The Marine Conservation Cambodia project has reached a level never expected this fast. After we were contacted for a TVK interview recently, we had decided to launch our new website marineconservationcambodia.org. With this digital initiative we hope to reach more people to address the special need of marine environment protection in Cambodia. We can use your support!

Cambodia’s marine environment is finally getting the attention that it deserves after being pushed aside for many years. Our team’s initiatives to help the marine environment supported by the Dive Shop Cambodia have been picked up by many ears already and once again a little more publicity to save the precious rare and endangered marine species that are host to Cambodia’s coastal area. Paul Ferber and myself have been asked to tell more about our plans and why this is so important. So we did. Read more in ka-set (a French / Khmer online newspaper)

the other meaning
Year after year I was working in a laboratory developing and implementing studies to prevent the environment from pollution. At that time the only thing that I ever conserved were little specimens in a 30% formalin solution. Now, 7 years later I am working at one of the largest wildlife conservation organizations in Cambodia . WWF, World Wide Fund for Nature, to be specific. I am still a so called ‘lab rat’ doing toxicology studies on contamination in environmental samples with regards to the unfortunate mortality of many freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins, but in a development country such a Cambodia things feel different. People have other things to worry about than caring about wildlife which makes a living sometimes very hard facing the dead,trapped and traded terrestrial and aquatic animals. At the sea I have also seen severe damage to marine habitats which is devastating.

This made me understand the other meaning of the word conservation and I decided to take an even further step forward - focusing on the Marine Conservation which desperately screams for a helping hand. Together with some very good friends I managed to establish a research team that is aiming for cooperation with the local government to save Cambodia’s precious and extraordinary marine environment. It habitats many seahorses, extraordinary colorful nudibranchs, rays, and sharks which all in declining numbers. I never thought I would commit myself to such topics, paperwork, and dealing with government officials but you have to if you care.

Out Now…..the long awaiting new issue of Asian Diver magazine. What is so special about this issue is the great 8 pages article about diving in my ‘home’ country Cambodia. Sol Foo and Kua Kay Yaw of Asian Diver magazine were invited by Paul Ferber, general manager of the Dive Shop, to get some nice footage of Cambodia’s marine environment. And the footage they got after being completely astonished by the number of little critters at ‘the corral’ and ’secret reef’. Especially the species diversity was surprising for them. Numbers of Rowland’s Bornella nudibranch, Melibe nudibranch, xeno crabs, sea whips, seahorse and much more.
On top of that my name got mentioned in there as well. It was regarding a conservation project that we have started recently to safe the precious area from destructive fishing methods. How cool is that! Get a copy at your local bookstore and read it yourself or just check it here. I have told you before, underwater-Cambodia is incredible.

image: © Asian Diver Magazine

Alien species, a term used for species that become invasive and considered to be a main direct driver of biodiversity loss across the globe. I think it is a well suitable term for these illegal fishingfleets ruining Cambodias extraordinary marine biodiversity.
4 days ago the local the Cambodian Daily newspaper published the above story (click image to enlarge). These things make me furious. Especially when I witness the fishing across boundaries regularly along the coast. Who do these ‘alien’ fishermen think they are?
Unfortunately Kampot is not the only place where illegal fishing occurs. Sihanoukville, among many other places including its offshore islands, is heavily exploited by foreign fishingfleets too. Thai and Vietnamese fishermen move nautical miles from home to empty Cambodias precious marine environment because they are restricted by law to fish in their own waters. A massive destruction. Hopefully immediate action against illegal fishing will be taken now this unfortunate incident has reached daylight.

It wasn’t easy after I had busted my ligaments some years ago but I dared to make the move. I decided to pick up some ‘martial arts’ again after 11 years of Wado Ryu karate and attempts of Tai Chi, Aikido and Capoeira. So a while ago I have started Khmer boxing at Paddy’s Gym. It’s nothing like Kickboxing or Muay Thai. How could you dare naming it like that! Over here in Cambodia we call it original Khmer boxing and while it dates back in the Angkor era it can’t be Thai. Blood, a lot of sweat and no tears - I’ve missed this type of sports! Hope my knees will survive.

image: © Bart Kluskens

today I will put the following sound through my ears:
Light this city - Facing the thousand
the Agony scene - Get damned
From first to last - From first to last
Sparta - Threes
Secret lives of the Freemasons - This was built to make you dance

Another dive….another little sorrow. As if the devil was playing with it and for some reason it was meant to be. For once I decided to dive and not to bring my camera along the dive. I just didn’t feel like carrying the thing this time. And yet I saw all magnificient critters such as seahorse (15 on one single dive), mantis shrimp, filefish, hairy sponge crab, and the top it all a cuttlefish. Not just a cuttlefish but this one had just deposited her eggs on a ghost fishtrap that was still laying around. A crazy dive! I have learned my lesson and next time I take the camera along.

But the real purpose of this weekend was the reefcheck practice. Together with some friends we practiced all aspects again of laying transects and doing the abundance survey at Koh Rong Samleom which is about 2 hours from the Cambodian coast off Sihanoukville. The viz was pretty bad at 4 meters during the wet season but we managed to set our goal.

image: © Bart Kluskens/Paul Ferber

Would you ever expect such an adorable fish as this little puffer going nuts? I wouldn’t! This was the most strange story I had ever heard when a friend and BBC journalist called me and asking questions about the below written fact.

A Cambodian teenager was recovering in hospital after a puffer fish attacked him in the groin, local media reported on Tuesday June 17th.

The Khmer-language Koh Santepheap daily ran a picture of the unnamed 13-year-old in a hospital bed with heavy strapping around his testicles, saying he was lucky to be alive.
The paper quoted the boy’s father, Sok Ly, as saying the fish had become enraged when it was accidentally trapped in the boy’s net and, when it was freed, had attacked the boy’s scrotum.

Cambodian legend has it that the bite of the fish is even more dangerous than its poisonous spines, especially for boys, and Cambodian boys are traditionally advised not to swim in waters where the fish is common.
The victim, from Prek Pneuv commune outside Phnom Penh, was expected to recover from yesterday’s attack, the paper said, but the extent of the damage had yet to be determined. source: The Sydney Morning Herald