The whale shark killers can’t plead innocence!
Published on: Saturday, October 18, 2014
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Is there any future for any of our world acclaimed stock of amazing marine wildlife in Sabah – whale sharks, sea turtles, dugong, sharks, sawfish,dolphin, coral reefs, mameng etc if this decimating and clearly illegal ‘planned behaviour’ is given free reign at sea without a strong and certain ‘counter planned behaviour’ from the fisheries authorities to stop all these intentional destruction from its track?
Let the readers own the answer.
As an indication what spectacle and wildlife we’ll lose if this sea giant dies off.
A mature male whale shark can reach 46ft (14m) long and weigh 13 tonnes, compared to maximum eight tonnes from a large Bornean pygmy elephant.
It’s a ‘planned behaviour’ when the killing recurs
A simple way to trap these guys in their guilt at their weakest point is to let them explain their behaviour and intention. Behaviour is a direct function of intention and attitude.
Can any body dispute that inseparable link?
No.
In fact it is generally believed that the single best predictor of a person’s behaviour is simply his/her intention to perform that behaviour.
This leads us to what psychologists call ‘Planned Behaviour’, or a person’s readiness to perform a given behaviour .
So, if a simple, poor artisan fisherman catches giant whale sharks season in and season out over a decade and then claims it’s all an ‘accidental’ or ‘incidental catch’ but he’s always chopping the meat up for sale and slashing off the huge pectoral fins and dorsal fins for sale as shark fins to dowkays to make thousands of dollars , can he/ she ever plead innocence?
Again no.
In fact, the recurring meat harvest and fin-chopping behaviour from whale sharks netted clearly gives away a deliberate intention to kill, and no word of reasoning can deny the fact otherwise.
But what happened had happened.
We cannot bring back all the whale sharks that had already been slaughtered illegally.
What counts now is the question : What next? What next should be only one behaviour from the fisheries authorities – stop them!
Bust ‘planned behaviour’
This special report highlights what we believe is a recurring planned behaviour of whale shark hunting and fin chopping behaviour as observed on the ground from Kota Belud in the West Coast to Marudu Bay in the north over the years .
But if there is planned behaviour to hunt whale shark for monetary gain, the real public interest is whether our fisheries authorities will take any counter planned behaviour to administer their own laws to put to bed this offence once and for all.
They are empowered with the legal mandate to execute that duty and responsibility .
M’sian laws ban killing of whale shark
The two laws in Malaysia designed to protect the awesome whale shark , are :
One : CITES International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2003.
Two, Fisheries Act 1985 and Fisheries Regulations (Control of Endangered Species) 1999 and its amendment 2008 which reads as follows :
‘Without any prejudice to special written permission issued by the Director-General (of Fisheries) , the present regulations prohibit fishing, disturbing, catching, killing, taking, possessing, transporting as well as export and trade of endangered fish species defined by the schedule hereby attached. Regulation 3 sets forth the penalty (imprisonment or fines) to be applied in case of contravention.’
The list of endangered species in a schedule of the Act includes species in the whale shark, dugong, dolphin, sharks, sawfish groups . Fishermen know it so that they have no excuse.
‘Knowledge Translation’, that is, putting that existing legal safeguard into practice is now absolutely essential before the whale shark’s total demise. The public now look to the State and Federal fisheries authorities to do their job.
Part of a sickening carnage
Still, they may argue these are no big deal, isolated incidents not worth responding, until one realizes that in the global context, it is part of the sickening carnage which involves one biggest whale shark slaughter houses uncovered by Hong Kong based wildlife Risk NGO who posed as seafood dealers in January 2014 and gained access to the biggest whale shark slaughter house near Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province in southeastern China, where annually they slaughter some 600 whale sharks captured from the South China Sea – part of the extremely long migratory routes spanning between Australia through to the Philippines to Mexico and back.
That’s the sobering discovery - a terrible, dark, medieval, uneducated behaviour which is fast sending this amazing giant of a fish into a twilight stage of extinction, no difference from the spectre of extinction imminently facing Sabah’s spectacular Sumatran rhino !!
No Sabahan wants to see the decimation of such a spectacular giant of the sea continue until the last fish has been caught and then wake up one day too late that we cannot eat money ?
An honourable academician tells it like it is
The problem is most of us , this writer included, are ignorant about the hidden trouble facing the biggest fish in the world , until an honourable field oriented academic like Dr James Alin, came letting the facts speak out in defence of Sabah’s precious natural capital.
This awareness article all started when Dr James responded to ‘Whale ends up in Banggi’ heading blared on a front page Daily Express report on September 30.
Yes, whale beaching (not whale shark) often trigger the good hearted side of fishermen who wished it life by pushing it to deep water.
Yes, the September Banggi whale beaching incident exhibited once again its infamous mystifying behaviour of determined ‘suicide’, it seems, because it just kept beaching itself till it gave up the ghost, despite the showy rescue efforts!
In the case of whale beaching, we can’t blame any one directly, though there are anthropogenic theories.
But the pathos of that the Banggi whale beaching incident and its heroic but vain rescue effort, is a complete contrast to how fishermen behave when they see a whale shark coming.
With respect to the whale shark, any conservation idea is quickly thrown out of the window when the animal comes exposing its huge shark fins and the idea of big money!
Capable of 46ft (14m) long for a reputation as the biggest fish in the world , this marine giant seasonally swims into our shallow coasts in chase of its favourite food –anchovy and tiny prawns called krills, with its pectoral fins capable of reaching 6.5ft long if it were a mature male and almost equally big first dorsal fins able to reach 6ft - just too big a tempter to resist letting it go away alive!
The craze for shark fins worth thousands of ringgit per animal have long enticed even the simplest fishers into illegal, premeditated and intentional killers, in defiance of the laws which outlaw this murderous behaviour.
In addition, we now know there are willing fish meal fertilizer factories which are probably prompting such big capture and kill for its meat. So, slaughter of the awesome whale shark has been ongoing since 2004 when he first started looking into the issue , according to Dr James.
When fishers call intentional hunting ‘accidental by-catch’!
“But every time it happens, fishers would claim it is accidental by-catch, which holds no water,” Dr James said .
“If it were accidental, why remove the huge fins ? Why tow ashore and chop up the animal in haste ? Why not free the animal with fins intact and put it back to sea ?” Dr James asked.
“Secondly, unlike the usual sharks, the whale shark is so huge and visible that you cannot miss it, and as such you cannot catch it by accident, ” he noted.
“The truth is artisan fishermen from Kota Belud to Marudu Bay and beyond know exactly when the whale sharks are coming in to Sabah for their favourite anchovies and krills (tiny prawns) are abundant especially in the months of April and May and even October ,” Dr James said.
For instance, the bagang – a fixed traditional bamboo structure erected at sea to suspend lift nets to capture the the anchovies and krills, is a pervasive sight in Marudu Bay.
Annchovyy and krill fisheres there know exactly the precise seasons anchovies and krills are abundant and therefore have learnt to expect the precise season when the whale sharks would come in to feed, Dr James noted.
So it’s no accident that that these simple fishers make the Rantau - some kind of long trawl net tied to each end of two boats and when an an animal as visible as the whale shark swims in, the two boats make a synchronised move to drag the net into the path of the whale shark and it’s caught ! In fact, the juvenile whale shark caught in the Sebayan area of Marudu Bay at 1am last Thursday morning ( 16 Oct) put up such a big struggle that it tore a big hole in the rantau, according to Dr James.
Confession of villagers who eat whale shark
Can any fisher claim innocence that he/she didn’t see the mammoth fish which is even visible from aeropplanes and argue it’s a by catch?
For example, 8am, 20 April this year, some villagers in Kampung Tituru Laut, Kota Belud, 90km from Kota Kinabalu, caught a whale shark (Rhinodon Typus spp.) with their own Rantau ( trawl net), Dr James cited.
But some body nearby was watching – a resort and Dr James noted some ambivalent behaviour among the fishers. “ The owner of the resort operating nearby called the Department of Fisheries, Sabah . He contacted Datuk Sri Panglima Masidi Manjun (Culture, Tourism and Environment Minister), for help. It took them few hours to free the giant fish but by then, it had already become weakened and died later!” Dr James reported .
“A couple of villagers of Kg Tituru conceded weeks later that they actually wanted to eat the whale shark but were afraid that the resort owner would report them to the authorities !” Dr James related.
“ Afterwards the fishermen towed the carcass ashore using four boats (see pictures) and the fins cut.
Two days after that, the decomposing carcass was moved using a tractor belonging to Manana Borneo Resort to a site where it was buried. The Wildlife Rescue Unit arrived too late.”
“Was the Whale shark found by the Tituru villagers a ‘discard’ caught by a random process?” Dr James asked.
“Why would they put in such a big effort to rescuing it , if all they wanted was to discard it?”
“ In the case of a recently beached whale in Banggi Island, I believe the fishers there did it out of compassion for marine life, not because any resort nearby told them that’s the right thing to do or that they fear to Sabah Wildlife Department.,”Dr James opined..
Giant whale shark caught in Marudu
“ The Kota Belud Kg Tituru saga was not the first time a whale shark succumbed to the fishing net , nor will it be the last, I think,” Dr James pointed out.
“Early May 2013. Fishermen in Marudu Bay found a huge whale shark caught by their own Rantau (trawl net),” he noted. “The giant fish was still alive (See picture) when villagers towed it shorewards to the villages of Teritipan and Tanjung Batu. This time, the Bajau fishermen slaughtered and divided the meat among themselves according to their custom of fish sharing,” Dr James reported.
Again, last Thursday morning, the same fishers caught and slaughtered the juvenile whale shark described at the beginning of this special report.
Can the latest catch be accidental when there was a middleman waiting to buy the meat while they were still at sea ?
There is only one answer - planned behaviour!
The case in Kudat
Then, going back to 16 August 2007 (as reported in WWF-Malaysia Mameng News , Vol.1, No 3, December 2007) , a group of Pitas fishermen were on their way to their Bagang (Stationary Liftnet) when they sighted an 18-foot Whale shark off the coast of Kampung Batu Putih, Lok Dankaan. When they saw it again at 1am , it was a weakened animal.
So they towed it to Kampung Air, Kudat but it died there eventually. The Whale shark turned out to be a juvenile male,” he said.
What are the chances of Whale sharks or marine mammals surviving the fishing net tangle? “Very low,” opined Dr James.
Dugong hunted down too?
Besides the whale shark, is the Dugong – a ‘Totally Protected Species”, in trouble too?
At about 3pm Friday, 11 April 2014, staffs and guests of a resort operating at Mantanani Island found a decomposing 1.5m long Dugong carcass floating not far from the island, Dr James said.
“Mr Zamzani Pandikar Amin said the dead dugong , with no obvious external injuries on the body , could be one of the 12-15 animals that were grazing on the sea grass at shallow reefs around Mantanani .”
“ But villagers of Kampung Mantanani Island and Kuala Abai mentioned to me that the dugong (Dugong Dugon spp) was caught by fishing net, and the owner decided to dispose it ,” Dr James said. “Not only that, most Bajau Ubian and Irranun fishermen in the areas obey their Bombon system (customary laws governing marine, estuary and inland fisheries) which prohibits intentional harming and killing of the Dugong and so they know the taboo,” the Ketua Adat told me.
This time, a dolphin beached itself
After the dugong, a listless dolphin spotted near Kudat a month ago ago suggests something might be troubling this charismatic species too.
On 18 September 2014, a group of fishermen found a pregnant dolphin at the shallow waters near Tajau Laut village, just 10 days after the whale beaching at Kapitangan village, Banggi, Dr James reported. “At noon the next day, the Kudat Turtle Conservation Society (KTCS) confirmed that it was still alive (see picture).
“But sadly, we could not do much , the local fishermen also tried few times to guide the dolphin back to deep water but the dolphin kept returning to the shallow water, the animal was stressed , with both eyes closed, really sad,” grieved Francesca ( Advisor to KTCS).
“That evening the animal was stranded by low tide; the Wildlife Rescue Unit had tried their best to rescue , unfortunately it died the next day,” Dr James said.
Dr Louisa (with WRU) from MareCet identified the dolphin as a Rough-Toothed (steno Bredanensis spp), based on its unique sloping forehead.
“She noticed that the dolphin had red spots that could be due to injury from scratches, and scars on the dorsal fin indicate that it was not too young. Dr Diana Ramirez told me that her team would conduct a necropsy on the carcass and then hand it over to the Borneo Marine Research Institute, UMS,” Dr James related.
Cause of death more than just plastics?
“By Monday 22 September , the Sabah Wildlife Department sent an update via social media network to WWF-Malaysia and wrote as follows:
“Our post mortem revealed that the dolphin has a piece of plastic (ring below a PET bottle, 5cm diameter) in her stomach and she has not been eating for a long time. She also has poor lung condition.
That is why she was probably too weak and got stranded. The main cause could be the plastic, I believe…”
“Which may not be quite the end of the story,” according to Dr James.
“On Saturday, 20 september , some villagers who participated in the Simpang Mengayau International Beach Clean Up and the Sustainable Seafood Competition, told me a rumour circulating in the village that that the poor dolphin was caught in a Rantau (trawl net) used by artisan fishermen !” Dr James related.
How else would one explain those long red marks on the skin?
Dr Julian Ransangan said his team is still analysing the ID of the dolphin.
But was the dolphin caught in a fishing net off Tajau Village, Kudat, a ‘discard’- that part of the catch not originally targeted but was caught and discarded? Dr James asked.
Why discard it if it were edible?
Who was there to know in a no man’s land or who was there to punish him if has developed a penchant for wild meat?
Or was it an ‘Incidental Catch’as defined in fisheries as part of the catch which was caught and retained anyway or was it a ‘By Catch’ defined all species caught apart from the targeted species?
Back to the Sept 30 Daily Express report entitled ‘ Whale ends up in Banggi’ with captioned picture ‘The whale stranded in Pulau Banggi.’
“By the evening the story the story was on TV1 and the newscaster said the animal was ‘stranded’.
“But it was not accidentally stranded like what happens sometimes to the ferry plying between Kudat and Banggi. Instead it ‘beached’ itself near Lok Tagtang .But here is what actually happened the day after it was discovered,” Dr James related.
The story in Banggi
“ On Monday morning 29 september 2014 , tide was high so some fishermen from Kapitangan village , about 20km from Karakit, main administrative hub of Banggi, struggled to push the submerged whale back to the deeper water,” Dr James reported.
“ But as soon as the the villagers moved that heavy creature on its way, it nosed back for shore as if it were ready to die !” Dr James reported.
“Late that evening , under heavy rains, members of the Banngi Youth Club went to the site, but alas, the whale was already dead,” he said.
“The expected rscuers did not arrive so the villgers decided to bury it not far from where it beached itself (see picture), Dr Louisa from MareCet said .
“ My friend who is a baleen expert in the USA said it could be a Bryde’s Whale after looking at the pictures.”
The story in Kuala Penyu – a Fin whale
The latest Banggi saga reminded him of another “sad experience” witnessing personally a 15.8m (51.8ft) Bryde’s (pronounced broodess) whale (broodess) Balaenoptera edeni spp, (see picture) dying at the Pitutan mudflat about 2km away from Kuala Penyu rown, on 1 August 2012.
“During high tide, members of the public , Department of Fisheries and the Fire Services Department tried rescuing it. They towed it away to deeper water but alas, it returned to the same spot where it had beached earlier to die and later buried at a nearby beach,” Dr James related.
Fin whale in Pulau Mengalum
Both Bryde’s (Broodess) whale and the Fin whale are deep ocean swimming whales.
Yet between 2006 and now, we have seen a series of this species beaching itself in Sabah, Dr James pointed out..
After examining the 15.8m (51.66f) carcass in Kuala Penyu, the experts believed it’s the same species as the 13m (42.6ft) carcass found lying on the beach of Mengalum Island in February 2012.
The massive Bryde’s whale that stranded in KK
So far, nothing beats the massive 26m (85.68ft) Bryde’s whale returned to die at Lok Urai, Gaya Bay , five minutes from Kota Kinabalu City centre, on 15 December , 2006, after being towed into the South China Sea from its stranding near Gaya Island the previous night !
Fearing its decomposition would foul up Gaya Bay , the Fisheries Department actually towed the carcass far into the South China Sea to let it rot itself down naturally.
But after a public suggestion through the Daily Express that its huge skeleton would make a perfect touristic attraction, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman instructed the Fisheries Department to retrieve the carcass for cleaning.
That was done in Sepanggar Bay where Department Director Datuk Rayner Stuel Galid and his late deputy, Rooney Biusing played an active part.
Interested readers can go and see this mammoth 85.68ft Bryde’s whale skeletal exhibit at the Sabah Museum foyer . The Daily Express followed the carcass retrieval and cleaning process right up to its final installation at the Sabah Museum.
Whale identity more subtle than you think
Identification whales that beached and died proved a tie consuming task.
“It took the Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMRI) of Universiti Malaysia Sabah two years to complete the DNA analysis together with analysis of fatty acid and heavy metal compositions of the whale tissues and discovered surpriringly that the whale that died in Kuala Penyu on 1 August 2012 was not a Bryde’s whale but a Fin Whale Balaenoptera Physalus spp ! “ Dr James noted.
The little difference between Bryde’s and Fin whales
So what’s the subtle difference between a Fin Whale and a Bryde’s Whale that’s often confusing to the average laymen?.
“The Fin Whale is described as large, slim and streamlined, with an asymmetrical color pattern while the lower jaw and most of the baleen is white on the right side and dark grey on the left side,” he said.
“Head wise, it is narrow and V-shaped from above while the dorsal fin is very small and triangular set far back on the body.”
“ Status wise, it is listed on CITES appendix 1, menaing uncommon; its numbers depleted by whaling, therefore critically endangered and protected by law.”
“Habit wise, it swims in deep, offshore waters, sometimes in coastal regions and feeds on crustaceans, schools of small fish , or squids, by lunging and gulping, often rolling on one side,” Dr James said.
The Bryde’s (Broodess) Whale , on the other hand, is at best, medium sized , slim bodied, with narrow V-shaped head which features prominent ridges on the snout, small but prominent dorsal fin either erect of slightly angled backwards and color wise, baleen black,” Dr James said, quoting ‘A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico, written by Fiona Reid (1997). published by Oxford University Press pp305-6.
Status wise, Bryde’s Whale is listed on CITES appendex 1, recovering from previous hunting pressure but not common, he said.
Bryde’s whale are found mostly in deep oceanic waters , seldom near coasts and they like temparate , mid latitude regions of the world.
So when they cruise into Sabah’s shallow beaches, something has gone wrong.
The frustrating mystery; Why?
The frustration part is the cause remains a mystery.
No body can categorically say why.
Less curious is, every time a whale is stranded in Sabah, the natural question is what species. “ I wonder what life is like for a taxonomist without DNA analysis,” Dr James said.
“ Species identification is a serious matter, it cannot be done by just looking at close up picture, physically examine a carcass whenever or just reading a Field Guide. We have to wait for the Borneo Marine Research Institute to do that test, that is, if they have enough fundinmg to do it, because a comprehensive genetic analysis or phylogenmtic relationshipamong the already collected specimens of whales and dolphins will cost around RM100,000 to RM150,000,” Dr.James quoted Dr Julian Ransangan of the Borneo Marine Research Institute, UMS.
“Until then, the rumour mill will continue to spew all sorts of bogus diagnosis or wild guesses in terms of species or even why whales and dolphins beach themselves.”
Killer whales sighted off Layang Layang
“But are there any other whales species found in Sabah?” Dr James asked.
Yes, he said , quoting from The Sea Encyclopedia of Malaysia – edited by Onh Jin Eong and Gong Wooi Khoon, 2001).
“ Three pods of killer whales were sighted in Maly 1996 pasing Layang-Layang Island .
That same year, a 6-metre (19.68ft) Curvier’s Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris spp beached itself at Mimpian Jadi beach , Tuaran,” Dr James recalled.
“Similarly, the villagers who found it, tried to rescue it during high tide but sadly the animal swam back to the shallow water and died a few hours later, and its skeleton is now part of the exhibitionat the UMS marine museum, ” Dr James related.
A Curviar is stocky with concave forehead, often a pale or whitish head, with a V-shaped groove on the throat, sound in deep , off shore waters and list in Appendix II of CITES. – Kan Yaw Chong
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