KOTA KINABALU (Nov 24, 2008): World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF Malaysia) is against the controversial oceanarium development plan for Mabul.

Its communications manager Angela Lim said the island was already over-developed.

“Studies carried out on the island and its surrounding waters revealed that 85% of the island has already been cleared for village housing, schools, budget homestay accommodation as well as five-star resorts,” she said.

She said 80% of the coral reef sites surrounding Mabul Island were used by operators for muck diving while 50% of the reefs were shared between the diving sector and villagers for fishing.

She said this in a statement following the disclosure of the state giving the green light for oceanarium resort on the shallows of Mabul.

She said they discovered that the ground and coastal waters has been affected while waters surrounding the island were also partly polluted due to inadequate wastewater treatment and poor solid waste management of waste from villagers and resorts.

“Tourists have complained of over-crowding on the island since two years back which indicates a growing loss of wilderness value.

“The resources of island – the land, coral reefs and coastal waters – are already heavily used,” Lim said.

She said it was better to allow young marine life to regenerate through protection of their natural habitat as artificial reefs did not bring more fish.

“The Sugud Island Marine Conservation Area off Sandakan in partnership with the Sabah Wildlife Department and a private sector demonstrated this successful recovery of damaged reef, without the aid of artificial reefs, through research, monitoring and management,” she explained.

She said a management plan for Mabul and its resources would be prepared by the stakeholders to regulate development and resource use, in line with meeting Governmental standards and their own sustainable tourism and coral reef fisheries.

She said under WWF Malaysia’s Semporna Priority Conservation Area of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Eco-region (SSME), the organisation was facilitating a collaborative management plan of an area which included Mabul Island with its stakeholders.