KOTA KINABALU: Foreign fishermen in Sabah waters have been resorting to large scale fish bombing to haul in their ill gotten catches.
These foreign fisherman come in a large mother ship, with smaller boats in tow to carry out fish bombing operations and process them into products.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming said the Ministry, via its Anti-Fish Bombing Committee, had identified two groups responsible for the illegal activity, adding that it is conducted in a big scale.
“They are the big timers and the Ministry is quite concerned with their activities. They have a mother ship and between six to eight small boats that will be deployed to bomb certain areas and collect the fishes in large quantity.
“The collected fishes are seldom sold to the market because the consumers are now smarter. Usually, the fishes are processed into products such as ‘ikan kering’ (dried fish).
“Certain people may not like to hear this but I’m going to be honest about it. These are the groups we need to take care of. We need the help of enforcement authorities to drive them away,” he told reporters at the Maritime Environmental Security Workshop 2017, here, today.
Pang, who is also the chairman of Anti-Fish Bombing Committee, refused to reveal locations where these foreign fisherman carry out their illegal activities. It is learnt that such groups had targeted waters off Kudat for their fish bombing activities.
“Based on information, they fish at our popular area. It is not (done) near the coastal area but in the open area. We are not sure how long they have been operating but they have been around for quite a while.
“They are not locals. We believe they are foreigners and that their vessels and boats are also registered outside (the country),” he said.
Speaking on the current level fish bombing activities in Sabah, Pang stressed the situation was quite rampant, adding most of the activities were done by small scale individuals.
“The Minister (Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun) has instructed us to take a holistic approach towards fish bombings.
“We need to give them option for better life and some of the things that we are looking at is (introducing them to) fish farming and tourism.
"The Minister is very concerned about it because he sees locals can participate more in tourism compared to what they are currently doing (fish bombing),” he said.
Pang also noted fish bombing activities by smaller groups at Pulau Mantanani off Kota Belud had dropped significantly since the World Wide Fund conducted continuous awareness programmes on the island for the past two years.