This year's ReefCheck's first survey! After the Tioman survey trip cancelled  

Anyway, here is some of the things i would like to share with all MUW members  

This SIP is lead by Ummi Haslinda (As usual)
and team member consist of 3:
Me, Martin, and Lim Yon Hon.



We stayed at Redang Kalong Resort!




A very nice and quiet resort (Perfect if you are looking for some place away from those disco noise and overcrowded of visitors.)

Well organized dive center.



Lovely beach, only the sand not so soft  

We kickstart our first day with some memory refreshing (Dah lupa nak identify fish ke? tsk2)
and head to Pulau Lima after lunch! After Ummi lay the line, 3 of us joined in. Me and Yon Hon did the Fish survey. (Stop for one minute every 5 meters? Perluke... Felt like ages down there hahaha, did it anyway  ) Then after reach the end, me & Yon Hon continue by collecting substrate data every 0.5m along the 100 lines. Same time, Ummi & Martin did the inverts survey. (Cis, senang betul die orang, but we take turns larh  )

The survey lasted for more than an hour. Head up on boat, and rest for 30 minutes before the next dive at Paku Kecil.



Second day morning, rain pouring like theres no tomorrow. (Over exaggerated eh?) And it doesnt look good. But our dive is planned at 1030, luckily rain settled down by then. But the air is cold! I straight away rent a wetsuit for myself  

Martin called the whale shark today! HAhahahhaha
 but it fong fei kei (didnt show up)

So, we started off this day by surveying Paku Besar, then Chagar Hutang. 4 manpower survey is really a tiring job  

Chagar Hutang is a very nice full of table corals. Lots of moray eels, one nudi (alamak), porcupines and puffer. Ummi spotted a black tip reef shark while she was laying down the 100m line, but others missed it  



Conclusively, coral healths = Meet the target (Bukannye ak biologist pon  )
Hopefully it will turn better by next year when we did another survey!  

Feel free to add up comments for this trip! & For those divers out there, join up ReefCheck as an eco diver! Make your dive more interesting and educational! In the same time, contribute back! (walaupun skit je hehe)

Peace, OUT!

Cool.. i was in Redang at that time. Did several dives at the redang Bay House Reef, Mini Mount and Black Forest.

Nice pictures, Eddy. Finally I can write something here after a busy week!

For a more detailed report

Before these guys came over, I was at Redang a week earlier to mark, map and survey the other sites with the assistance of Marine Parks Redang and AB Lee from Redang Kalong. So, during the Ecodiver weekend, the sites were already mapped, just a matter to remember where they are. Life is much easier this time around for you guys .

During the week, we have covered these sites too:

Pulau Kerengga Kecil
Depth: 8.2m
Viz: 10m
Water Temperature: 31C
Surveys:
Fish - There were not much fishes around, the usual butterfly fishes and parrotfishes. There are lots of groupers but the juvenille ones.
Inverts - There are a number of diadema urchins, greenfishes and giant clams. Storm damage is quite bad in this area.
Substrates - 32.5% rock, 26% hard corals (mushroom corals) & 20% soft corals (zoanthids). Rubbles are almost everywhere .

Pulau Kerengga Besar
Depth: 8.5m
Viz: 10m
Water Temperature: 31C
Surveys:
Fish - Butterfly fishes and parrotfishes
Inverts - A number of pinkfishes
Substrates - Hard coral cover is at 30%, rock 28% and rubbles 20%. Coral damages by storm. Anyhow it is much better than Kerengga Kecil with its boulders and big table corals.

Redang Kalong House Reef
Depth: 5.1m
Viz: 15m
Water temperature: A whopping 34C! Horrifying!
Surveys:
Fish - Butterfly fishes and a lot of snappers, but outside our 2.5m transect
Inverts - A number of giant clams, a couple of COTs and sea cucumbers
Substrates - The area is a blanket of zoanthids. However compared to last year's soft coral cover 79% and hard coral 11%, this year has a decrease of 7% for soft coral and an increase of 6% for hard coral. A good sign since the are newly grown staghorns, but then not a good one since we saw a patch of bleached zoanthids. Not a suprise with that kind of temperature!




Bleached soft corals - zoanthids.

Pasir Akar (new site)
Depth: 3.9m
Viz: 10m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey: Despite the area being zoned from water activities (snorkelers, divers, boats), there were not many fishes and inverts around. Coral cover, it has a good percentage of hard coral 63%, a lot of halimeda and there are bleached areas too. And I saw a big boulder scarred from being scrapped by a boat.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...


Staghorns bleached.

Pulau Pinang Marine Park jetty
Depth: 5.1m
Viz: 15m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey:
Fish - Some how there were not many fishes when we did the survey. Butterfly fishes and yellowtail barracudas.
Inverts - Lots of diadema urchins and a number of giant clams.
Substrates - Hard corals 51% (new grown staghorns), lots of NIAs and sponges and 21% rock. Old anchor damages are visible.
There were zillions of snorkellers and the water quality, no comment. Let's just say I just wanted to scrub myself after the dive .

During the Ecodivers weekend:
Pulau Lima South Point
Depth: 8.2m
Viz: 10m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey:
Fish - Butterfly fishes and parrotfishes. Sightings: Great trevallies, yellowtail barracudas and trigger fishes. They're like everywhere!
Inverts - Quite a number of COTs.
Substrates - Corals are badly damaged by storm and COTs. However there percentage for hard coral decreased 40% to 51% and slightly for the soft corals and rock.

Pulau Paku Kecil
Depth:8.2m
Viz: 10m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey:
Fish - Lots of snappers. A big sweelips was sighted but not in the transect line.
Inverts - Lots of sea cucumbers
Substrates - Hard coral 68% but a number of drupella and COT scars.
A bit difficult for us as we have struggle a bit in the mild current and choppy waters.

Pulau Paku Besar
Depth: 9.1m
Viz: 10m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey -
Fish - A potato cod was sighted and lots of snapper. There was a moray eel showing itself off but outside the transect line.
Inverts - Lots of COTs and greenfishes.
Substrates - Coral damage by storm and mainly plain rocks in this area.
It just finished raining, but the water was warm for us.

Chagar Hutang
Depth: 9.1m
Viz: 10m
Water temperature: 31C
Survey:
Fish - Lots of snappers, butterfly fishes and a number of groupers. A blacktip was sighted.
Inverts - Quite a number of COTs
Substrate - Good percentage of hard coral cover 50%, but also high NIA 10% - mainly crustose and brownish pencil shavings NIA.

Some pictures to share:


Black tip shark at Chagar Hutang


Favourite site: Chagar Hutang but there were a lot of COTs here.


Lots of particles in the water. Eddy...


Martin....


and Yon Hon.

And that's for Redang SIP.

Next will be SIP #2 at Perhentian this coming 11-13th June. Hopefully I don't see a lot of bleaching happening there, but then there are already sightings of the event. What can we do to control this from becoming worse?