The clear, ethereal cerulean blue waters surrounding the Perhentian islands are a snorkeler’s paradise. I was able to walk off the beautiful white sand beach at the Bubbles Eco-resort and turtle conservation area (http://bubblesdc.com/) and easily swim into coral beds and see interesting sea life…a variety of sea cucumbers, sponges, coral fish like parrot fish and wrasses, abalone and scallops. The coral near the shore was mostly dead and bleached but within easy swimming distance there is a fair amount of live coral; certainly impressive for being so close to a resort beach with petrol-powered speedboats around. Apparently a hawksbill sea turtle will come to the area to the right from the shore, and black tip sharks will come to the left side but I did not see either in the few times I swam out in the 2 days I was there.
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On the half-day Bubbles snorkel tour (60 Malaysian Ringgits, or about US$15), we took a speedboat and went to 3 nearby sites and saw some awesome sea life.
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At Turtle Cove, a field of sea grass where turtles come to graze, we saw a male green turtle munching and coming up periodically for air:
Strangely, male turtles are only about 5% of the sea turtle population, making them also rare to spot. Turtle gender is temperature determined, so when the temperature is high when eggs are incubating, baby turtles develop female genitalia while in cooler temperatures baby turtles develop male genitalia. I wonder if global warming is contributing to the disproportionate number of female turtles.
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The next stop on the snorkel tour was at Coral Gardens:
There were numerous yellow and black striped sergeant fish, colorful blue-purple-red wrasse, cleaner wrasse nipping at my knee scab, large schools of teeny silver fish (maybe anchovies), parrot fish and butterfly fish eating coral. I found it strange that as soon as we arrived the sergeant fish swarmed our boat and us, but later I realized it was because other resorts and tour companies bring food and feed the fish so tourists get a “better show.” This fish are conditioned to come to tourist boats for easy food. Extra unfortunately, they apparently often feed them processed junk, like white bread.
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Finally, at Shark Point, where there is a rock in the shape of a shark’s dorsal fin, I saw more coral and lots of sargeant fish, wrasse, blue-purple parrot fish and yellow rabbit fish. Another person in my group spotted a black-tipped shark but it had swum away by the time I got there.
In all, a great snorkeling experience with warm, comfortable clear waters, lovely coral formations and fish. But I can tell that tourism and development has reduced the diversity and abundance of marine life in the Perhentian islands. Our boat driver, a local Malay, said that there is an area in the Perhentians that’s entirely protected from development and visitors, which I was happy to hear. He says even the locals don’t know where it is. Maybe it’s better that way so we don’t exploit it.
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