The economic benefits of protecting our marine life

When travelling in Malaysia in the summer of 2000, I visited a town called Rantau Abang. This was advertised in the "Rough Guide" to Malaysia as a sanctuary for the giant leatherback turtle. Upon arrival, I could not find the guest house in which I had decided to stay. The town was very quiet. I soon realised that many of the guest houses and eating places featured in the book had closed down.

The place where I decided to stay had posters displayed on the bedroom walls advising of the regulations set by the Department of Fisheries on how not to disturb the turtles. They included the prohibition of entering the beach during the dark, unless supervised by an authorised guide. If a turtle is on the beach, people are not allowed to get within five metres of it and they are not allowed to use torch lights and flash cameras.

I visited another guest house. This displayed posters explaining the best way to increase the chances of seeing a turtle. They suggested walking on the beach alone with a torch light during the dark. They also sold postcards showing many tourists standing within a metre of a turtle on the beach.

I was warned that it is now very rare for the beach to be visited by turtles, even in peak breeding season. Tourism was the primary industry in Rantau Abang, with the turtles as the main resource. This irresponsible exploitation

has almost eliminated that resource and the economy is suffering greatly. The centre for the incubation of turtle eggs has also closed, due to a lack of funding.

The Seaquest project of the Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts is currently working to prevent harassment of marine life as it is proving to be a problem in this area. A lesson needs to be learned from examples like Rantau Abang. The wildlife in Cornwall is a very important tourist attraction and it must not be exploited.

Denise Hooper

Monitoring the loss of Caribbean corals

I was awarded an Earthwatch Millennium Fellowship which took me in February to San Salvador to take part in the Bahamian Reef Survey. The survey has been going for nearly ten years and is now the longest-running monitoring programme for Caribbean corals.

The United Nations Environment Programme has recently shown that 27 per cent of corals have now been lost in the Caribbean. This is due partly to pollution but mainly to coral bleaching. In the Indian Ocean, losses are much higher at 59 per cent and UNEP estimates that, by 2050, 70 per cent of the world's corals will be lost.

As the atmosphere warms, the oceans also absorb some heat and are gradually warming. In tropical latitudes, solar radiation increases and

sea temperatures sometimes exceed 30°C. At these temperatures the corals become bleached, as they lose their symbiotic algae, and then often die.

In 1998 a single bleaching event caused the loss of 16 per cent of the world's corals. This left its mark on San Salvador with the loss of all staghorn and elkhorn corals - two of the main reef-forming corals. Corals on the island are presently healthy, with only two per cent bleaching, but there is no sign that the lost coral species will return.

The award lasts for three years and, after involvement in a tropical project providing encouragement to "think globally", award winners are then encouraged to "act locally", initiating local projects in nature conservation and monitoring.

I am already collaborating with Stella Turk in monitoring the immigration of warm-water fish to Cornish waters. Over the last 40 years, data from the Environmental Records Centre show that the numbers per decade have climbed steadily in step with the temperature increases in the North Atlantic due to global warming. I am also hoping to set up permanent transects on St George's Island to monitor the changes in rocky shore ecology in relation to sea level, temperature and immigrant species.

Tony Stebbing Trust President