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Ahmad Ali (third left) presenting a souvenir to Musa while his organising committee members look on
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20th November, 2008
KOTA KINABALU: The proposed 33-hectare oceanarium resort in Mabul Island, located in the Sabah East Coast, will not destroy the coral reefs.
Rather, it would help ease pressure from the diving crowd coming from neighbouring Sipadan island, said state tourism, culture & environment minister Datuk Masidi Manjun yesterday.
He said the government was initiating efforts to restore the coral reefs which he claimed, had already been destroyed over the past 15 years due to illegal usage of fish bombs.
“I am not trying to defend the oceanarium… what the oceanarium is trying to create is a diving spot by rehabilitating the coral and marine life so that people need not go to Sipadan but just stay in Mabul.
“The whole idea is to disperse the diving crowd so that it eases the pressure on Sipadan,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the state legislative assembly sitting.
On Tuesday, Masidi said the Sabah Cabinet had endorsed the state land & survey department’s decision to approve the resort’s location.
In previous reports, environmentalists, villagers and dive operators had voiced worries over the resort plan as it would affect the island’s marine life and degrade the eco-sensitive coral reefs of Pulau Sipadan, a 20-minute boat ride away.
Meanwhile, Sabah Environment Protection Association president Wong Tack questioned the necessity for an oceanarium to be built.
He said an incident in Sipadan in 2006, when a construction barge ran aground and destroyed a coral reef patch the size of three tennis courts, should serve as a reminder.
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