Locating The Sabah Fish Bomber
Pulau Mantanani of the coast of Kota Kinabalu Sabah, A 1 hour journey by speed boat through the South China Sea to one of Sabah's beautiful yet mysterious islands. Filled with adventure and suspense from the word go, this is a chronicle of my stay with the locals locating what is famously known as the Sabahan Fish Bomber.
Once again my association with the production of 'The Bomb Listener' has brought me to Sabah, but this time to yet another island located at the north tip of Borneo called Pulau Mantanani. Travel starts by land via a van transfer from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Abai south of KK which will take approximately 1 and half hours, at the jetty as we wait for the boats with busloads of chinese tourists from mainland China, most headed for day trips, something you will expect all year round in beautiful Sabah where your tests of patience will come in very handy in times of need.
Be prepared for a rough ride as the waters and weather throughout the journey to Mantanani is quite unpredictable, this is caused by the location of the island and it's water ways which is open to the South China Sea and prone to the Southern Philipine storms. I would recommend some medication to ward of the sea sickness if you are one of those that are prone to such conditions, Puking is part of the journey so be prepared with the necessary. The boat ride will take about 45mins depending on water conditions more if weather is bad, if it is too dangerous for travel the operators will cancel the journey and everyone will be requested to return to KK and are refunded accordingly.
After a gruesome journey, and feeling like everything i had from sahur was going to come back out with a vengence (due to my fasting i was unable to take any form of medication before the journey). Upon arrival we were greeted by clear blue skies emerald blue sea and white sandy beaches, one you would only see in travel advertisements where colour was enhanced to attract viewers, but this my friends was no enhancement or CGI of any sort, this was the real deal, this is Mantanani. A gem at the northern most tip of Borneo.
Here as we were dropped of by the shore we were met by our liason Encik. Mohammed who is the manager of the local homestays owned and operated by the village folks of the island as a alternate form of income besides their normal income from fishing. 95% of the inhabitants are local fisherman and the remainding 5% are teachers, police, boat builders and resort operators. There are mutiple choices of homestays if you wish to be close to the villagers, of course living conditions vary from home to home, live as they do eat as they do, this might not be comfortable to those with families and little children, but it is a cheaper alternative to the high priced resorts, and also for those seeking a bit of differnce in their visit and to experience something they have not, then this would be perfect for you. Each homestay takes turns to host a visitor on the island and rotates among the other homestays to keep a fair income average for all operators, so we do not have the power to decide which homestay we would like to be in, instead we will be given one based on rotation.
For this we were placed with Pak Alfa at ALpha's Homestay, 30 meters away from the sea, in the middle of the village. A double story kampung house where Pak Alfa his wife, children and grandkids live in the bottom level of the house and guests use the top part of the house. Being there in the fasting month of Ramadan, there is not much food around but just in case there were those among you that is not fasting, in my case was my producer and our NGO guide Natalie, arrangements can be made so that Pak Alfa's wife will cook and serve some lunch. But for me the host prepared meals for the breaking of my fast and sahur at 3am everynight.   |
| view from homestay window |
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| Owner of homestay Pakcik Alfa & wife |
In this house we spent most of the 10 days we were on the island, surrounded by kampung folks, which majority of them were Bajau Ubiyan, fisherman, muslim (apparently, why i say this is because they admit they are muslim but know nothing about being one, hence not fasting, not praying, gambling, drugs etc).This at most part was perfect for what we were doing, which is to infiltrate the village folk and discover the true meaning of fish bombing. Although having some help from the local NGO's who already identified an ex fish bomber for us, it doesn't mean that our jobs were done, we still wanted to know more about the subject and it's history and how it evolved till this day and age and where it was heading to. So we met up with the village chief, met the local authorities and schools, spoke with the local imams joined the terawih prayers at the mosque, spoke with the people played with the children and blended in as much as we could.
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| Pakcik Alfa's family |
Most of the children here do not go to school, this is because most of them are undocumented, where their parents are outsiders, either from the Philipines or Indonesia. The Bajau Ubiyan are the descendants of Philipine origins, who have lived a nomadic lifestyle migrating from island to island and have entered Malaysian waters legally or mostly by illegal means. Not identified as Malaysians nor Phillipinos they are left with no legal rights whatsoever but free to stay and move around Sabah waters as they please. This sort of major migration have allowed for the smuggling in of many illegal substances from the Phil's like drugs guns and in our case
ready made fish bombs.This form of migration have proven difficult for the M'sian authorities to curb, hence leading to kidnapping's of tourists and holiday goers for the funding of filipino militias, and the open attack of Sabah by their Suluk neighbours recently, are also caused by this open migration. Most of this so called enemies are either already living on M'sian soil or being protected by their local relatives and counterparts and are ever ready to pounce when ordered to, making them a very difficult enemy to cope with. But here in Mantanani is a safe zone due to military bases situated at nearby islands making any assault towards Mantanani a dangerous mission.
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| Imam of Mantanani |
On Mantanani itself the reports for illegal fish bombing are at almost 30 blasts per day, killing of approximately close to 1000kg of fishes, this amount can fetch to almost Rm9000 per day, which is shared among the crew which can range to about 4-8pax per trip, and minus the capital used on purchasing the said bombs. Compared to most indeginious and safer ways of fishing, the income by bombing appears to be way superior and very lucrative. The bombs which are made from bottled fertiliser attached to a water proof fuse are being imported in via the philipines by sea, fisherman would meet the sellers half way mostly on international waters to avoid persecution and to buy them by the bulk load, this would cost them about Rm800 for a box of 20pcs of water proof fuses and another Rm800 for the pre bottled fertiliser, this is then split among the many fisherman who have shared the cost for the said bombs.
Of course fishing can only be done during clear weather which is a rare sight in Mantanani due to unpredictable weather brought in by the storms from the South China Sea and also the Phillipino monsoon, the storms can last a few days at least putting all activities on Mantanani to a halt.
But of course these are work hazards, and might not be enough to stop them with their activities.
by the authorities, mainly the Fisheries department, The Royal Malaysian Police etc, but they would then dispose of all bombs and fishes into the ocean before they arrive dispossing of all evidences that would get them prosecuted for fish bombing, and losing all their collections for the day. But that is not much of a problem for them as they can still return the day after to continue their bombings and fishing activities, non the less damage has already been done to the ocean bottom and its inhabitants, and authorities have been finding it very hard to stop all bomb activities. After collection of all their catches of the day, these fishes are then brought back to the island for final processing and cleaning, this is to wash away all evidence on the fish that makes it look as though it has been bombed. The only way to sell these fishes without having any evidence of bombing on it is by processing and repackaging them into fermented Salted Fish which are sold openly throughout Sabah and it's islands. The damaged bones and internal organs of the fish are washed and cleaned, dispossing of all evidence. Maybe if we stop the demand of Salted Fish in the market, this could lead to the decline of fish bombing, but then again Salted Fish is a favourite delicacy among the people of Malaysia and it's Asean neighbours, making it a hard habit to stop. Of course not all Salted Fish in the market are bombed, many are also fished by legal ways, but this particular breed by the island of Mantanani have been a favourite to many, hence creating a very lucrative market, and the amount of fishes able to be retrieved by just one bomb is enough to convince them that this is the only way to go.
Mantanani is also home to a vast range of beautiful corals and sealife, hence making the diving and snorkelling industry very popular, majority of visitors are from mainland China and Taiwan, not much Europeans due to warnings from their governments to avoid Sabah at all costs because of the kidnappings and security uncertainties within the islands. Visitors usually make day trips and seldom stay on the island due to high costs charged by resort operators. There are eleven dive sites all around Mantanani with prices ranging from about Rm100 to about Rm170 per dive, prices can still be negotiated once on the island itself.
I did manage to get myself a few dives on our last few days on the island, i was brought to the police gate, they still had beautiful corals unharmed by the bombings, i got to see barracudas, turtle's, lobsters and abalone's, we even came across some local fisherman free diving for lobsters and abalone's to be sold to the Chinese tourist's.
Altogether we heard about 6 bomb blasts within 2 days of diving, enough to convince me that Mantanani is indeed the home of the Fish Bomber, and the activities that are being practiced are the actual procedures of fish bombings that have been practiced since even before the second world war. Still unsure who brought in the method to this region, but some have said that it might have been brought in by the American marines during WW2 when they use to throw hand grenades into the ocean as a means to catch fish when they were based in the Pillipines, locals saw this as a 100% success method of fishing and adopted it into their daily lifestyle, spreaded throughout the region by the migration of the indeginious people and survived till this day to be a 60 year old tradition.
Being a tradition passed down by generations, this method of fishing seems to be the only way for them to continue their way of life and to survive in this day and age, anything less, for them, would mean poverty and the lost of tradition and culture. NGO's have been trying their best to put a stop to this by creating awareness on the destruction of corals and sea life that would harm their way of living in the future, but to no avail, as the locals excuse is that they would only bomb outside of coral gardens hence not endangering any corals or sea life. The government too have been trying to convince the locals but will have to go through strong opposition, and are forced to offer them an alternative form of income but still not as lucrative as bombings, hence putting everything at a stalemate.
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