No need to talk so much. These photographs should tell us why the Middle Bank sea-grass in Penang is priceless for its biodiversity and as a breeding ground for marine life.
Hopefully, the Penang government will see the wisdom in preserving this natural treasure instead of allowing land reclamation to destroy this area.
Look, there’s even a Global Seagrass Monitoring Network and Pulau Gazumbo (Middle Bank) in Penang is on the map.
What is seagrass? According to the website:
Seagrasses are underwater flowering plants that often occur in vast meadows and provide nurseries, shelter, and food for a variety of commercially, recreationally, and ecologically important species (e.g., fish, sea turtles, dugong, manatee, seahorses, crustaceans). Additionally, seagrasses filter estuarine and coastal waters of nutrients, contaminants, and sediments and are closely linked to other community types: in the tropics to coral reefs and mangrove forests, and in temperate waters to salt marshes, kelp forests, and oyster reefs. Existing at the interface of the land margin and the world’s oceans, seagrasses are threatened by numerous anthropogenic impacts as well as global climate change.
And an additional threat in Penang is from massive land reclamation!
Now, a Facebook page has been set up to save Penang’s Middle Bank. If enough people speak up, we can put a stop to this.
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Can i know how to get to middle bank bcz i need to take algae there and do i need boat to go there?
RM27billion is more important Lah. Who are you, Mr Anil? You missed the opportunity to assume the role of third force. Now you are nobody, lim guan eng willnot give you a damn.
You are right, Ong Eu Soon.
Just sent lim guan eng, pg govt a mail re save pg’s middle bank.
Write in everyone if we care about nature. Tq.
Arguing this way will not work. Most PR politicians will look at the mumbo-jumbo of scientific terms above and say the people’s will is more important. They will insist Penang needs land and the commentators on Malaysiakini (traditional PR voters) will support PR blindly, giving an illusion of following the “people’s will”. You might not even get close to half a million of coveted but useless “likes” to protect the Bank. Somehow, one way or another, the preservation of Middle Bank must include a slight commercialization of the area. Perhaps limiting the amount of visitors a year and charging them… Read more »
Andes, Cheers Kopi-O kau kau. Progress to these PR politicians is ‘self-induced’ mandate in the name of government by the people for the people, not withstanding their dirty dancing with the I-owe-you-you-owe-me-stringed politics + corporate tango not comprehensible to the ordinary folks. Nature has no voice in this frenzied progress, has no tangible life to be protected in the face of fast money-making opportunities, & has no value compared to million ringgit structures of cosmopolitan portfolio display of societal progress to shout about. To go the SingLand path of latter-regrets is leadership arrogance without the brain to learn (from other’s… Read more »
Is Anil expecting Dr Looi’s ‘scientific arguments’ on this matter?