apathetic fishermen II @ Sg Buloh 07May2011

More fishing at Sungei Buloh. Sigh.

And it looks like this is an regular occurrence.

This time there was more than one net...six to be correct! Five were very long drift (or gill) nets [VLD net] and one was a throw or cast net. Three of the VLD nets were being cared for by 2 men on an improvised styrofoam float. Another 2 VLD nets were cared for by ciggy man on kayak (who had made an appearance in an earlier post). Ciggy man's friend joined him later on, also on a kayak. A mysterious 'darkman' (silhouetted against the morning sun) with the cast (or throw) net also was seen crossing the mouth of Sungei Buloh Besar on foot. This chap raised some interesting questions as he did not seem to catch anything despite his casts but he did go on to move some heavy deadwood on the eastbank shore....as if he had been tasked to manage that corner of the shore???.

First the duo on styrofoam with support motorboat. These guys used a motorised boat (SZ10404J) as their base. The motorboat was moored a bit further out in slightly deeper water and the duo moved to it to drop off their collection from each VLG net. From the looks of it, this duo netted a bumper crop of huge catfish and other fish. I wonder how much fish they can eat...surely they would sell off most of this catch. Where do they sell off this catch? (I wonder if AVA licenses them?).

the duo on their improvised floatation device checking on their 3 nets

the duo paddling their improvised floatation device back to homebase, their motorboat.

the duo got off their 'improvised floatation device and onto the mudbank west of Platform 1

They moved along each of their nets picking up fish with ease every few feet of net. An estimate of the distance covered by this group? 200m at least.

Ciggy man on red kayak was merrily checking his nets as well despite him abandoning his fishing on 01 May2011.

He was soon joined by his buddy on blue kayak. Both of them moor their kayaks and conduct their fishery business at Kranji Reservoir Park (rent free).

Then we have Darkman. Mysterious, with no face because of the sihouetting sun, he was observed casting his net a few times across the river mouth. But he had little luck - since there were two gill nets (managed by the Duo and Ciggy man) preventing fish from getting to where Darkman was.

Cast nets are usually much less successful compared to the VLDnets. Darkman made his way across to the eastbank and deposited his fishing gear into a large plastic jerry can cutout. Then he cleared up that isolated corner by moving some deadwood and also carried a long piece of driftwood out of his favourite corner. Was he clearing it up so that he could have a better corner to come back to on another morning?

We need to better protect our Nature Reserves. Fishing with VLDnets just outside of the river mouth will have a detrimental effect on the amount of fish entering the mangroves as the VLD nets effectively are a wall against entry. This may affect the resident otters and crocodiles as there would be a significant reduction on food items over time. These fishermen can be effectively considered resident fishermen as they are around 24x7x365 due to the proximity to their main base at Kranji Reservoir Park. It is probable that they are not licensed at all.

Further, the multiple VLDnets put up in parallel by the different fishermen are a maze for the otters and crocodiles to circumnavigate and there is a very real danger that these animals will get entangled up in the almost invisible nets. Indeed this has already happenned to a hapless crocodile recently. See this link for more info.