Tropical Research and Conservation Centre (TRACC) — Attraction in Sabah

TRACC was such a great experience and I came here as science internship which is fully sponsored Malaysia internship placement for my UMT industrial training for 12 weeks. I am very grateful for being given the opportunity and selected me as an internship student at TRACC. I came here with open water course, and I earned my Advance Open Water course which is a part of my sponsored internship. My instructor is really good; he also teaches me how to control buoyancy as part of the course. Before I came to TRACC, my dive log about 35 dive log for 2 years, but then when I am lived here, every day we went diving. I think overall my dive is over than 100 now which is include conservation dive and fun dive. Since, every day we went diving, I believed that I have improve much better in buoyancy skill. Before I came here, I am not really good in buoyancy, especially went we did work while diving. Not even that, I also improve of my air consumption. I can still remember, my dive master did weight check before we went dive, and she said actually I am overweight (weight and weight belt). At first I don’t believe, drop 1kg off weight from the weight belt, but then slowly drop my weight up to 1.6kg weight. Actually, it feels very comfortable went we wear light weight compare to heavy weight went we diving.

To be honest, I do really enjoy diving with TRACC whereas we did conservation dive, work dive. I really enjoy all the conservation dive such as soft coral collect-planting, hard coral collects and planting, making coral biscuit (artificial reef), scrub mooring line, arc reef maintenance, underwater beach clean and else. In addition, we also have buoyancy workshop and lift bag workshop in order to get good buoyancy before did conservation dive.

Generally, camp it is so nice and amazing. Actually, I do expect the worst but then I am wrong. They give me accommodation in cubical tent equipped with a fan, bed and sheet bed, pillow towel, socket and table. There are some challenges even living in a tent i.e. the tent is easily filled with sand (because the feet are always sandy) and sometimes in the middle of the night there is a strong storm, rainwater comes on top of my tent.

The food is really good. Neng’s cook is really delicious and tasty. What I can said, Neng always make different menu every day. I also notice that, Neng don’t repeat the same menu over 2 weeks, which is mean that Neng was always make a different menu every day other than that, what I like the most are we can cook by ourselves if we want to cook. At first, I had a hard time adapting to eating a vegetarian menu, but it was still have other variety food that I can eat.

Turtle. Pom Pom Island is the best place for turtle. I really love learn about them, especially turtle facial identification and did a turtle walk around the island. Since I have been here for 3 months, I had a opportunities to see mama turtle comes from the beach to nest, see how the mama turtle dig a hole for nesting, how the know either this turtle lay eggs or not based on their track. Not even that, I also have opportunities to see green turtle and hawksbill turtle nesting and turtle release.

As marine intern, my industrial supervisor (Farhana Azmi) was assigned me a mini project which biodiversity assemblage at intertidal and shallow reef flat (1-2 meter). I really enjoy did my survey, at the same time I also learn a new thing which learn how to id the invert and the fish. Actually, in university I used to id them but not very practical compare in here. I believed that, my research will contribute of knowledge towards TRACC about POm Pom Island diversity.

Last but not least, I would recommend to all people to come at TRACC no matter what background you are. Come here and gain the knowledge and let safe the coral reef as well as the world. Pom Pom Island, is the best placed to go because here have a very beautiful sunset, moonlight turtle walks. THANK...

I came to TRACC as a fully sponsored Malaysian internship placement for my UMT industrial training for 12 weeks. I am a open water diver and I earned my Advanced Open Water course as part of my sponsored internship. I am very grateful for the opportunity that TRACC have given me. Every Sunday, there will be fun dives at different dives sites near Pom Pom such as Mataking, Timba-Timba, Pandanan and many more which is so fun. All of this dives really help me in improving my buoyancy and my breathing skills while diving. The camp is also amazing and beyond my expectation.The tent is equipped with bed, fan, socket and also place to put your cloth and stuff which is really comfortable. The food at TRACC is fine and more than enough. You can even go for the 2nd round because Neng cook the best food and vegetables!!!.

Here at TRACC, the turtle is kinda a big thing and I am very happy to be part of the turtle projects because I gain a lots of knowledge from the projects. The best thing about turtles is the baby turtles release because the turtles look very cute and adorable when they are running to the sea. Moreover, there are so many turtles that I saw while diving which is amazing. In one dive, it is very possible to see at least 1 to 3 turtles. I’m quite proud to be part of the turtle projects. Watching the mother nesting and bring the turtles eggs to the In situ hatchery. Learning about different kind of turtles and their track pattern when they come up for nesting. The turtle facial ID is also fun thing to do and a new knowledge for me.

As a science intern, I was given a mini project to work on. I am very happy to have project on my own and the project that I work on is to the seagrass assessment around Pom Pom island. It was quite tough to do the assessment around the whole island in a short period of time but I got very supportive and helpful science team which make my project even more easier, faster and fun to do. I have learn a lot from the mini project which is I learn about the importance of seagrass, their species and while doing the project I learn more about leadership, teamwork and communication skills. This project that I work on is really important as the seagrass is known as a foraging ground for turtles so by knowing the distribution of the seagrass around Pom Pom, the conservation and the protection of the seagrass habitat can be done.

I would really recommend to all people to come at TRACC not matter what their background, age and culture. TRACC is a good place to learn about marine conservation and a great place for diving. You can also meet people from different country, age and background which is amazing because I gain a lot of new knowledge and hear a lots of amazing stories from all this people. There are so many things that can be learn at TRACC which is the coral restoration and identification, fish and invertebrate identification, making and maintain the artificial reef and turtle facial ID. I would really recommend everybody to come and do the conservation work at TRACC because it is really enjoyable and fun. The sunset at TRACC is very beautiful and something that I will enjoy every day and never get bored.

Last but not least, I want to give my biggest thanks to TRACC for giving me the opportunity for me to do my internship at TRACC and I am very grateful to be one of the Malaysian sponsored intern at TRACC. The internship at TRACC has sharpen and increase a lots of my skills and has make me grow as a more confident person. I hope that after I finish my internship at TRACC, I would still have the chance to work in the conservation area and be able to protect the ocean more. Thank you again TRACC for the chance and...

Hello guys!!, I am idzhar from University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) doing an internship at TRACC (tropical research and conservation centre) in Sabah. I came to TRACC on a fully sponsored Malaysian internship placement for my UMT industrial training. In order to graduate I need to do a 12 weeks internship field training. TRACC have given me a very huge opportunity to do an internship with them. This is a very great opportunity for me because I know that TRACC have involved in conservation for a long time. I come with advance diver license with a very limited experience in diving. When I come to TRACC, I only got around 30 dives overall. As time goes by, I been diving since I came to TRACC and it was over 100++ dives. Next is about the turtle project. Who doesn’t love turtle right? Everyone loves them. When I involve in the turtle project, I do get excited. The best part from the turtle project for me is when we watch a mother turtle nesting. We can always found a nest but not while a mother turtle is nesting, it always depend on your luck. I have watched a lot of turtle nesting while I was here and it was fascinating especially when the turtle is Hawksbill a critically endangered species. Other than that we involving in turtle facial ID. We take turtle photo while diving. It is really a new experience for me. Last from the project is that we watched hatchling release. It was so cute that no one can deny their cuteness. There are a lot of diving project that TRACC is working on. The best project I’ve done is coral fragment collect. We will collect coral fragment that have low chance of survival or did not attached to a firm substrate. Basically we will save this fragments by planting them in a biscuits that made from cement. Most of this fragments are so beautiful. Im happy that we can save them. Other than that, we also do a lot of other things like ARC reefs scrubbing, coral planting using epoxy and soft coral planting. TRACC also teach us about fish ID, invert ID and coral ID. This identification is so useful when we go for diving. It is so interesting every time we go underwater cause we can see the difference that TRACC making from the conservation activity. I loved living on Pom Pom Island. You can’t just get this kind of experience anywhere else. Sometimes an island life is a struggle but it will give you an experience that you will never imagine you can get it. The best kind of view that I missed the most is doing a turtle walk with a lot of star view just on top of your head and sometimes a beautiful Milky Way. I also feel grateful that we can contribute to TRACC knowledge from our project. Moreover all the staff and local boys that been helping me during my internship and also give their support in completion of the internship. The internship at TRACC has given me a tremendous amount of experience that I can use in my life other than becoming more confident with myself. Last but not least, I want to thank TRACC for this amazing life time opportunity that I will never get...