Artificial reefs - a step towards the problem of declining fish resources in Malaysian coastal waters

Abstract

The construction of artificial reefs, or "terumbu laut", to promote fish sanctuaries in Malaysian coastal waters began in May, 1975, with the use of scrap automobile tyres. The project was initiated by the Fisheries Research Institute in Penang, with the encouragement of the Goodyear tyre company in Malaysia who provided the scrap tyres. Artificial reefs, sensu stricto, nevertheless, existed in the marine environment long before that, in the way of underwater structures such as coastal jetties, derelict fishing stakes, offshore platforms like those used in seabed mineral explorations and sunken vessels. These structures provide a substratum suitable for colonization by settling organisms and they, at the same time, attract fish and harbour them from predators as well as from undesirable turbulences in the water.