Semporna Islands Darwin Project

Volunteer Program, September 2010. By Anqi Lim

About this document

As an avid diver, I have dived in

numerous locations in Asia, such as
Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and
Malaysia. At the top of my best dive sites
list, is Sipadan Island in Sabah, East
Malaysia which I visited back in October
2008 for a leisure dive trip.

In September 2010, I had an opportunity

to volunteer with Semporna Islands
Darwin Project (SIDP). This photo
document will record my marine
conservation experience during this
enriching volunteer program.

The objective of this document is to raise

awareness about the efforts put into
conservation of the marine parks in
Sabah, East Malaysia for sustainable
development.
Semporna Islands Darwin Project
Semporna Islands Darwin Project (SIDP) is currently in its post funding Phase 2 stage, up til
2011, focusing on conservation efforts in Tun Sakaran Marine Park. This project has been
grant-aided by the Darwin Initiative through funding from the UK Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and is managed by the Marine Conservation Society, in
partnership with Sabah Parks.

For more information, visit project website at www.sempornaislandsproject.com

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 SIDP Volunteer Program, September 2010
The volunteer program with SIDP and Sabah Parks focused on 3 key areas:

1. Monitoring the state and health of the corals in Tun Sakaran Marine Park and Sipadan
Island through reef check survey techniques. Pictorial data was also collected, focusing on
coral bleaching at various dive sites in the marine parks. Tun Sakaran Marine Park is an area
with 8 islands, where marine life in this area has been negatively impacted by unsustainable
fishing methods such as fish bombing. Besides introducing government regulations on 'no-
take' zones where no fishing is allowed, conservation work also involves working together
with the native local community living within the marine park, to educate them about
sustainable fishing methods.

3. Involvement in turtle conservation at the Turtle hatchery in Sipadan Island to continue to

preserve and grow the population of the green and hawksbill turtles.

2. Involvement in work at the hatchery at Boheydulang, one of the 8 islands in Tun Sakaran
Marine Park. SIDP has been successful in spawning the endangered giant clams, which will
be introduced into the reefs once they have reached adequate size and stable growth. There
are also spawning plans for sea cucumber and abalone, which if the farming is successful,
could be introduced to the local villagers living in the marine park as an alternative source of
livelihood apart from fishing.

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Top: Juvenile giant clams of the species Tridacna derasa. Bottom (Left): Turtle at 3
Sipadan Island. (Right): Coral bleaching at Tun Sakaran Marine Park.
 Coral Reef Surveys in Tun Sakaran Marine
Park
The Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP) encompasses 8 islands, and is the biggest marine
park in Sabah. TSMP is also the only marine park in Sabah where there is a local community
that lives in the marine park, and is dependent on the natural resources as their livelihood.
There is great biodiversity of marine life in TSMP, however, use of unsustainable fishing
methods like blast/bomb-fishing as well as overfishing has led to the lost of marine life and
coral reef destruction.

Coral reefs are very important as they are the habitats of many species of marine life.
Healthy corals show an abundance of color which is due to the presence of zooxanthellae
algae that live symbiotically with the coral polyps to provide them with food. Increased
water temperatures is known to kill these algae, so the corals become 'bleached' and lose
their colour. Although corals can recover naturally, they become less resilient and may
eventually die.

In order to ascertain the health and state of the coral reefs in TSMP, coral reef surveys are
conducted frequently to track the conditions of the reefs. During this volunteer program, the
coral reef surveys were conducted at Kapikan Island, Mantabuan Island, Maiga Island,
Ribbon Reef and Dead End Channel.

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(Above):The lagoon view from top of Boheydulang, Tun Sakaran Marine Park. 5
6 Top (Left): Collecting data during the reef check survey at Kapikan Island. (Right): Bleached coral at Mantabuan Island.
Bottom: Bleached Coral at Maiga Island (Left) and Dead End Channel (Right).
Unsustainable fishing methods have negatively impacted the marine life, but Tun 7
Sakaran Marine Park is still known for its diverse marine life of fishes and corals.
 Sipadan Island and Turtle Hatchery
Apart from its lush green forests, Sabah is most well known for its beautiful islands and dive
sites. Sipadan Island has been rated as one of the world's best dive sites. In order to
preserve and conserve this island, the Malaysian government has prohibited any resorts to
be built on the island itself, and has restricted the number of visitors/divers to 120 a day.
Most dive operators base themselves from the town of Semporna, or in nearby islands
Mabul and Kapalai, and register for permits for their guests to visit and dive in Sipadan.

Coral reef surveys during the volunteer program were conducted at the dive sites Staghorn
Crest, Mid Reef, West Ridge Point and Barracuda Point. The variety of marine life
encountered there include white and black-tipped sharks, schools of sweetlips, jackfish and
batfish, big-eyed trevally and of course, turtles.

The Turtle Hatchery on Sipadan Island is one of the many turtle conservation centres in
Malaysia. Female turtles come onto land at night, to prevent being seen by predators, to lay
their eggs which they bury in the sand. Turtles are known to come back to the same
beaches where they were born for nesting in future, hence the hatchery aims to provide a
safe sanctuary for the turtles to do that. The hatchery is a fenced-up enclosure where the
eggs are kept til the baby turtles hatch before they are released into the sea. The species of
turtles being conserved include the green turtle and the hawksbill turtle.

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Sipadan Island is known as having some of the world's best dive sites. (Above): Huge school of barracudas at Barracuda Point. 9
10 Top (Left): Bleached Coral at Staghorn Crest. Top (Right): Coral at West Ridge at different stages from live, to bleached
and finally dead coral. Bottom: Dead and bleached corals at Mid Reef (Left) and Barracuda Point (Right).
Amazing variety of marine life at Sipadan Island. Top: School of Batfish. Bottom (Left): 11
Black-tipped reef shark resting on the sandy bottom. Bottom (Right) Nudibranch.
12 Sipadan Island is well known for having an abundance of turtles. To preserve the species of turtles, Sabah Parks has a turtle hatchery
where the eggs are collected and kept in the hatchery for about 2 months before they hatch and are then released into the sea.
(Left): A close up on a friendly turtle. (Middle): Approaching a turtle on one of the dives. (Right): Turtle surfacing for air. Sipadan has a dive 13
site called Turtle Tomb where there are many turtle skeletons as some turtles get trapped in the cave when they try to surface for air.
14 Top (Left): Sabah Parks staff recording the ID of the turtle laying eggs. (Right) Eggs are collected and counted.
Bottom (Left): The eggs are buried and labelled by batch in the hatchery. (Right): Baby turtles released into the sea.
Having a personal moment with the baby turtles at the Turtle Hatchery ion Sipadan Island. Usually each turtle can lay about 80 eggs at
night; eggs take around 2 months to hatch. The hatchery is present to ensure that the eggs can hatch safely and are not consumed by
other predators. Sipadan has been successful in this turtle project as can be seen by the large number of green and hawksbill turtles.

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 Cultivating Giant Clams at Boheydulang
Giant clams (Tridacna species) are spectacular with their large size and brightly coloured
mantles. Regular clams are small, but giant clams can grow up to 4 feet (1.2m) across, and
weigh in at 500 pounds (225 kg). Due to their beauty and size, they are being endangered as
they are often a traditional food source on many of the islands. For example, a giant clam, which
has taken 7 years to grow to a mature size, can be sold in Semporna for only 5 Malaysian
Ringgit. This means that giant clam numbers may be reduced to the point where the populations
are unable to reproduce naturally.

SIDP has successfully introduced growing and cultivating these giant clams (Tridacna Derasa) at
the Boheydulang hatchery, with the hope that farming giant clams can help to repopulate reefs
by transplanting them onto protected reefs. Once enough clams have been transplanted, they
can naturally repopulate the surrounding area.

To cultivate giant clams, first the eggs and sperms are collected from the broodclams. Then the
juvenile clams are grown in the hatchery til they are about 5cm, this takes about 1-2 years. They
are then transported into cages in protected waters to protect them from predators and allowed
to grow to a decent size (which could take several years) before they are transplanted onto the
reefs to live naturally.

Similarly, there are plans to farm sea cucumbers and abalone for alternative livelihood.

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(Above): Broodstock of species Tridacna Gigas at Boheydulang. Overfishing has led to the giant clams becoming endangered. The 17
Successful spawning of Tridacna Derasa in the Boheydulang hatchery has cultivated about 4,000 of the Tridacna Derasa species.
18 Top (Left): Recording data on the broodstock at Boheydulang. (Right): Giant clams in the tank at the hatchery.
(Bottom): Staff inspects cages at Ribbon Reef where some cultivated juvenile clams, Tridacna Derasa, are kept.
Spawning trials for sea cucumber. (Above): Cold treatment using ice packs to reduce the temperature by 5 degrees to 19
26 degrees celsius for an hour. (Bottom): Hot treatment by increasing temperature by 5 degrees celsius again.
 The People of Semporna
Semporna is a small town, with fishing and seaweed farming being the main source of
livelihood for the locals. Tourism is only present due to the proximity of Semporna to the
nearby islands like Sipadan for diving. The people in Semporna consists also of the native
Bajau Laut, who live in the villages on the water stilt houses.

Semporna, is part of the larger Sabah or Borneo, East Malaysia. People from Sabah call
themselves Sabahans and frequently distinguish themselves from the people in West
Malaysia. There is great racial harmony in Sabah although it consists of over 30 ethnic
groups, each with its distinct language, but most people converse using Malay.

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Above (Left): The jetty at Semporna where boats leave for the islands. (Right): Graffiti wall in Semporna town. 21
Bottom (Left): Fishermen in TSMP. (Right): Local seaweed farmers at their village.
22 The team at SIDP and Sabah Parks. Top (Left): Muslim from Sabah Parks. (Right)
Radzi, SIDP Hatchery. (Bottom): Posing with Ali and Nara from Marine Research Unit .
 By: Anqi Lim, Singapore

With thanks to SIDP and Sabah Parks.

Special mention to Helen Brunt, SIDP and Nasrul, Sabah Parks; and all the crew and staff whom
I have worked with for making this volunteer program possible.