By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, July 7: Three boats carrying 32 volunteers including five representatives from local media this morning set sail to a diving site located at about 19 nautical miles off the Miri coast for an underwater cleaning exercise.
The mission dubbed the 3rd edition of ‘Ops Nemo’ aimed to remove as many ghost nets as possible from the dive site.
The group departed from shore early this morning on three boats, after a simple launching ceremony officiated at by Assistant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin at Marina Jetty here.
During Ops Nemo II held this year in May, volunteers managed to collect a total of 140kg of ghost nets.
Lee in his brief speech today lauded the efforts made by the volunteers which he believed would help inspire people and create public awareness on the dangers of ghost nets to marine life.
“Ghost nets are the silent killers of our marine life, and it is crucial for us to initiate such efforts,” he opined.
He added, ghost nets that were left abandoned or entangled on coral reefs were capabling of trapping and killing marine life.
Participants included representatives from the local media (5), Miri Fire and Rescue Department (10), Sarawak Forestry Corporation (3), Borneo Ghost Net Hunter (1), and COCO Dive Miri (6) as well as seven volunteers from Singapore, Brunei and Miri. — DayakDaily
