Statistics from the Marine Department in Malaysian Territorial waters has shown an increase in maritime accidents. The data of maritime accidents, including latitude and longitude of the locations, are analysed using Geographical Information System with Kernel Density function. This is to visualise, locate and identify the high-risk location of maritime accidents in Malaysian waters. Using the GIS analysis, the findings suggest that the data of the high-risk maritime location is at Malacca Straits. The results showed that GIS analysis is a useful tool to analyse maritime accidents data and can be used as a guidance for navigators to plan their passage in order to avoid maritime accidents.

Mangroves forests provide a support to the coastal livelihood, ecosystem, socioeconomic and also the environment. In Malaysia, the mangroves forest has been in declining rate causes by a few factor such as conversion to shrimps ponds, urban development and tourism. Such threats led to increasing demand for detailed mangrove maps for the purpose of measuring the extent of deterioration of the mangrove ecosystem. However, it is difficult to produce a detailed mangrove map mainly because mangrove forest is very difficult to access. Remote sensing technology provides a genuine alternative to the traditional field-based method of mangrove mapping and monitoring. This study analyses and map the mangrove forest changes at Pulau Kukup, Ramsar Site Johor from 2013 until 2021 using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The findings of this study are the mangrove forests in Pulau Kukup, Ramsar Site Johor, revealed an unfavourable shift leading to deforestation from 2013 to 2016. However, between 2019 and 2021, the mangrove forest improves as the forest’s vegetation grows.

This paper presents a research to determine the effects of the Northeast Monsoon (NEM) and the Southwest Monsoon (SWM) on wave power along the coastal area of Mandi Darah Island, Sabah. This study identified the daily data of wave height and wave period for 6 months from June to December 2018. The following period was chosen because it consisted of two monsoon seasons in Sabah. The data obtained from the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) were thoroughly analyzed to estimate the wave height and the wave period to identify the wave power at Mandi Darah Island. The wave heights ranged from 0.01 m to 0.47 m while the wave periods ranged from 1.0 s to 8.6 s. The wave height range during the NEM was higher by 0.12 m than SWM, while the difference of wave period was significantly higher by 2.17 s during the NEM. The maximum wave power recorded at Mandi Darah Island was 1.57 kW/m throughout the period. During NEM, the wave power was significantly higher than during SWM, by 0.70 kW/m. These findings led to determining the wave energy type converter that suits the wave conditions at the Mandi Darah Island coastal area.

Penyakit karang adalah gangguan terhadap kesehatan karang yang menyebabkan gangguan secara fisiologis bagi biota karang. Munculnya penyakit karang dicirikan dengan adanya perubahan warna, kerusakan dari skeleton biota karang, sampai dengan kehilangan jaringannya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi jenis penyakit karang serta mengetahui prevalensinya di Perairan Kaledupa, Taman Nasional Wakatobi, Sulawesi Tenggara. Penelitian ini dilakukan pada bulan Juni 2021 di Perairan Kaledupa Taman Nasional Wakatobi dengan menggunakan metode transek sabuk (Belt Transec) dengan ukuran 3 x 50 m pada 3 titik stasiun pengamatan pada kedalaman 3-5 meter. Pengukuran parameter Fisika-Kimia Oseanografi dilakukan secara langsung dilapangan. Identifikasi penyakit karang dilakukan secara deskriptif berdasarkan buku coral disease handbook dan referensi jurnal. Hasil yang didapatkan ditemukan 4 jenis penyakit karang yang menginfeksi biota karang di Perairan Pulau Kaledupa Taman Nasional Wakatobi yaitu Black Band Disease (BBD), White Band Disease (WBD), White Pox dan Ulcerative White Spot (UWS). Serta didapatkan hasil untuk Prevalensi penyakit karang secara keseluruhan di lokasi penelitian rata-rata sebesar 1,5 %.

Marine ecosystems and natural habitat play the important role of the Earth’s life support system. They significantly contribute to economies and food safety and help preserve ecological processes. However, the devastation of the marine ecosystem in Malaysia due to the human factor and climate change is quite alarming. Therefore, spatial marine information, especially on the distribution of seabed substrates and habitat mapping, are of utmost importance for marine ecosystem management and conservation. Traditionally, seabed substrate and habitat mapping were classified based on direct observation techniques such as photography, video, sampling, coring and scuba diving. These techniques are often limited due to water clarity and weather conditions and only suitable for smaller scale surveys. In this study, we employed an acoustic approach using the RoxAnn Acoustic Ground Discrimination System (AGDS) with a high-frequency single-beam echo sounder to examine the distribution of seabed substrate at the Mandi Darah Island, Sabah. The acoustic signals recorded by AGDS are translated into hardness and roughness indices which are then used to identify the unique characteristics of the recorded seabed types. The analysis has shown that fifteen types of substrates, ranging from silt to rough/some seagrass, have been identified and classified. The findings demonstrated that the acoustic method was a better alternative for seabed substrate determination than the conventional direct observation techniques in terms of cost and time spent, especially in large scale surveys. The seabed substrate dataset from this study could be used as baseline information for the better management and conservation of the marine ecosystem.