Malaysian Underwater

Plant trees, Cycle, Trail-walk, Take Photos and Play Eco-Games with your kids for World Environment

In conjunction with World Environment Day, Wild Asia, AMP Radio Networks and its eight radio stations (ERA, MY FM, hitz.fm, MIX fm, LiteFM, SINAR, XFM, THR Raaga) with Friends of Kota Damansara are joining hands to safeguard our community forest for a greener future. It will be a day dedicated to support environmental efforts, engage urban communities and plant trees pledged by loyal listeners and corporate partners.

Details on the event are as follow:

Venue: Kota Damansara Community Forest, Kota Damansara
Date: June 21, 2009 (Sunday)
Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm

It's a full day event filled with activities for all ages and it is aimed at getting urban communities to use their green space, and thereby contributing to the upkeep and overall protection of the community forest as a functional urban green lung and watershed area. Activities include: tree planting, photo competition, eco-kids activities, guided nature walks, kayaking, eco-booth stalls and a mountain bike time trail competition.

*Here's the promo on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMDQCNh6NSM.

For more information on this event, visit www.wildasia.net or http://www.wildasia.net/main.cfm?page=article&articleID=477.

The event organisers are also rallying support from MUW - see how you can contribute to this green movement on http://malaysianunderwater.com/smff/index.php/topic,5588.msg101793/topicseen.html#new

Come join us on June 21st and plant a tree with your favourite radio announcers! Spend the Sunday outdoors with family and friends and support the protection of our green spaces. What's more, the event will be buzzing with fun-filled activities that you just cannot miss!

Download event flyer here

Sustainable Island Programme 2009-10

sustaining the momentum of the pilot Sustainable Island Programme (SIP) that kick-started last year in conjunction with the International Year of the Reef, the SIP has now been extended for another 2 years. This time, the programme includes water quality monitoring of reef survey sites and eco-checks on resorts, thus keeping us on the pulse of our reef's health while at the same time giving us an insight to the challenges operators face in trying to meet the demands for more responsible tourism practices.

The activities under SIP 2009-10 encompass the following:-
•    Underwater reef monitoring surveys covering more dive sites and more islands to determine the impact and pressures on the reefs.
•    Community outreach programmes through schools to instil the awareness amongst children and create a sense of responsibility towards the environment.
•    Eco-checking island resort operators to identify environmental concerns and suggest ways to improve their practices to mitigating them.
•    Marine water quality monitoring to supplement data gathered from reef surveys.
•    SIP workshops to engage the private business sector (i.e. resort operators) to promote and share the best practices of responsible tourism.

Findings from the sample resort eco-checks, supported by results of the reef surveys and marine water quality tests, will be delivered back to the resort operators and relevant local authorities during one-day workshops open to those i perhentian

nterested. Registration is free-of-charge, however limited to 25 pax on a first-come-first served basis. It is envisaged that workshop participants would take the opportunity to share amongst one another and learn about best practices for the benefit of not just their businesses, but also for the environment and the people dependent on it.

The SIP workshops will be held as follows:
• Tioman Island on May 27, 2009 (Venue: Pesona, Tekek), 10am – 3pm.
• Perhentian Island on June 16, 2009 (Venue: Perhentian Island Resort, Perhentian Besar), 10am – 3pm.

Find out more about SIP 2009-10 and the above workshops’ itinerary at http://www.wildasia.net/main.cfm?page=article&articleID=469 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.
For schedules of the reef surveys conducted by Reef Check Malaysia this year under the SIP, visit the relevant MUW thread on Forum

-end-

Sustainable Island Program

Year 2008 has come and gone.. and a quick review of International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 begs one question to be answered.... Have we met the objectives of IYOR 2008 in promoting conservation actions for marine life?

The main objectives of IYOR 2008 broadly cover:-

Effective communication to diverse target audiences of the value and importance of the world's coral reefs,

Highlighting the variety of threats to the reef's sustainability, and

Motivating target audiences to take action to protect reefs.

How has MUW contributed to this?

Many beach and underwater clean-ups as well as underwater photo shoot-outs were
carried out (refer to relevant threads on Forum).

But an addition to the line-up, a pilot project known as the Sustainable Island Programme
was introduced to MUW earlier this year. A collaboration between Wild Asia and Reef Check Malaysia, and with generous financial backing from Sime Darby Plantation, the months of April to October kept us busy conducting reef surveys at selected dive sites in the islands of Perhentian, Redang, Tioman and Aur.

The MUW Ecodivers have posted their photos and shared their experiences on the following threads:-

* SIP # 1 in Perhentian [more]
* SIP # 2 in Tekek, Tioman [more]
* SIP # 3 in Perhentian [more]
* SIP # 4 was called off.
* SIP # 5 in Redang [more]
* SIP # 6 in Redang [more]
* SIP Video Upload [more]

Let's go to Manado

Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi is well known amongst scuba
divers and skin diver for the magnificent wall and macro diving.
Those who have visited this haven had only these few words to
describe their experiences:

"Unforgettable".

"Amazing".

"Superb".

"Unbelievable".

Manado's wonderful and rich biodiversity underwater will probably still be undiscovered if it wasn't for one man : Loki Herlambang, who, over 3 decades ago (circa 1975), made an exemplary dive in Manado Bay. Awed by the beauty he explored the inexplicable and breathtaking Bunaken and the neighbouring islands. The mind blowing experience has inspired Loky to form Manado's first diving club now known to the dive world as Nusantara Diving Center or NDC for short (www.ndcmanado.com ). NDC has now grown and is rated to be among the best dive and spa resorts in North Sulawesi. Divers today are forever in awe of the dominating volcanic landscape that has created a unique backdrop for North Sulawesi. The year-round diving offers excellent visibility averaging 25m and offers an amazing variety of marine life and exotic surroundings. Many unusual species, like the prehistoric "coelacanth", reef-sharks, turtles, eagle rays, napoleon wrasse, dugong and orca (to name a few) have come to call this amazing place "home". It is one of the world's best, yet at the same time, the least known dive destination in the world. A majority of the sites are conveniently accessed within one hour from your hotel and North Sulawesi's remote location means that the sites are never crowded with other divers.

Unlike before, where getting to Manado from Malaysia would mean having to fork out at least RM1500 (which does not include a nights stay in Singapore to catch the connecting flight the next day), Air Asia (www.airasia.com) now proudly offer divers from Malaysia the opportunity to discover the delights of Manado and Bunaken at a fraction of the traveling costs. For as little as RM400 return (based on RM40 per way tickets), Air Asia will take you direct from LCCT to Manado International Airport, thus saving you money and valuable time. Which means that you too, will find yourself echoing the very same words visiting divers have uttered before this :

"Unforgettable".

"Amazing".

"Superb".

"Unbelievable".

More...

Auspicious.

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