KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Parks today launched a scuba diving club known as Sparks Divers Club as an initiative towards conserving marine life and coral reefs in all protected marine parks.
Sabah Parks chairman, Mohd Amin Abdul Mem said the scuba diving club comprising 101 licensed divers would be involved in monitoring and clearing the seabeds here from debris dumped into the water, thus threatening the marine ecosystem.
“I hope the club can promote scuba diving activities, share the beauty of the marine environment as well as carry out various activities that could contribute to marine life conservation,“ he said at the launch of Sparks Divers Club in Pulau Manukan, here.
At the same event, Mohd Amin also launched a “ghost net” cleanup initiative in the waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park (comprising five islands, off Kota Kinabalu) in conjunction with the marine park’s 45th anniversary of being gazetted and the World Ocean Day 2019 celebration.
A total of 27 divers from Sparks Divers Club participated in the “ghost net” cleanup effort.
Mohd Amin said ‘ghost nets’ were unused fishing nets dumped into the sea, causing them to be stuck among the coral reefs, thus affecting marine life.
He said the cleanup was held as Sabah Parks received several complaints from the public about the presence of ‘ghost nets’ in the waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park.
Between 1974 and 1979, five Sabah islands were gazetted as protected marine parks, namely Gaya Island, Sapi Island, Manukan Island, Sulug Island and Mamutik Island. — Bernama
