Sabah state govt must work with MMEA & ESSCOM to halt fish bombings

Wanita MCA Sabah urges the Sabah Fisheries Department as well as State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister cum state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew to take stern action against fish bombers.  The Sabah Warisan state government should enlist the help of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and even the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) to monitor maritime lanes, quell these unlicenced water activities and detain the perpetrators, reported to be from neighbouring countries.

Fish bombers destroy marine life and beautiful coral reefs which our Land Below the Wind is renowned for, thereby jeopardising the state’s tourism industry. Besides threatening the aqua-eco system, these illegal activities may also incur human fatalities or loss of human limbs, if there are people nearby the vicinity of the explosions. In fact, on 5 July 2019, two divers from China and their diving instructor, a local, were killed in waters off Pulau Kalapuan in Semporna, due to the rampant use of fish bombing.

Sabah’s fauna and flora are among the state’s main attractions. Scuba divers, be they Malaysians or international tourists are particularly overawed with the diving and snorkelling spots which Sabah can boast to the world about.

However, given the news reports in Free Malaysia Today  (23 June 2020) that loud blasts were heard on 6 and 7 June 2020, with even louder blasts whose vibration were felt over the last weekend, uneasiness over the destruction in addition to unsightly carcases of dead turtles trapped in ghost nets necessitate the Sabah state government to work with the federal government, step up enforcement to take urgent and expedient measures to protect our underwater treasures.

Reviving Sabah’s tourism industry which submerged close to zilch during the movement control order is urgently required. In fact, even before the MCO was announced, Sabah’s tourism receipts for the January-February 2020 period fell by 21.6 per cent or RM320 million year-on-year to RM1.16 billion whereby our East Malaysian state registered a 16.4 per cent drop in tourists (both international and domestic) to 567,108 compared with 678,128 tourists in the same period last year (Daily Express, 9 May 2020).

Endeavouring to ensure the conservation of our coral reefs, marine and land life serves dual purposes ie the protection of endangered and threatened species besides contributing towards the continuation of Sabah being a haven for tourists.

Dr Pamela Yong
Wanita MCA Sabah Chairperson
MCA Central Committee Member

-MCA online-