Ugly Singaporean Fishermen

17 July 2003

What's worse than the idiot who craps in his own backyard? The one that goes on and craps in someone else's!

I've just returned from Manado and the Bunakan National Park. It truly is a fascinating place and definitely boasts some of the best diving I've seen. However, my most lasting impression of the trip was made far from the water at the airport just prior to departure. For it was there that I witnessed a group of ugly Singaporean fishermen.

Let's face it, the fishing in Singapore is pretty much stuffed. True, there's some good fishing to be had on occasion, but if you've fished around the region, you'd know that the fishing here is but a mere shadow of what it once must have been. For example, the reefs that fringe Pulau Bunaken reminded me very much of those that I used to dive on around Pulau Hantu many years ago. For years now, those reefs are all dead and the water turbidity has been compounded by the reclamation works on Pulau Semakau (our new rubbish tip!) Whether it's habitat destruction, over fishing or some other cause, the point is that our fishery resources have been decimated.

You'd think that given the state of our fisheries, we would accord greater value on what resources still exist in the region. No such luck. For as I was checking in for my flight, I saw a group of Singaporean fishermen dumping eskies of fish before the check in staff. (Of course, true to form, this same group ignored the lengthy lines that had formed and slotted themselves behind the counter clearly marked "Business Class".)

These fishermen had brought 2 large cooler boxes with them, but that wasn't enough. They had also filled at least 5 other styrofoam boxes and checked those in. Later, I clearly overheard them boasting about how they had managed to stuff even more "Tenggirri" (i.e. Spanish Mackerel) into the boxes by removing ice.

How conceited can Singaporeans get? Just because some of us make enough in a month to feed a Manado family for a year does not give us a right to plunder their natural resources. Were these recreational fishermen, or commercial fish mongers. If they were the former, then let them take only what they can immediately use. If the latter, then let them obtain permits, pay for freight and have the fish inspected. There cannot be a middle ground for such "shamateurs".

This incident hit a nerve. Almost 2 decades ago, Pulau Aur was regarded as the fishing mecca for Singaporean fishermen. On my first dive just 20m. from Pulau Dayang, I saw a grouper bigger than me in 25 ft of water. Over the years, fishing parties visited the islands toting large ice chests. Initially, filling these plastic caverns with fish was easy - if the pelagics weren't around, then a visit to the wreck or a reef would do. After a while, the operators had shut down the bottom fishing scene completely - it's hard to convince someone who had spent many hours traveling to be patient while soaking a bait in barren waters. These days, Aur has lost its glamour and is just another fished-out place in the region you can go.

Bunaken is also the name of a national park. This is where much of the diving in Manado occurs. And, yes there is an entrance fee and rangers who perform enforcement patrols. But one evening, in a movement of brutal honesty, the scuba instructor at the resort I was staying at confided that he believed that the quality of the diving wouldn't last beyond 5 years.

A poignant thought indeed, but tragically unsurprising.