Tag Archives: fisheries

Conserving Arowanas Needs More Than Releasing Fish

The Asian arowana is a fish, a paradox, and an ongoing test of how commercial trade of an endangered animal could help conserve it.  

The fish, once a common food fish for locals from Cambodia to Indonesia, shot to stardom among pet fish enthusiasts and was hunted to rarity in rivers and lakes. But fish breeders learned to rear Asian arowanas in muddy ponds. Every year, hundreds of thousands of farmed Asian arowanas are exported worldwide, many of them from Malaysia.

(Feature image: A golden Asian arowana. | Photo by Eric Chiang/Macaranga)

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Pengetahuan dan Undang-undang Melindungi Laut Kita

Untuk menguruskan pantai dan lautan kita, kita menggunakan undang-undang untuk mewujudkan kawasan yang dilindungi. Tetapi pengurusannya boleh dipertingkatkan, dan melibatkan komuniti yang mempunyai pengetahuan tradisional dalam pengurusan adalah satu cara untuk melakukannya. Cerita di sini pertama kali diterbitkan dalam bahasa Inggeris pada Oktober 2023 sebagai sebahagian daripada siri #SeaWorld kami.

Kisah Nenek Moyang Boleh Menyelamatkan Perairan Kita

Seribu Satu Cara Menyelamatkan Lautan

守护海洋的知识与法律

为了管理马来西亚海岸与海洋,我们通过法律设立保护区,但其管理有待改进,而让拥有传统智慧的社群参与是其中的方法。这两篇报导首次于2023年10月以英文发表,是本刊#海洋世界(#SeaWorld)的系列文章。

La connaissance et les lois sauvent nos mers

Pour gérer nos côtes et nos océans, nous utilisons des lois pour créer des zones protégées. Mais sa gestion peut être améliorée, et l’implication des communautés possédant des connaissances traditionnelles dans la gestion est un moyen d’y parvenir. L’histoire ici a été publiée pour la première fois en anglais en octobre 2023 dans le cadre de notre série #SeaWorld.

Les récits de grands-pères peuvent sauver nos mers

Mille et une façons de protéger l’océan

Coal Can Be Costly – Who’s Paying?

Pieces of coal litter the beach near a jetty that used to transport coal in Port Dickson. (Nicole Fong)

Coal Can Be Costly—Who's Paying?

Text and Photos: Nicole Fong

Editor: YH Law

Published: 22 December 2021

(Cover Photo: Pieces of coal litter the beach by a jetty that was used to transport coal in Port Dickson | Pic by Nicole Fong)

Malaysia favours coal as a cheap source of energy. But for the communities living near the power plants, coal exacts a high price. This is Part 2 of a series that examines coal-use. Read Part 1 here.

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法祖尔 — 曼塔纳尼岛的潜水长新生代

曼塔纳尼岛民莫赫德·法祖尔·本·马达利(Mohd Faizul bin Madali)终日无所事事,就等着疫情过去后游客们回来。他是一名潜水长,2020年3月封锁令之后一直没有工作,只能靠家人接济。

“之前我的生活是潜水、吃饭、睡觉”,22岁的法祖尔说,“现在是吃了睡,睡了吃。”

他说自己的村子有100人,几乎每个人都依靠旅游业谋生。岛上另一个比较大的村子的情况也是如此。曼塔纳尼岛是沙巴西北海岸附近群岛中唯一一个有人居住的岛屿。

游客目前仍然来不了,许多岛民已经重操旧业,以捕鱼为生。正如法祖尔所说,几乎没有其他选择:“不靠大海,我们还能从哪里获得收入?”

当被问及他们是否使用炸鱼弹时,他马上回答道:“不不不!不再用了。”他坚持认为,即使岛屿周围有炸鱼活动,那肇事者也是“外面的人,可能来自(沙巴大陆上的)亚庇(Kota Kinabalu)”。

法祖尔已经向当局报告封锁期间非当地渔船入侵的情况,为它们在浅水区使用渔网,破坏珊瑚而愤怒。

“我很难过,因为珊瑚之前还活着,但被他们弄死了。谢天谢地,还有法律(可以解决这个问题)……旅游业也依靠健康美丽的珊瑚。谁想看死珊瑚啊?中国游客很挑的!”

Faizul (second from right) joins other Reef Check Malaysia divers to “plant” new corals on a Mantanani reef destroyed by fish-bombing (Image: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)
法祖尔(右二)与马来西亚珊瑚礁检查组织的潜水员一起在被炸鱼破坏的曼塔纳尼珊瑚礁上“种植”新的珊瑚。图片来源 :Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia

法祖尔是一名持证的“生态潜水员”,同时还是马来西亚珊瑚礁检查组织旗下曼塔纳尼青年俱乐部(一个养护能力建设项目)的成员,并积极参与该组织的珊瑚调查活动。

但和其他岛民不同的是,法祖尔没有通过捕鱼来维持生计:“我怎么知道该如何捕鱼?我只会带人潜水,教他们怎么潜水。”

 

翻译:YAN/中外对话

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本文由Macaranga与中外对话China Dialogue Ocean合作完成。

遏制珊瑚礁间的炸鱼:沙巴州的故事

当旅游业遭新冠疫情重创,当地居民的生活难以为继,许多人担心这种破坏性捕捞方式将卷土重来

一声低沉的爆炸声响起,潜水员们愣在了原地,不安地看着同伴和潜水长。幸运的是,爆炸似乎离得非常远,不影响他们继续探索色彩斑斓的珊瑚礁。

在沙巴州,炸鱼是潜水业的噩梦,不仅让游客望而却步,而且还摧毁着海洋生物,并且危及渔民自身的安全。

(Photo: 沙巴的曼塔纳尼群岛(Mantanani islands)附近海域一枚未爆炸的自制捕鱼炸弹。图片来源:Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)

Continue reading 遏制珊瑚礁间的炸鱼:沙巴州的故事

Faizul — Mantanani’s Divemaster Generation

MANTANANI native Mohd Faizul bin Madali is twiddling his thumbs waiting for the pandemic to end and tourists to return.

He is a divemaster and has been without work since lockdowns began in March 2020, relying instead on his family to support him.

“Previously, my life was diving, eating, sleeping,” says the 22-year-old. “Now, it’s eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping.”

He says virtually everyone in his village of 100 people has been dependent on tourism. The same is true of the other, larger village on Mantanani, the only inhabited island of a small group off Sabah’s northwest coast.

Back to fishing

With tourists still unable to visit, many islanders have returned to fishing as a way to make a living. As Faizul remarks, there are very few alternatives: “Where else are we going to get an income if not from the sea?”

When asked if they use fish bombs, he is quick to respond: “No, no, no! Not any more.” If fish-bombing is taking place around the islands, he is adamant the perpetrators are “outsiders, maybe from Kota Kinabalu [on the mainland]”.

Faizul has reported to the authorities the intrusion of non-local fishing boats during lockdown, incensed that they used nets in shallow waters, destroying the coral.

“I felt sad because the coral used to be alive, but they killed it. Thank goodness there are laws [to tackle this]… Tourism also depends on corals being beautiful and healthy. Who wants to look at dead corals? And Chinese tourists are very particular!”

Faizul (second from right) joins other Reef Check Malaysia divers to “plant” new corals on a Mantanani reef destroyed by fish-bombing (Image: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)
Faizul (second from right) joins other Reef Check Malaysia divers to “plant” new corals on a Mantanani reef destroyed by fish-bombing (All images: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)

A certified “eco-diver”, Faizul is also part of Reef Check Malaysia’s Mantanani Youth Club, a capacity-building conservation initiative, and takes an active part in the NGO’s reef surveys.

Unlike other islanders, however, he has not turned to fishing to make ends meet: “How would I know how to do that? What I can do is bring people diving and teach them how to dive.”

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This Insight is a collaboration with China Dialogue Ocean.

Tackling fish-bombing among the coral reefs of Sabah

With tourism hit by the pandemic and local people struggling to make ends meet, many fear a resurgence of this destructive fishing method.

AT THE sound of a muffled “boom”, the divers pause and look uneasily at each other and their divemaster. Luckily, the blast seems far enough for the group to continue exploring the colourful reef.

Fish-bombing is the stuff of nightmares for the diving industry in Sabah. Not only does it put off the tourists, it also devastates marine life and endangers the fishers themselves.

(Photo: An unexploded, homemade fish bomb off the Mantanani islands, Sabah | Image by: Adzmin Fatta / Reef Check Malaysia)

Continue reading Tackling fish-bombing among the coral reefs of Sabah