Friday, February 04, 2005

5km radius within Sipadan to be gazetted as marine parks

Kota Kinabalu: Sipadan and other islands within a five-km radius will be gazetted as marine parks to ensure better protection of their ecosystem and marine biology resources.

The gazetting process might take about six months, State Secretary Datuk K.Y Mustafa said, after chairing a meeting of the Joint Committee on Management and Supervision of Sipadan, here, Thursday.

He said the move was proposed since the State Government was equally concerned with many allegations concerning activities jeorpardising the ecosystem and marine biology in Sipadan and its surrounding areas.

Presently, the conservation development of the ecosystem and marine biology resources in Sipadan is under Sabah Parks, while the National Security Division (NSD) is controlling the tourism activities, i.e. issuing permits to visitors into the island.

NSD's jurisdiction, under the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act, 1959, however, only covers the land and water areas surrounding Sipadan up to 500 metres from the low water line comprising an area of 5.163 sq km.

"Therefore, any activities outside the perimeter is under the jurisdiction of other authorities," he said, adding that with the gazettement of Sipadan as a marine park the management to conserve the island, known as being among the best dive sites in the world, would be more efficient.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had instructed Mustafa to call the meeting for the committee to look into allegations of encroachment, illegal fishing and fishbombing activities in Sipadan waters. In this respect, Mustafa said the committee had discussed the allegations and concluded that nothing, as alleged, had happened.

"I would like to stress here that no fishing activities allegedly controlled by the tourism players had taken place there because our security forces are still manning the post in Sipadan conducting security surveillance work," he said.

Similarly, he said it was not possible for any fishbombing or laying of fish traps in the area since the security forces were patrolling it. "Furthermore, the waters in Sipadan are too deep, up to 2,500 metres and it is a fact that fishbombing and fish traps are used only in shallow waters."

On the photographs showing an alleged fishing boat in Sipadan waters, he said the committee found that some of them were not in the Sipadan area but another area under Sabah Parks.
He said police had also investigated the fishing boat owner seen in the photograph and he told them they were merely passing by the area since they wanted to avoid strong currents and big waves in the open sea.

Mustafa said the NSD Sabah branch had also requested cooperation from the navy (Region Two), police, armed forces and Fisheries Department to guard Sipadan from any activity that undermines its ecosystem and marine biology.

State Tourism and Environment Minister-cum- Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat had earlier said that the State Government would strive to obtain World Heritage status for both Sipadan and Maliau Basin.

Courtesy of: Daily Express

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