Destruction of a Marine Sanctuary

16 May 2006, Tuesday

An enormous steel barge carrying thousands of tonnes of coarse gravel, sand, steel tubes, iron mesh, prime movers, a large bulldozer and a gigantic crane — which had incredibly been allowed to anchor right in front of Sipadan’s legendary dropoff before unloading its cargo on the supposedly protected island — was pushed against the reef by wind, ending up beached on the island like some monstrous whale. In the process of being beached, the barge scraped clean thousands of years of nature’s delicate work between the old pier and Barracuda Point. The barge’s flat steel hull wiped corals away like a giant knife slicing through butter, leaving in its wake hundreds of square metres of unnaturally flat limestone, and a veritable wall of coral and debris piled up against the beach.

The damage is incalculable — one of Sipadan’s most precious and beloved spots, well-known the world over, is no more, transformed by a single inexplicable act of human carelessness into a grisly mass of broken and pulverised corals, shredded turtles and mounds of grey gravel suffocating what little is left of the legendary dropoff.

Source: FiNS Blog
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Apparently, the sand barge was allowed to anchor right in front of the jetty at the dropoff area. A project, with an economic drive to 'so call' improve divers' facilities on Sipadan, was gazetted to commence with much contradiction. It is incredibly ironic that dive resorts were pushed off the island in an attempt to preserve Sipadan’s amazing marine life, only to result in the destruction of the very resource they were trying to protect. It now seems oblivious that the authorities are seriously concerned about marine perservation...it reflected more so about the economic value of Sipadan as there's a good opportunity of making a potentially huge revenue out of it. The good publicities by many that renowned Sipadan caused an influx of tourists to the area every day. This has helped contribute to the improvement of the infrastructure( like Tawau Airport, Semporna roads and etc) and made travelling to Sipadan even easier. Arguably, the proposed Resthouse, complete with restaurants and dive souvenier shops, is a directive to provide better services and comfort to the visitors but it seemed more so at aiming to exploit the surge of tourists for monetary reasons.

The Sabah Park Authorities have always been on a good direction(at least on the surface) to protect their natural heritage. It is comforting to know that they seemingly value Sipadan as a place of hold for divers and marine conservationists alike. But this incident has revealed underlying agenda and shown their otherwise intention of developing Sipadan into a fund collecting Tourism Hub. It is puzzling to ponder upon, when on one hand, the Nparks issued orders to reduce traffic, activities and development on Sipadan, the other hand, they quietly commenced extensive work to the small island. They were thought to have said to leave the island as untouched as possible... to let it regenerate on its own. It is simply paradoxically not right to have made such sensational claims and yet allow the clearing of trees, filling of gravels, piling works to even begin and the beaching of a humongous Sand Barge on Sipadan! This act of neglience should not have even happened... The frequent strong gale and running currents has always been anticipated in an oceanic island like Sipadan. The human stupidity allows the anchorage at the dropoff.

Their recent development that was scheduled on Sipadan wasn't even made public until the barge beached itself. Whereas, news of Sipadan dive operators to vacate the island in 2004, denouncing the Australian claims of terrorist infestation in the area, limitation of people visiting per daily basis and the increment of the Levy fee to a horrendous ripoff sum per day was propogating in an outcry.... in the name and cause of conservation.
Putting together, they seem to have plans to develop this Island into a world acclaimed site with a higher priorty at feeding their pockets rather than in the name of protecting their natural environment. So much for "an untouched piece of jewel" that Jacques Cousteau remarked. Now Sipadan is scarred by human neglience. It will take decades to repair what was lost. If the authorities continue its exploitation of the island rather than genuinely conserve and protect life, Sipadan would someday see itself deteriorated into a commericalised Island with dead corals and barren seascapes. The rampant illegal fish bombings together with the 'avid interests' of the authorities would somehow guarantee the demise of a once beautifully created piece of art in the heart of the Celebes Sea.

This incident has greatly sadden me and has fueled anguish in conservationists and divers concerned all over the world. I just returned from Sipadan two months ago and it is really disheartening to hear such news. Now the authorities are considering to close Sipadan until works on the island are accomplished. This would definitely add to the damage already caused. Yes, it will lift some pressure from the public and they can, wihout interference, carry on with the building project. But without much of the human presence, illegal fishing may well become out of hand. What a mess they created out of a supposed Sanctuary.....

(P.S the abstract above is of my personal opinon and part speculation formed with the information available to me as of this time. I do not commit to indeminfy that the information I provide is factual. No references shall be made in relation to the materials therein this blog. I will not be held liable for any claims, slander and twisted facts formed by others from reading this blog.)