By James Kon

Source:  BruneiDirect.com

04/20/06 

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - Brunei divers marked the celebration of the `Dive In To Earth Day' for the first time this year by conducting a fish survey project at the coral reef in the Brunei waters last Sunday.

The ‘Dive In To Earth Day' is celebrated every year by thousands of people across the globe with the aim of making a difference to the underwater environment.

The eight local scuba divers took part in the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) project, `Dive In To Earth AWARE Fish Identification Specialty and Asia Fish Survey' at the Rig Reef in the waters off Berakas. To avoid any damages to the coral reef, only a small group of divers were allowed to take part in the event.

The main objectives of the underwater fish survey project are to conduct the AWARE Fish ID Specialty as part of `Dive In To Earth Day' activities across the AsiaPacific region and to provide divers with the appropriate skills to positively identify, survey and record fish species.

It also hopes to provide Asia-Pacific dive centres and resorts with an annual conservation activity for `Dive In To Earth Day' and to annually assess and monitor fish stocks of 10 chosen species over a number of years.

There are more than 31,000 species of fish in the world and during the fish survey in Brunei Darussalam, the eight divers selected 10 types of fishes, namely butterfly fish, angelfish, surgeonfish, trumpet Fish, pusser fish, anemone fish (Memo), grouper fish, parrot fish, squirrel fish, and coret reef shark.

The local divers took two dives with one hour each to carry out the underwater fish survey. They have to conduct a fish survey once every year.

The data collected during the survey will be sent to the organiser of the Project AWARE, who will keep a record of the data and also provide the information to the relevant authorities and other organisations.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin