KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia's biggest marine park located north of Sabah has been gazetted, promising better protection and conservation.
Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun tweeted; "Its done ! Tun Mustapha Marine Park in northern Sabah is gazetted."
He also posted a copy of the State Government Gazette under the Sabah Parks Enactment 1984.
The park which measures close to 900,000 hectares is located off the districts of Kudat, Kota Marudu and Pitas right up to the Straits of Balabac.
With the declaration, the size of protected marine parks in Sabah now stretches to about two million hectares along with the Tun Sakaran Marine Park and the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
In 2003, the Tun Mustapha Park was proposed by the Sabah government shortly after it was recognised as a globally significant priority marine conservation area.
The park is situated within the Coral Triangle which is a six million sq km marine area that directly sustains and protects more than 120 million people in coastal communities across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.