It's still the high seas in the Gulf of Thailand. Foreign-flagged ships fish
illegally in Cambodian waters. Navy vessels stop tourist boats to commandeer
cold beers. Occasional plumes of seawater explode from the ocean marking the
site of dynamite fishing, a practice that demolishes reefs.
A dugong, endangered and hunted in Southeast Asia, grazes on seagrass.
But a
determined group of dive operators in Sihanoukville has begun campaigning for
the vigilant protection of marine resources and the livelihoods that depend on
them. Three dive outfits based in Sihanoukville port hope the islands will
become the next big dive destination in Southeast Asia.
"It could be the
next Ko Tao," says Fred Tittle of Eco Adventures, referring to the Thai island
resort that certifies hundreds of scuba divers each week. He envisions a tourism
industry based on Cambodia's marine resources that can preserve them for the
future.
"I think within two years we'll have a very sustainable diving
industry here," he says. "Divers are always looking for a new and exotic
destination and you can't get much more exotic than Cambodia."
But
destructive fishing practices, and a host of other obstacles, threaten that
vision.
A look beneath the waves reveals the extent of the damage. Coral
heads are shattered by explosives. Scars from cyanide poisoning testify to other
destructive fishing methods. Drag nets, widespread use of fish traps, and litter
"ankle deep [that] goes for miles" also degrade the reefs leaving them barren of
ecologically important species.
Dive operators say it takes just a few
dollars for permission to destroy the reef beneath the averted eyes of
authorities.
A hard coral shelters schooling fish off the island of Koh Tang near Sihanoukville.
But Minister of Tourism Veng Sereyvuth says the government
is making every effort to guard the marine environment. It hopes to transform
Sihanoukville into the centerpiece of its nature tourism initiative opening up
the southern part of the country.
"We're focusing on natural attractions
such as scuba diving and trips to islands," Sereyvuth says.
He describes
"urgent" development projects such as an airport, tourist facilities and casino
resort on Koh Rung island as critical. Although no starting dates or investors
exist yet, he says the government will start the projects "as soon we
can".
His ministry hopes to offer tourists a complete travel package from
Angkor Wat to Phnom Penh and the beaches of Sihanoukville. Today, only about
240,000 visitors a year - or a third of the 800,000 annual tourist arrivals -
visit the beach town.
Nevertheless, Cambodia's 440 kilometers of
coastline remain one of the country's least-heralded natural attractions. Its
small population and rugged inaccessibility are believed to have protected much
of the ecosystem from major damage, says Craig Leisher, program advisor with the
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In Southeast Asia, where a UN study estimates
that 90 percent of the reefs are threatened, this could be a major selling
point.
"I wouldn't say [Cambodia's reefs] are pristine, but they are
intact," Leisher says.
That is key, because the reef system and the
species that depend on them could recover within three or four years if left
alone. But once the reef is reduced to rubble, those species and their
ecological value may never return.
Leisher says Cambodia's waters are a
"special place" for marine mammals such as dolphins, porpoises and the
regionally endangered dugong. A recent study undertaken by the Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS) and the Department of Fisheries (DoF) found the only
evidence of dugongs here in local food markets.
WCS researcher Isabel
Beasley, who co-authored the study, says unconfirmed sightings suggest only a
few of the mammals remain. She says it is the most highly threatened mammal in
the country's waters.
Apart from the dugong, at least nine other species
of marine mammals live in local waters. Most cetaceans, she says, are revered in
Khmer culture and remain surprisingly abundant.
"In terms of numbers,
Cambodia waters hold significant numbers of coastal species compared to Vietnam
and Thailand," she says. "For eco-tourism and dolphin watching, there is huge
potential."
But developing that potential will not be easy. While
Thailand has already thoroughly exploited its tourism appeal, much of Cambodia's
submerged territory remains a mystery.
There are reports of shipwrecks
offshore, says Claude Du Dinh Tan, who runs a dive operation out of
Sihanoukville. He adds that hundreds of kilometers of coastline remain
unexplored by divers.
"Diving in Cambodia is a new destination," he says.
"We have some good places. It's just a matter of letting the people know that we
have something."
But before Cambodia can bill itself as the next
Thailand, many obstacles must be overcome. One is the health of the reef system.
Rob Shore, a WWF scientist working on the NGO's Living Mekong Initiative, doubts
that the poor health of many reefs that lie in easy reach of Sihanoukville can
support a viable diving industry.
Shore, along with a contingent from
WWF, recently dove at the offshore islands with Eco Adventures.
"The most
important group [of species] that were almost entirely absent [from the reef]
were butterfly fish," he says. Shore notes that soft corals, another class
highly sensitive to pollution and disturbance, were scarce compared to more
robust hard corals. Legions of black, spiny sea urchins also swarmed over the
coral indicating a loss of key predators in the ecosystem.
"In the
foreseeable future, [diving] would not be a main tourist attraction," he
predicts. "If they could find good locations closer to the coastline it would be
more viable."
But Shore holds out the hope that establishing Marine
Protected Areas (MPA) could save some of the reefs and replicate conservation
successes seen in other parts of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and the
Philippines.
Indeed, Seang Tana Touch, under secretary of state and an
official with the Council of Ministers, says the government is poised to declare
the country's first MPA.
"We think that within two or three months we
will be able to set up the Koh Stach Marine Protected Area," says Touch. The
zone will encompass between 60,000 and 100,000 hectares near Koh Kong. He says
that the area, once established, will be regulated to ease fishing pressures and
develop tourism.
"It's important to preserve these areas because it's
critical for organisms you can't find other places in the world, for promoting
tourism and [saving] critical habitat for fish," he says.
That's just
what dive operators want to hear. But they emphasize the need for more than just
talk.
"Right now, the MPA status is just a paper tiger because there's
nothing behind it," says Tittle. "The guys from the DoF don't have any
enforcement tools. They can't even go out and do patrolling or even
monitoring."
Several operators have begun assisting fisheries officials
to bolster their enforcement efforts. Ten DoF divers, funded through the UN
Environmental Programme, went diving off Sihanoukville with Claude late last
year for a monitoring project of coral reefs. Eco Adventures has also offered
DoF officials use of its boats and equipment for offshore operations.
But
for Claude, who has spent ten years watching his dive sites crumble under the
onslaught of nets, poisons and explosives, the time for monitoring has
passed.
"For me, the only way to stop this is to get a boat out there
with the Cambodian authorities," he says. "There can't be control any other
way."
