The Tun Sakaran Marine Park Ocean and Beach Clean-up held today at Semporna was a tremendous success. Co-hosted by 32Marine and Sabah Parks, the event introduced the hashtag #SempornaReborn, to indicate the rebirth of Semporna – away from trash, away from negative social media.
There were over 30 operators participating, with 440 participants involved. A total of 4,032KGs (4 tonnes) of rubbish was removed from the ocean and beaches of Sibuan, Mantabuan, and Bohey Dulang in Tun Sakaran Marine Park.
Other than the Tourism stakeholders, this event was also supported by the District Office of Semporna, Marine Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces.
The top 3 operators collecting the most trash were Scuba Junkies at 547KGs, Armada Scuba at 321 KGs, and Amir Scuba at 300KGs.
According to Mr Boni Antiu of Sabah Park and the Joint Event Chairperson, this event is the biggest marine initiative amongst tourism stakeholders to date.
In conjunction with the clean-up event, Sabah Park officiated the opening of a new hiking trail at Bohey Dulang to solve congestion issues that have arisen due to large amounts of visitors over the years.
The clean-up event and the opening of the new trail was officiated by Tuan Mohd Amin bin Abdul Mem, Chairman of Sabah park.
Tuan Mohd Amin highlighted that Sabah parks is working towards creating a guiding and porter service just like the one in operation at Mt Kinabalu Heritage Park to create job opportunities for the Semporna community.
“The Semporna community truly surprises me, their spirit of volunteerism in this program showcases how serious they are in wanting to change the bad reputation Semporna has received over the years regarding their issues with trash”. Said , Mr Aaron Teo, Founder of 32 Marine.
He also added that in this event, the amount of rubbish collected was 6 times more than their last clean-up event held last year at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
The official sponsors for this event were Good Earth Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, Uncle Chang’s, PADI, Suzuki Marine, and Asiatic Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd.
To keep up to date with more 32Marine clean-up events please follow us at: www.facebook.com/32MarineSabah .
