

Hawksbill turtle! It was passing by our training line. :)



Crown-of-thorns - they eat corals! In some countries, annual spearing of these animals to ensure the survival of the corals. At the same time, triton snails - which eats these starfish - are heavily fished out for food and the shell, causing the phenomenon of overpopulated starfish on many tropical reefs.



Blue spotted fantail ray... They can be dangerous if prodded. So best to leave them alone!



Napolean wrasse is also heavily fished out and this one here was just a magnificent sight to watch...

I also spotted the titan triggerfish which as HUGE and aggressive, luckily it didn't chase me. I also spotted several bumphead parrotfish, and many other awesome reef fish.... Hopefully there will be another reef check to come!

Special thanks to Zeehan, Abby and Chay Hoon for being my best room buddies during the trip! It was nice.

Many thanks to Cheryl and the entire group of students! For their patience, help and fun-loving attitude during the entire trip. It was great rapport and support, as well as learning spirit during the surveys.

Thanks to Jimmy, Ryan, Heather, Shafik and Aman for their logistics arrangement. More thanks to Jimmy and Ryan for their help as dive in-charges and overseeing the entire process...

Cheers to all! :)