Dive Sites in Malaysia closed due to coral bleaching

Malaysian dive sites closed due to Coral Bleaching

It was actually in the news yesterday morning, but took a while to get more details. I've booked a trip to Redang Island this weekend and was particularly concerned about which area in Redang is closed.

Was trying to find out which sites in Redang Island would actually be closed. The details in the news wasn't so clear. There were names of dive spots supposed to be in Redang but I couldn't find them on the map.

Sure Teluk Dalam is the name of the area near Berjaya, and there is one Teluk Bakau between Pasir Panjang and Kalong. Of course these could be other sites with similar names. Otherwise, i believe Tanjung Tukas Darat and Tanjung Tukas Laut is in Perhentian Besar, while Teluk Air Tawar is in Pulau Tenggol.

Maybe the news reporters have difficulty understanding the list of sites spelled out to them. Got a list from my travel agent, but not much help either, though he states that the arrangement for holidays in Redang will not be affected. Well just hope for the best.

Thursday July 22, 2010

Top dive spots closed due to coral bleaching

By EMBUN MAJID

embun@thestar.com.my


ALOR SETAR: Several dive sites at two of the top diving destinations in the world — the Pulau Tioman marine park in Pahang and Pulau Redang marine park in Terengganu — are temporarily off-limits to divers and snorkellers until end-October.

They are among three marine parks — the other being Pulau Payar in Kedah — which are affected by coral bleaching, a phenomenon caused by global warming that has increased sea water temperature by 2°C to between 28°C and 29°C.

Marine Park Department director-general Abd Jamal Mydin said the affected dive sites in Terengganu were Teluk Dalam, Tanjung Tukas Darat, Tanjung Tukas Laut, Teluk Air Tawar, Pulau Tenggol and Teluk Bakau; and in Pahang they were Pulau Chebeh and Batu Malang.

Underwater phenomenon: Coral bleaching takes place when the temperature of the sea increases due to global warming.

In Kedah the affected sites are Teluk Wangi, Pantai Damai and Coral Garden.

Three islands in the vicinity of the Tioman marine park that have been temporarily closed are Pulau Regis, Pulau Soyak and Pulau Tumok in Pahang.

“The closure means that no diving and snorkelling activities will be allowed at the sites.

“In Pulau Payar alone, the damage to coral is estimated at between 60% and 90%,” he told a press conference in Langkawi yesterday.

The department said it would limit the number of visitors to Pulau Payar from 400 to 200 daily during the closure.

Abd Jamal said it was necessary to close marine parks and islands to protect the coral reefs which had turned white.

“We are monitoring the extent of coral bleaching at all marine parks in the country. In the meantime, we are building artificial reefs and coral transplants,” he said.

Each year about 500,000 tourists, including foreigners, visit each of the marine parks.

Reef Check Malaysia general manager Julian Hyde welcomed the temporary closure of the marine parks, saying the corals needed time to recover.

“Corals are like the human body, Although the body can recover from a disease, it still needs time to rest,” he said.

Current climatic conditions have caused water temperatures to rise, thus affecting the corals, making them vulnerable to predators and disease, he said.

“Human activities will also have an impact on the reefs,” he added.

Malaysian Nature Society’s head of conservation Yeap Chin Aik said the department should actively get local universities and experts involved in saving the reefs.

Pulau Payar, Langkawi Island - better snorkeling after learning to swim

I learned to swim and went to snorkel at Pulau Payar, Langkawi Island off Kedah, Malaysia.

In June i took a trip to Langkawi island with my family, one of the activity was snorkeling at Pulau Payar. When i started to learn to swim, this trip was already in my mind, as i've written earlier about my Tioman Trip, it was difficult to snorkel when i didn't know how to swim.

Indeed as i found out at Pulau Payar, Langkawi, it made a whole lot of difference. Sure i wasnt that good at swimming yet, but basic swimming ability allowed me to snorkel with confidence. I was able to go out further on my own, not afraid to navigate in the water. It made all the effort so far to learn to swim worth it!

Here are some pics of our trip to Pulau Payar, Langkawi. Other Pulau Payar pics at my wife's muslimah swimsuit site.

Snorkeling launching point

Not too good at taking pics yet.. ;)

The ferry that took us from Langkawi to Pulau Payar

The platform from where we snorkeled

Swimming, snorkeling, but no blogging for a month!

Haha, hi all!

Looked at the blog today and noticed that there was no post in June!! Wow, it has been that long. It was the school holidays early june, and instead of having more time, it was the opposite! I have been swimming 3 times a week (or you can say learning to swim) on most weeks and have been back to my hometown in Kelantan, and took a trip to Langkawi where we snorkeled! Need to figure out how to update all those stuff here.. so for now just saying hi in case somebody comes along to find this blog not updated.. :)

My third swimming lesson

In my last swimming lesson I was still getting the feel of being underwater, holding my breath trying to move around. I spend a lot of time at the children’s pool (when there were no children around) building confidence to put myself into the water with both feet off the pool floor, not so easy when you had never swam before. The water was deep enough for me to try ‘swimming’ while totally submerged. It is easier to swim underwater they say, and it’s true but it’s tiring when you don’t really know how. That wasn’t really swimming just getting over the fear of not having my feet on the floor and proving that the strokes and leg movement could push me forward.

The next big step to learn swimming after you’ve become comfortable holding your breath and being in the water is to float forward on the water facing down. Of course all this is supported by practicing your leg kick and arm stroke. For this next big step you’ll be holding your breath as your face will be submerged, you need to be able to kick properly, as it will keep your legs up and sort of propel you forward on the water. You won’t be doing any stroke with your arms just yet. The other thing you need is some courage, or maybe a lot of it. Why? Because you’ll be pushing yourself onto the water and your feet off the pool floor. Committing yourself fully to believing that when done right you’ll be floating towards the safety of the side of the pool, rather than sinking into the pool.

It was really difficult for me, I was so scared that I’ll just sink. Despite knowing that I can hold my breath, and the water was just up to my chest, I was afraid that if I sink with my feet off the ground I’ll panic, and not be able to regain control of my body to stand up, which would result with me losing my breath before being able to come up for breath. You know the feeling when you try to stand suddenly in the water and the water is pushing your legs up instead. Like you had to fight with the water. So this is the fear you need to get over, it takes a lot of confidence to push yourself off your feet.

I watched several videos how people float forward face down. I know there’s nothing to it, no tricks, so simple just push yourself forward, head down, arms fully extended in front of you hand overlapping shaping yourself sort of like a torpedo. Plus leg kicking to keep your body vertical to the water surface. Put yourself a few feet away facing the poolside, so you’ll be pushing yourself towards shallow water and safety. Yes, watching somebody do it helps to give a lot of confidence. But that was still not enough for someone with a fear of water. I found myself a few times just standing there, facing the side of the pool, just when I was about to push myself I got scared and stopped short. What now? So I decided to try this at the kid’s pool instead. Yes no kidding. It was much less scary. A bit difficult to push yourself forward from a kneeling position in a knee deep pool, but it was workable. And it worked. I push myself onto the water and floated forward, face down, with my legs kicking. It doesn’t feel really nice cause the buoyancy is less in shallow water, but still floated I did.

With that I gained the confidence to do the same in the adult pool with chest deep water. Still scary, but mentally I knew it will work. And of course, it did. Problems might occur when you don’t kick right, as your legs will sink bringing your body with it. You’ll also fail to propel yourself to the side of the pool, so having to recover before your hands can hold on to the pool side or pool steps is a bit difficult and clumsy. I guess theoretically there is a danger in breathing in while you’re submerged, but that never happened, since it became natural for you to hold your breath. It is easier if you know how to bubble or exhale while submerged because it takes the tension of holding your breath away, and you can do this more comfortably. So I did it. I learned to float face down in the swimming pool, propelling forward with the push and aided by my kicking. My arms were just aimed in front of me like the point of a missile. No swimming yet here. But guys, if you realize, all it takes now is to add the arm stroke. So yes that was a big an important step for me to learn to swim by myself. Really looking forward for my next lesson.

Learn to swim tips 2

Warming up and stretching for your swimming lesson

My left shoulder hurt for days after my last swimming session. My whole body ached.

Swimming is a physical activity, much like other physical exercises, where you can develop cramps without proper warming up. This is because our muscles will be doing movements it is not used to or pushed beyond its normal level. So by the time you want to start practicing your strokes and leg movement, it is wise to do some warm up exercises. I had to learn it the painful way.

Just think that you’ll be doing a lot of arm and shoulder movements, legs too and of course your whole body will be put under pressure. So before you swim do some general warm up plus focus on shoulder and arm muscles and leg muscles. If you’re shy at the pool then do it in your room before you come down, or make it look natural as you’re making your way to the pool.

If you’re not sure then there is this 4 warm up exercises article on ezine you might want to refer to. It involves, arm swing, clap, lunges and start jump.

This tip is more geared towards to avoiding muscle injury rather than increasing performance as this is more important when we are just learning to swim, where we will be only practicing certain strokes or movement, rather than swimming some laps, and the lack of experience swimming means that our muscle will indeed be doing something they’re not used to. Swimmers actually warm up by doing warm up laps to increase their swimming performances during competition.

Now warm ups usually includes stretching exercises, and though personally I feel that stretching my muscles help to reduce the soreness that comes after, there are actually different opinions and conflicting research findings on its benefit or effectiveness. So you’ll have to do your own reading on that. Basically they say warming up is good, but stretching might only be beneficial to limited type of sport and can lower performance or harmful in other instances.

Learn to swim myself, my second swimming session.

I finally managed to bring myself to the pool for my second swimming lesson. My wife came along with the kids. Remember that someone needs to be around even though you want to learn to swim by yourself. Got my prescription swimming goggles with me too, so really looking forward to it.

For my first lesson i just made myself comfortable holding my breath underwater, removing the fear of being submerged underwater, gaining some confidence. Let me tell you that after a while away from the pool, i start to forget how comfortable i had felt before, and some anxiety did returned. So again i had to familiarize myself, took a deep breath and proof to myself that i indeed could hold my breath underwater comfortably.

At first i tried to learn how to float, but it turned out to be more difficult than i expected, moreover, my wife couldn't join me in the adult pool, so i had to limit my floating attempt. Maybe next time, maybe it'll be easier to swim first and then to float, that's the good thing about doing things at your own pace, understanding the process that you're going through as well as your options as you learn to swim. So what next?

Now even though i managed to hold my breath underwater, but i was still very much keeping to a vertical position, standing, bending my knee to submerge, walking along the pool wall. I was still scared to let go of my feet, into a swimming position, afraid to lose control of myself, wondering if i can bring myself back up. Wonder if any of you can relate to this feeling.

I went to the children's pool, and at my family's urging i attempted to 'swim'. Took a deep breath, throw myself in the water horizontally as if to swim, being wholly submerged. Then i managed to swing my arms a couple of strokes in front of me pushing the water backward, and i felt myself moving a few feet. Unfortunately my legs were just stiff, not sure what to do, limiting my movement. Clearly i need to practice on my hands and legs movement. Well at least i moved underwater in a swimming position. That was a step forward. But most important, it allowed me to learn a few more things about my fear and limitations, what skills i need to gain and that was really helpful for me to plan a better approach for my next swimming lesson!

My Tioman Honeymoon - where i started thinking of learning to swim

If you've read my blog earlier, i mentioned my Tioman Island trip when i talked about why i wanted to learn to swim. Please understand that this was 6 years ago, i look much better now :) I looked for these pics in the albums as the digital copy has long gone, and scanned them for your viewing pleasure. And yes, i didn't tell my wife about it.

My wife really loves the water, she can't wait to get on the boat!

Hmm, where is this boat.

All smiles.

On our way.

This was where we practiced.

This was where we snorkeled!

All done, until next time.

Wow, 6 years ago.

Sorry there aren't better pics. Had much less money then, some more just got married. No pics underwater, the pic quality was also not so good. We really enjoyed ourselves, but i would have enjoyed more if i could swim, giving me more confidence to explore the area. Also they didnt have the snorkel mask with optical power, so a bit blurry too. Other than that, didnt bring proper swimming attire. Will be more prepared next time, after all, it has already been 6 years!

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My prescription/optical swimming goggles have arrived!!

Its finally here, the swimming goggles I ordered from China. Actually it arrived earlier than expected, the last time I ordered something overseas on ebay it took two weeks to arrive. This time it only took a week. In my quest to learn swimming by myself I realized the importance of wearing swimming goggles. I started with a normal goggle, not just that, the cheapest one I could find to fit an adult. I wear glasses, quite high optical power too, so though a normal swimming goggle was enough to stop the irritation, it wasn’t very exciting to look around underwater and see blurry images. When I asked about prescription swimming goggles at a nearby sports/swimming accessories store they told me it was around RM90+ (about 30 dollars) and I just had to look for somewhere cheaper. The internet as always is a good place to look, and I found one for less than half that price (RM41 plus postage) on ebay.


I tested the correct prescription that I needed at the local store. Yes, act like want to buy only, hehe. They will let you test as the power (they call them diopters) ranges at least from -1 to -10 for myopics (near sightedness) and somewhere I found +1 to +8 prescription swimming goggles for those with far sightedness. You can actually get the ones where you can have different diopters for each eye, but I didn’t find out more about those and how they are priced. They gave me this set of goggle lenses for me to test and I found out -8 suits me best. After enquiring about the price, I said thank you, I will think about it, went home and ordered the correct one from ebay.

Comes with a nice casing

Looks just like any other swimming goggles

Yep, -8.00 old man's swimming goggles

Well I will have stop here as I haven’t had the chance to try them out in the pool yet. Looking forward to my next ‘learning to swim by yourself’ lesson. Tried it on and it looked like I was wearing my glasses. Can’t comment much about quality as this is only my second pair of swimming goggles, and my first one was dirt cheap. So far most of the goggles I saw, including the ones I bought had uv protection and anti fog, they also have different size nose bridge. I’ll write up something on the choice and types of swimming goggles, or if I’m lazy I’ll post a link. Also waiting for another ‘gadget’ I ordered online related to me wanting to learn to swim. Hope to post that up soon too.

Learn to swim tips 1

Ok, there will be a series of tips i will share from what i've learnt in my quest to learn swimming by myself, my first tips will be on goggles and holding your breath underwater

Wearing goggles for your swimming lessons

Well from my own experience, bringing a pair of swimming goggles along to the pool didn't seem very natural, so i always wondered whether i needed one to learn to swim. Lots of people not wearing one, so do i really need it to swim or to learn to swim? A few times i tried to open my eyes underwater and found it difficult, distracting my focus on holding my breath and being calm. What's the point of having your eyes closed, you dont expect to swim blindly do you. So i finally convinced myself that i needed goggles and got a cheap one at the local hypermart. I actually needed prescription goggles, but since they're more expensive and i'm just trying out i just got a normal one for now. Tried it at the pool, and it really did make a difference. Chlorine in the water does sting your eyes, with the goggles on i could focus on learning to swim, i didnt need to get out of the water because my eyes hurt. So the first step is to get a pair of goggles. Prescription goggles are available. Next time i'll tell you how i ordered my prescription goggles as i couldn't get it cheap locally. Told you i'm cheap. :)

My first pair of swimming goggles

Holding your breath underwater; first skill to learning swimming

Yes, there is all that familiarizing yourself with the water, feel how cold it is, etc, but the first actual skill for me to learn to swim is holding my breath underwater. Some of you reading this for no actual reason would say "what, that's not a skill". But it is! For people who have fear of water, or being submerged, it certainly is. I'm not talking about rain man dustin hoffman type of fear here, just that feeling that you'll drown, and couldnt hold my breath for a few seconds underwater type. What you need to do is relax, dont think too far, just try it step by step. You have a friend next to you. You're at the shallow part of the pool. Your hands can touch the sides of the pool. Ok, you know you can hold your breath normally, just afraid to do it underwater, thinking it is more difficult. Its not. Put on you goggles. Now the target is to hold your breath underwater for 5 seconds. Take a deep breath, hold it, submerge. 1,2,3,4,5 success! Lift your head up. There you go, not anymore difficult is it. With the goggles you could see clearly down there too didnt you? Next, do it for 10 seconds. Then 15, then 20, by now i bet you have started to feel more comfortable being 'down there', perhaps liking it, perhaps addicted to it. Try and go up to 30 seconds or start walking around a bit. Now you can hold you breath underwater. Some learn to swim tips would tell you to practice exhaling as you lift your head out of the water, inhaling quickly and submerging again. Try this too, but just make sure your friend is there. There are many other tips on holding your breath, i'll share it when i have the chance.

An article about why I want to learn to swim

*(I found this piece on the net and thought i'd share it as it was related to what i mentioned earlier)

Chai's Marine Life Blog: Snorkeling and swimming

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Snorkeling and swimming
"Must I know how to swim
before I snorkel?"

I can't pretend to be a professional - so I can only say that my personal opinion is "ideally yes".

I have been swimming quite regularly for many years before I started to snorkel. And I can see that some basic skills in swimming really help.

You see, the act of floating passively on the surface isn't hard and you don't have to know swimming to do that. But, for two reasons, I think it's good to know swimming before you snorkel:

First - more fun
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you can do a lot more than simply drifting around. For example, you can dive down as you wish and explore ledges, caves or arches near the bottom.
Also, you won't have to restrict yourself to only shallow spots near the shore anymore. You can explore spots further from shore, which may be a shallow reef that is separated from shore by deeper water. Those spots may turn out to be quite rich in marine life as they are less disturbed by the beachgoers.

Second - safer
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you are less likely to freak out when things go wrong. For example, for some reasons, you get a leg cramp. Or one of your fins threaten to come off because the fin strap has somehow become loose. Or you accidentally breathe in some water and start to cough. They all happened to me before, so I know.

Having said all that, don't forego an opportunity to go snorkeling and explore the underwater wonders just because you can't swim. Just go with someone who can keep an eye on you and go places that are safe, then you are alright.

I believe that people of all levels of swimming abilities or even the lack of it are entitled to enjoying the beauty underwater. I can promise you that it's very different from watching corals and fishes through the glass of an aquarium.


Chai's Marine Life Blog: Snorkeling and swimming

Days gone by.. when is my next swimming lesson

Well, dont know which is more difficult, for me to get into the pool to learn how to swim, or for me to log into my blog to update it. This is one reason is decided to blog about me learning to swim, sort of like to motivate me, not to abandon the plan to learn swimming by myself. You need continuous motivation when you plan to do things by yourself, that's why i havent been able to loose weight all this while. When is started I was so excited about learning to swim by myself, wont you feel great if you could teach yourself to swim? I wanted to jump in the pool everyday, but it has been two weeks since the first time i went into the pool to learn to swim.

Yep, i already done with my first swimming lesson actually, holding your breath in the pool, my first step to learn to swim by myself. Had wanted to write about that first swimming lesson in this blog, but it seems that was also a difficult task to achieve. Right now just have a few minutes to update this learn to swim blog. So hopefully i'll be back soon to talk about my first lesson. And hopefully by then i have already gone for my second swimming lesson :)

Looking back.. why i want to learn to swim

Those who had been able to swim since they can remember might even say that of course you learn swimming by yourself, yes, you jump into the water, and you swim.. that’s how you learn to swim. Unfortunately some of us are scared the hell of being submerged in water and some have been scared since they can remember. I’ve always felt sorry for myself for not being able to swim, but there was not much motivation to start learning. But then I went to Tioman Island for my honeymoon and got on a snorkeling trip. No worries, you don’t need to know how to swim to snorkel. But turned out there was a big difference. I was lost in the water, panicked and had to count on my wife, who knows a little bit of swimming, and was pretty in control. Maybe the training part was a bit lacking (budget trip lah you know) but clearly my wife did much better even though it was also her first time to snorkel.That was almost 6 years ago, and I told myself back then that I would learn swimming before our next snorkeling trip (wow, I just realized it has been that long, and we hadn’t gone for that second trip yet), but never got myself to learn to swim until now.

Around 5 years and two kids after that trip, we moved to a condo unit, and yes with a swimming pool. Now it is staring at me in the face (horror music in the background), and I can’t tell you how much I felt disadvantaged by not being able to swim. Loved to bring my two sons to the pool, my wife would also be able to swim a couple of short laps by herself as I continued to wade in the pool, playing with my two boys. Sad isn’t it?

The boys looking cute

So why haven’t I gotten a swimming instructor or attend swimming lessons? Time is a factor, and sure money is an issue, either directly or indirectly not enough resources to meet the many demands. So, as in many other things that I do, when I come across a problem and not sure how to solve it, I go online. Sure, started with looking for the cheapest swimming instructor, what kind of schedule is available and all that, but then I started thinking, is it possible to learn by myself? Probably yes in theory, but are there guides available to really do it, despite the fear? So instead of just searching learn to swim, I searched for articles about learning swimming by yourself. And the net again, did not disappoint. Okay, that’s it for now, to be continued.

My first blog post! Before i talk about learning to swim by myself.

Ehem, before i get started writing on my quest to learn to swim and therefore enjoy being in the water, allow me to note this also very important event. This is my first blog post! No, im not that old, actually the internet was very interesting during my time, hotmail came out, mirc, icq, started learning html, got myself a page on geocities, haha.. but then work caught up.. and then the internet was just there for me to get info from.. wonderful free information.. like how to learn to do stuff that you need to do.. :) also stuff that you want to do, but i have less time for that.. ;) I always wanted to blog since people started blogging, but never came to doing it.. now however there are plenty of motivation to blog, and of course, with this little life project of mine, here i am... i'm going to learn to swim, and yes i will attempt to do that without the help of an instructor, or anyone else's help in the pool.. i will learn from the help of so many wonderful people on the internet.. of course, my wife will be there in case i start to have trouble.. if anyone actually follows this blog, you will know if i succeed or fail..

"Hmm, I think i need to learn to swim"