Hi, I am diving instructor from South Africa who fell in love with Malaysia 9 yrs ago. I have just returned from a 2 week dive trip to Tioman Island, where I was before some years ago. I still loves this place and find the diving to be good and very easy.

What brings me onto this forum was a search for killing of sharks. While on Tioman I found it quite shocking that some restaurants proudly served white tip reef shark on their menu. Everyone has heard of shark fin soup, but here in this marine park and diving paradise, the brutal truth stares you right in the face. Freshly killed white tip reef shark on a plate ! During our stay we never saw even one shark underwater. It seems that there is a complete lack of knowledge and education with locals as well as tourists, many which are divers. Tourists feel that the shark meat are better than other smaller fish, which are favored by locals. The restaurant owners feel it is not they who kill the sharks , but the fisherman.

Furthermore, the tourists seems to be completely uneducated about sharks in general - I was approached by a German lady who saw us diving and asked if we saw any sharks. She told me that they were scared of swimming in fear of getting bitten by a shark ! O come on ! I live in Cape Town South Africa where we have a fair amount of great white sharks roaming the ocean, and although there are deaths occasionally, there are much bigger dangers on dry land, such as reckless drivers, for example, but no one seems to worry about that.

The lack of knowledge also became apperant while talking to a chef on Tioman  preparing a large lobster. I enquired about the price and he replied it is expensive, since they only have one and not often get them now. I noticed that this specific specimen was a female with berry (eggs). I pointed that out to the chef, stating that if this animal was left in the ocean just a few more weeks, it would've had time to reproduce, but now, effectively 100's of lobsters were killed in one go. I have been diving for more than 20 years and l live in an area where I saw lobster resources decline, despite legislation, to the point where it is almost impossible to find some while diving.

Sadly , when I posted this message on another website, I received mostly sarcastic replies.

Hi, I am diving instructor from South Africa who fell in love with Malaysia 9 yrs ago. I have just returned from a 2 week dive trip to Tioman Island, where I was before some years ago. I still loves this place and find the diving to be good and very easy.

What brings me onto this forum was a search for killing of sharks. While on Tioman I found it quite shocking that some restaurants proudly served white tip reef shark on their menu. Everyone has heard of shark fin soup, but here in this marine park and diving paradise, the brutal truth stares you right in the face. Freshly killed white tip reef shark on a plate ! During our stay we never saw even one shark underwater. It seems that there is a complete lack of knowledge and education with locals as well as tourists, many which are divers. Tourists feel that the shark meat are better than other smaller fish, which are favored by locals. The restaurant owners feel it is not they who kill the sharks , but the fisherman.

Furthermore, the tourists seems to be completely uneducated about sharks in general - I was approached by a German lady who saw us diving and asked if we saw any sharks. She told me that they were scared of swimming in fear of getting bitten by a shark ! O come on ! I live in Cape Town South Africa where we have a fair amount of great white sharks roaming the ocean, and although there are deaths occasionally, there are much bigger dangers on dry land, such as reckless drivers, for example, but no one seems to worry about that.

The lack of knowledge also became apperant while talking to a chef on Tioman  preparing a large lobster. I enquired about the price and he replied it is expensive, since they only have one and not often get them now. I noticed that this specific specimen was a female with berry (eggs). I pointed that out to the chef, stating that if this animal was left in the ocean just a few more weeks, it would've had time to reproduce, but now, effectively 100's of lobsters were killed in one go. I have been diving for more than 20 years and l live in an area where I saw lobster resources decline, despite legislation, to the point where it is almost impossible to find some while diving.

Sadly , when I posted this message on another website, I received mostly sarcastic replies.

Hi,

It is shameful to know eating sharks...

you see a lot small fishing village serve shark as food. The government is trying to implement some rules or restriction on this issue especially in Sipadan Island. Hopefully it will successes.

Usually in Tioman, Redang or Perhentian, you don't often  see reef sharks patrolling around this water, not much of food and water are too warm, or caught by fisherman. It is sad...

Recently there are a lot of NGO who trying very hard to promote "no shark fin soup" campaign in Malaysia, they are still new in the community hopefully the campaign can create a huge awareness ....
 

Mr.Africa. have you seen the Marina in kg.tekek ?