A sad day for Sabah, says clams expert
Published on: Thursday, April 17, 2014
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah should be worried sick about the future of the State's foundational marine resources following the shock seizure of 20 tonnes of endangered giant clam shells aboard a Vietnamese joint-venture vessel south of Pulau Mengalum, aquatic biologist Alvin Wong warned."The irrefutable proof that fishermen from a neighboring country continue to extract and deplete these already endangered species in such shocking volume is the final nail in the coffin for these awesome sessile giants inhabiting our shallow tropical seas," said Wong, the Project Director of Marine Ecological Research Centre (MERC), Gayana.The Centre takes pains to reproduce Giant clams for release back to the sea to help replenish the severely depleted wild stock - only to see it come to this. ADVERTISEMENT "Once we reduce their numbers in the wild to too few and too far apart from one another, Giant clams simply can't mate and so go extinct from sheer isolation in the wild."One study found that when a female Giant clam is releasing eggs, there must be another mature male of the same species not more than nine metres away releasing sperms at the same time in order to achieve 70 per cent chance of fertilisation," Wong pointed out. "Which means further than nine metres apart, the chances of reproduction diminishes and no chance at all if single individuals exist hundreds of metres apart. "We must remember that Giant clams are sessile (mobile in the larval stage but eventually fix themselves to one spot in the reefs for the rest of their life) and can't move around for mates. ADVERTISEMENT "So if there are no more clams around, they just have no chance to reproduce and at the wonton rate in which these creatures are harvested," he added. That's not all. The fact that they even take years to mature sexually is another concern.
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"On average, Giant clams take about 7-8 years to mature sexually first as male and another three years to be sexually active as female, that is, 10-11 years to be female." "And even if individuals eventually become hermophroditic, that is, possessing both male and female reproductive organs, the release of eggs and sperms are separate to prevent self fertilisation," Wong said. Wong also said the high value of Giant clam shells cited at RM200 each may intensify the motivation of fishermen to poach out the last giant clams from around Sabah's coasts."I hope that figure is not true as otherwise, the publicity around the confiscation of this huge cargo of illegal Giant clam loot may end up promoting and intensifying poaching the creature for turning the shells into ornaments, jewelry, medicine, cosmetics, etc, or exotic food such as the mantle and especially also the adductor muscles," Wong said."At MERC, we value Giant clams as an important species that is fast disappearing and we certainly don't do it for their commercial value. "We just reproduce them to replenish the wild stock in order to increase their population so that eventually they can regenerate on their own," Wong said."But at this rate of mortality and harvesting by Vietnamese vessels caught in the act, it disappoints us greatly because it takes so many years of hard work and cost to recover and one harvest like this can just obliterate huge numbers of clams that are probably between 20 to 50 years old as Giant clams an live up to 100 years ," Wong said.The Sabah Anglers Association warned a few years ago that the more experienced and aggressive Vietnamese fishermen went into joint ventures with local players for ulterior motives but these calls were ignored by the authorities, as is often the case. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The vessels were suspected to be hunting sharks and turtles and selling them off at sea while landing fish at the jetty here. Other wildlife species in Sabah whose numbers have greatly diminished over the years, raising concern among both conservationists and the tourism industry which depends greatly on these iconic creatures include the Sumatran rhino, the orang utans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants.