About BMRS

Bachok Marine Research Station

The IOES Bachok Marine Research Station at Kelantan was completed and handed over to IOES on 27 June 2012. Facing the South China Sea, the Bachok Station will serve as the University of Malaya’s gateway to the South China Sea and will provide opportunities for coastal and offshore oceanographic activities. The Bachok Station will also serve as a testing ground for technologies developed for coastal protection, novel aquaculture, and a training ground for aspiring local and foreign marine scientists.

The Atmospheric Sciences Center at the Bachok Marine Research Station is awarded a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) centre by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 13 June 2016. This atmospheric observation tower is funded by the National Environmental Research Centre (NERC), UK, through our collaboration with Cambridge University, the University of East Anglia, and the Malaysian Meteorological Department. An observation tower was constructed for the placement of atmospheric and climate monitoring at the station. A micro-Dirac, a gas chromatograph fabricated by Cambridge University, is currently set up in the tower to monitor halocarbon compounds in the atmosphere. This research which started as part of the PMI2-funded collaboration between IOES and Cambridge University expanded into the EU-SHIVA programme which brought together scientists from more than 17 universities and research institutions to participate in a field campaign to measure halogenated gases in the atmosphere and to understand their impact on global ozone within the upper troposphere and global stratosphere, with implications on climate change. A joint Center of Marine Science and Technology (JCMST) between the University of Malaya (UM) and the First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), Ministry of Natural Resources, China was established at the Bachok station in Dec 2017. The establishing FIO-UM JCMST has strengthened the cooperation between Malaysia and China in marine science and technology and contributed to human capacity-building development.