Diving in Malaysia

Archive for the ‘conservation’ Category

I had a good laugh when I saw the headline on a story over the weekend that a Malaysian Ministry banned sharks fin soup from being served at official functions. That’s kind of like saying “We promise not to run over cows while driving in the city.”

Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has struck off shark’s fin soup from the menus at official functions, to help conserve the species

Minister Azmi Khalid told the official Bernama news agency that the ministry had made the commitment to the Malaysian Nature Society.

“By refraining from the consumption of shark’s fin soup, it is hoped that the ministry would contribute in one way or another towards the current conservation efforts for sharks species,” he said.

What most people outside of Malaysia don’t know is that Malaysian government is dominated by ethnic Malays. And as such serve only Malay fare at official functions. Whereas sharks fin is an ethnic Chinese dish which Malays would never think of ever consuming because they associate any Chinese food with pork — a dish forbidden by their religion.

At this point, even the local Chinese population would be hard pressed to find real sharks fin being served at Chinese restaurants. Part of the thanks goes to the local conservationists who have done a good job of educating the locals about shark finning. Secondly, sharks fin is a terribly expensive delicacy so restaurants have found a dwindling market for it… too small to keep it on the menu. What they serve as “Sharks fin” at restaurants in Malaysia (even during Chinese New Year) is really a mixture of crab meat and birds nest. It’s only called “Sharks fin” to maintain tradition.

Instead of making false promises, the Malaysian government ought to go after the dealers of sharks fins in Malaysia.

Plans by supermodel Naomi Campbell to build a high-end casino near turtle sanctuaries in Kenya’s Indian Ocean resort of Malindi have sparked a firestorm from conservationists and residents.

Apart from hosting a bevy of beauties and moneyed men, the six-star casino complex — to be called Billionaires Resort — could disrupt the hatching process of several rare species of turtles, they say. Conservationists are worried that noise and lights from the casino envisioned by the British catwalk legend and her former boyfriend, Formula One boss Flavio Briatore — who already owns one hotel in Malindi, will scare the turtles away.

Female turtles hatch ashore and the baby turtles usually find their way back to the sea by looking for the brightest natural horizon. A glittering construction in the heart of Malindi’s marine park could lure the hatchlings in the wrong direction and away from the beach, leading them to die of dehydration, the conservationists say.”We are not against development, but all we are calling for is sustainable, low-environmental-impact and high quality tourism development,” said Stephen Trott, who heads Local Ocean Trust, a Malindi-based turtle conservation group.

A Kenya Wildlife Service official who did not want to be named said the agency was keeping a close eye on the project.

According to Malindi residents, Briatore has another hotel in the resort called While Elephant. “Let them go improve the quality of White Elephant,” said one resident.”We are totally against the casino. This is a small town, we have one casino and we don’t want another one,” said Terry Hill of the Malindi South Residents Association. “Furthermore, we are told that they want to build near a marine park. Be sure we won’t allow that because we are conservationists. Let them go and build it elsewhere,” Hill said.