13 tonnes of trash collected in Kudat coastal beach clean-up
KUDAT: A group of divers and the local community here collected 13,319.73 kilogrammes of trash during a ‘gotong royong perdana’ event held in conjunction with the district’s International Coastal Clean-up day.
The two-day programme which began on Saturday was jointly organised by the district office, Sabah Parks, WorldWildlife Fund-Malaysia, and the Kudat Turtle Conservation Centre.
Present during the closing on Sunday at Sidek Esplanade here were Tanjong Kapor assemblyman Ben Chong , district officer Sapdin Ibrahim, and about 1,000 volunteers.
Chong said the programme has several objectives which include the support of global efforts to conserve coastal areas and the ocean, and to create awareness among the public that these areas could generate incomes in terms of fisheries and tourism potentials.
“This programme involves government agencies and departments as well as the Kudat community, and was held concurrently at several villages along the coast, including islands within the Tun Mustapha Park areas. There are also two additional programmes being held which were the underwater clean-up which focused on removing ghost nets, and collecting microplastics,” he added.
Sixty-seven percent of those trash collected were plastic materials while divers picked up 82.6 kg of ghost nets with the longest net measuring 70 metres.
Ivan Tan, one of the organising persons in charge of underwater clean-up, said, this was the second such activity being held in the district this year.
Ghost nets, left behind by trawlers and local fishermen, had drifted to dive sites and ended up being trapped on coral reefs and killing turtles and other marine life.
Meanwhile, Blue Fins dive centre co founder, Camuel Tsen, said if there were more volunteers they could have collected more nets.
“We are hoping that there will be more fundings for such activity in future to support in terms of equipment such as knives, net and other stuffs.”
Tsen was among 20 divers and volunteers from Blue Fin, Tommy’s Place, Biostation, Tomombuvoi, Mammalian dive centres based here who took part in the clean-up.