Marine debris monitoring and awareness program

Kuantan is the capital state of Pahang. Being the one of the most prominent cities of the east coast peninsular, it host many beaches that lay before the world’s important water namely the South China Sea. Due to its strategic geographical location, the Kuantan coastlines are also renowned spots for tourism and fishing activities. However, their popularity consequentially leads to many irresponsible acts of littering and dumping of waste by humans at the beach. Besides that, the immense collection of marine debris along the coastline is influenced by several factors such as the dumping of disposal items by humans to the river and estuarine, insufficient space for landfill and other marine litters from fishing activities such as fishing nets, lines and rods. According to Al-Jazeera News dated January 26, 2019, Malaysia is home for booming illegal plastic processing industry. It is said that developed countries such as the UK and New Zealand exported their plastic wastes to the country for recycling purpose. It is also revealed that not all the plastics imported are recyclable. This has drawn the ministry to call a permanent ban on plastic wastes import and conduct a series of raiding operations to these unlicensed plastic waste recycles factories to reduce environmental harm due to the rapid development of landfill areas. Another article by Science Magazine in 2015 stated that Malaysia was placed eighth worst country worldwide for plastic waste. The study reported that Malaysia produces approximately one million tonnes of improperly disposed plastic waste in 2010. Some of the wastes are leached and discharged to the ocean, killing marine animals and accumulated to form an “island” of garbage. In response to this critical issue, IIUM collaborating with Institute of Oceanography and Maritime Studies (INOCEM) are proud to provide a platform for the residents to contribute to the environment by participating in a marine debris monitoring program at Cherok Paloh Beach, Kuantan. As residents of premier Islamic research university, we acknowledge the importance of protecting and keeping our environment clean especially when the campus is situated just 30 minutes away from the coastal areas. This serves as a good initiative to raise awareness among the residents in a sense of promoting environmentally concerned society through interactive environmental community service activity