Protect Coral Reefs in Malaysia

From January until August, numerous Crown-of-Thorns (COTs) culling programmes were carried out on Tioman Island and over 1000 COTs were injected. Culling of COTs with household vinegar is proven to be effective, environmentally friendly, cheap and fast. The success of these efforts was due to collaboration from Reef Check Malaysia, Department of Fisheries Pahang, Tioman Marine Conservation Group, dive centres and volunteers.

COTs preys on hard corals and can damage coral reefs when their population exceeds 0.2-0.3 individual per 100m2 healthy reef. If their number is above the acceptable limit, COTs injection is needed to control their population.

Since 2020, the population of COTs on Tioman Island is above what a healthy reef can support. This is mainly due to restriction of movement control order imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic which stopped all diving activities, including COTs culling efforts. As a result, COTs population proliferated during the last two years. The restriction was lifted in October 2021 and COTs culling efforts resumed, successfully brought down the population in 2022. Existing efforts to control the population will be heightened to bring the population down to below 0.2-0.3 individual per 100m2.