REEF LOVER 2, PULAU PERHENTIAN

May 2010 was a hectic month for me. In this month, MMU is having 2 Registration Day for both international and local students plus MMU Melaka is facing shortage of accommodation for its new students due to the closure of hostel for refurbishment. However, I still managed to spare my time for doing some outdoor activities.

Reef Lover 2 was held in Pulau Perhentian Besar from 19th-23rd May 2010. This program was a collaborative effort between Kelab Pembangunan Belia Melaka, Watersport Club Cyberjaya, UPG Cyberjaya, Jabatan Taman Laut and Seahorse Diver, Perhentian Besar.

Seahorse Diver...one of the sponsor

Around 80 participants from both MMU Melaka and Cyberjaya took part in this program. They departed on Wednesday (19thMay) night and reached Kuala Besut in the morning (20th May). From Kuala Besut, they took speed boats to Pulau Perhentian Besar (Taman Laut). Female participants stayed at D'Ayumni while the male stayed at Suhaila Resort.

Activities on the 1st day:

Snorkelling infront of the Marine Park

Divers doing weight check...some of them have not dived for quite some times

The others were doing beach clean up

However, I could not join them on the first day due to International Registration Day at MMU. Straight after the registration day, Shamsul sent me to LCCT and I took an Air Asia flight to Kota Bharu (Kelantan). The flight took about 45-50 minutes but at the later stage there were some turbulences and some 'air pockets' which made a lot of the passengers to scream. Luckily the turbulence occured only about 5-7 minutes before we landed....Alhamdulillah.

At Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, Abang Shahrin and Abang Lan were already there to pick me up by van. From Kota Bharu Airport to Kuala Besut Jetty took about 1 hour. Luckily, I managed to catch the last boat to Pulau Perhentian at 6.00pm.

On the 2nd day:

1. Divers doing underwater clean up.

Our first clean up was just infront of the Marine Park...at the Jetty. There were 6 divers and 1 divemaster (Sun) from Seahorse in this dive. The dive was fun. we did not only focus on clean up but enjoying the view and life underwater.

Divers taking picture infront of Seahorse Dive Centre

Taman Laut (Marine Park) provided tanks for all divers

First clean up was just infront of the Marine Park

Divers with their rubbish collected underwater

Cleaning the equipments after dive

Our 2nd clean up was infront of Teluk Kekek beach (about 5 minutes boat ride from Marine Park). The beach was very nice and the water was very clear. It has beautiful corals at one side and white sandy ground at the other.

A diver doing clean up at Teluk Kekek

Resting a while at Teluk Kekek beach after the clean up

Our 3rd clean up was at Batu Nisan (near Long Beach). This time, we were accompanied by another divemaster, Nurul from Seahorse, and two more divers from Marine Park. We divided ourselves into 2 groups. There were not too many rubbish down there. One group end up cleaning the C.O.T (Crown of Thorn) but my group did manage to get a lot of rubbish. The most interesting part diving here was confronting with 'Bumphead parrotfish'. Our group saw only one...quite sizable... but the other group saw a school of big bumpheads...I envy them so much. We didn't expect to see the bumphead here since we didn't get the chance to see them in Sipadan last January. However, the dive was awesome.

On the way to Batu Nisan with Seahorse's boat

2. The other participants went to Pulau Perhentian Kecil to have some community program with the school childrens and villagers. Among the activities were LDK with school childrens, sukaneka and sport day with the villager.

Program with school childrens

Sukaneka with villagers including tug of war

On the 3rd day:

It was raining in the morning until afternoon. So, our plan to go to Pulau Rawa was delayed a little bit. At about 2.30pm, a fishing boat took us to Pulau Rawa for about 45 minutes from Marine Park Jetty. Pulau Rawa is quite popular for snorkelling and it is near to Pulau Susu Dara Besar and Kecil. It has a nice corals but a lot of them are dead...maybe due to excessive unethical snorkelling activities.

The fishing boat that took us to Pulau Rawa

Besides snorkelling some of us also played beach soccer

While you were snorkelling, I...hehe..

Before leaving the island, we did some beach cleaning at Pulau Rawa

At night, Marine Park gave us some presentation on conserving the nature where we got a lot of useful information. Thank you Marine Park for your support. Next year, please support again...hehe..

Mr. Megan from Marine Park doing his presentation

Congratulations to all participants of Reef Lover 2 (Perhentian Island edition). See you in Reef Lover 3.

Conclusion:

On the whole, the program was successful eventhough the budget was very high. This year, the program was more compact campared to the previous one. We introduced a new element i.e LDK with the local school children in our agendas so as to bring more benefits to the participants, local people as well as the nature. Most importantly, the awareness of the importance of preserving the nature must be instilled in the heart of every participants.

Congratulations to all committee, participants (Melaka and Cyberjaya) and all sponsors for making this event a success. See you in the next edition of Reef Lover. Where?...you decide.

Bye.

(Audited by.... hehe)