Day 4

Today after an early 8 a.m breakfast we left Melina beach and took an one and a half hour boat trip to the various coral reefs across Tioman. The first site we visited was the mangroves in which we jumped into the sea and swam onto the mangroves which held many animal species, Including a goat fish which expands its head to fit in the roots during the high tide, We also got stung by the stinging plankton which caused some mild pain. We then swam into the mangroves which were quite difficult to swim in and learned about their roots and the way they work as well as why they are such an important ecosystem. We then took the boat to a highly disturbed coral reef area in which most of the corals had suffered from coral bleaching and died. We carried out surveys of the different types of fish and sea animals found in this reef and drew a sketch of the basic coral reef.

After that we swam to the beach and eat our lunch which consisted of chicken,rice,apple’s and watermelon.We then took a short break and swam back to the boat which took us to another coral reef about 10 minutes away. Once we reached the other site we found that many students had been either stung by the plankton or even the jellyfish and many were suffering from sea sickness. The undisturbed site was more rich and diverse in fish and coral and had many types of coral variety including table coral, brain coral, stag horn coral and soft coral. A couple of our teammates such as Raziq had to get out of the water because of a slight sting by a jellyfish, many students were also sick of the boat rides and felt dizzy and only a few kept on swimming under the circumstances. The next stop was a free snorkel zone which was also not disturbed and contained a even richer variety of coral and animals and many of us were able to see rays, sea turtles and even reef sharks. Then we took the trip back into Melina beach and reached the hotel at about 5 p.m we then took a shower and completed and evaluated our results, for the next 2 hours we had free time and got ready for dinner and the bonfire. Dinner consisted of BBQ burgers and sausages as well as chicken, after dinner we played team building games and had a bonfire in which we cooked marshmallows and had free time. Albeit it was exhausting it was a memorable experience and a nice ending to our Tioman trip.

EXCELSIOR.