Redang, a re-visit

I was a scuba diver. In the Malaysian peninsular, the best dive sites are located around the many islands on the East Coast, Redang is one of them.

The whole island is a designated marine park. It is illegal to disturb the marine life here. One may be fined or even jailed, although it is unheard of that anybody is subjected to such penalty.

My visit to the Penang island marine park was rather disappointing. I was there twice when I was diving. There were many life corals around the park. There were not there today. While there were many variety of fish, most of there corals were dead. What went wrong? Too many visitors as such that the ecosystem was not sustainable? Lack of enforcement?

While there are many resorts around the island, the real treasure of Redang is its marine life. While it is easier to build nice buildings which accommodate the needs of visitors and tourists, the maintenance of its marine life is harder. Tourists who are not sensitive towards marine life sustainability may just walk on the corals, destroying the fragile creature which takes years to rebuild.

Sustainability is something which is yet to be the mainstream consideration in our society. Which we may have heard the wors being mentioned by many people, how many of us are really living in a sustainable way? How many plastic baga do we use weekly? That is just a simple indicator of how much we walk the talk. 

How much we had adjusted our lifestyles to conserve water? I always feel sad watching fellow Muslims performing their ablution. The amount of water used does not reflect the teaching of Prophet Muhammad who advised Muslims to conserve water while performing ablution even when it was performed at a running river.

Well, we only have this planet and there is no replacement available if we mess up this one. My return to Redang reminded me the importance of sustainability. I hope this thoughts is shared by many of us out there.