Article: Restoring the marine habitat

Thursday August 20, 2009

By ANDREA FILMER

THE Penang Fisheries Department has launched the state's first soft bed artificial reef in the sea off Pulau Kendi.

The isle, off Penang island's southwest tip, has been identified as the state's most suitable area for artificial reefs and already houses over 120 man-made reefs — 96 from scuttled old ships, 30 recreational reefs made of concrete and an unspecified number of reefs made from 72,000 tyres.

The department's acting director, Ainul Yasmin Md Yusoff, said research for a soft bed artificial reef, made from a frame of iron and concrete, in Penang started in 2006.

"Unfortunately, for many places we researched like Pulau Betong and Pulau Rimau, the shores were too shallow and mired for artificial reefs," she said during the launching of the Pulau Kendi soft bed artificial reef last week.

She added that several other states like Terengganu, Malacca and Perak had also started such artificial reefs.

(from left) Mad Zin, Idris Omar, Chooi and Nordin Ahmad taking a pledge to help oversee the new soft bed artificial reef.

"In Penang, Pulau Kendi remains the best place (for artificial reefs) and we hope the dropping of these 28 units of artificial reef will help to replenish the state's ocean resources as well as raise the income of our local fishermen," Ainul said.

Each perforated unit of concrete and iron with a wide base weighs 18 tonnes. When dropped into the sea, the base will sink into the soft bed and anchor it to the bottom.

"The construction of the units started this year in April and was completed in July. All the units will be dropped into the sea over a 1.5km area off Pulau Kendi which is some 4.5 nautical miles from the Teluk Kumbar shore.

"The reef will provide shelter for fish to move about and spawn as well as give minimum resistance to the currents and pukat tunda (trawler nets)," said Ainul.

"In about eight months, we expect that local fishermen will be able to pull about 100kg of various pelagic and demersal fish species from each of the 28 artificial reef units.

"If all goes well, this will help raise the average income of local fishermen to RM3,000 a month in the near future from the current RM1,000 to RM1,500," Ainul said.

She said the total cost of the reef was RM440,000 with RM220,000 allotted under the Ninth Malaysia Plan and an additional RM220,000 coming from the second economic stimulus package launched in March.

A total of RM24.4mil had been allotted to the Malaysia Fisheries Department under both programmes to build artificial reefs nationwide, she added.

The concrete blocks which were dropped off into the sea to create an artificial reef.

Ainul Yasmin said representatives of the local fishing community had agreed to oversee and co-manage the Pulau Kendi artificial reef to ensure its success.

The representatives — Teluk Kumbar penghulu Idris Omar, Gertak Sanggul Fishermen Unit chief Datuk Chooi Sooi Kong, Teluk Kumbar Fishermen Unit chief Mad Zin Che Din and Teluk Kumbar Federal Village Development and Security Committee (JKKP) head Nordin Ahmad — took pledges to oversee the reef at the launching ceremony held at the Teluk Kumbar Beach Monitoring Centre.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 20 August 2009