 Coral Reefs at Port
Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia |
 Very little
is known about the two coral reefs at Port Dickson. |
Only 65km south of the international airport, on a good, quiet, scenic road with many beautiful villages to see en route, Port Dickson is an ideal place to develop an eco-tourism industry. It should be noted here that neither Reefwatch nor the World Wildlife Fund have any reference to Port Dickson in their data-banks of information on coral reefs in Peninsula Malaysia. It should also be noted that in 2009, our company was fortunate to have a private audience with our state Menteri Besar during which we proposed that the state government legislate for at least one marine park in Port Dickson. The purpose of these marine parks was to protect both the nesting Hawksbill turtles and the two small but spectacular coral reefs which the turtles called "home". As a result of that meeting, we also gave a 30 minute presentation to the state's committee on tourism development, as well as meetings with the Tourism Action Council and UPEN, the body responsible for considering and recommending monetary allocations for worthy tourism development projects. For all these meetings, we included a budget estimate of between RM250,000 and RM450,000 for each of our recommended two (2) marine parks. The only reason that the cost was so high was because of the necessity to provide 24 hour security with CCTV and a specially designed sea barrier to prevent boats from entering the area until better control was initiated. The budget also included the cost of a small glass bottom boat to ferry small numbers of paying tourists, out to the site and return. After two years of trying, the end result was NOTHING. Even today, small pieces of live coral that took decades to grow, are broken off and sold by locals at several pasar malam (night markets) in the area for prices of around RM1.50 (US$0.45c) each. You can't blame the locals. Nobody has ever told them that such destruction is effecting the fish supply, that coral takes so long to re-grow, and that a viable tourist industry surrounding the reefs could bring them 100 times the amount of money. We are persevering in our quest to create marine sanctuaries. A recent sell out of 60% equity in our company to a larger group will see this all come to fruition in a few years time. Good news for the ecology of our state. |
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