Bringing back 'glitter' to Labuan fishing meet
Published on: Wednesday, May 06, 2015
Labuan: The Labuan International Fishing Tournament (LIF) regarded as a "star" event in the maritime-based tourism product – the National Water Festival, has lost its "glitter" – being downgraded to a "filler" event.Many who had been following the sea sport which was originally named "Labuan Sea Challenge" since 1997 lament the loss of the island's standing in the global fishing map.One of them said the organisers should take "active" interest and help restore the status of the event which now seem to be over-taken by the Sabah Anglers Association's annual tournament which offered bigger cash prizes totalling (RM60,000) and deep sea fishing challenger in its recently concluded competition.ADVERTISEMENT He recalled that the Labuan event previously offered prizes in cash and goodies of about RM80,000 and had the support of several private sponsors. But, this year, the cash prize money dropped to RM40,500 and the six-day event was trimmed to less than a day. The number of participants was lesser than before.The prestigious event of Labuan used to be participated by about 100 over anglers, including from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and locals due to the mouth-watering cash and the challenge posed in deepsea fishing at a distance of 165 nautical miles near Luconia Shoals.The most important aspect of the Labuan tournament was also that it had gained recognition from the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) and accepted as a qualifying round for the Rolex circuit competitions – this was when the tournament was held by Labuan Corporation and the local Anglers Association which is now defunct.Describing today's fishing tournament, a fishing enthusiast said: "It is no longer the same like before. The tournament seems to have lost its appeal to distant anglers and moving further down the rung. To me, it's the worse fishing show as the tournament, to cover its reduced scale, had been renamed as Safari Fishing which is less than a day event and nearer ashore at Veron Banks and Semarang area."ADVERTISEMENT He added that the public, including visitors, who came wanted very much to watch the spectacle of super-sized fishes on display "but there was no show because the teams left in the morning and returned late in the evening when many had waited and left, unlike before when the catchers would be landed and put on full display by mid-day.As a result, many were in the dark over the sizes of catches while ironical they knew better catch of the 85 kg grouper landing at the Sabah tournament.
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In the earlier tournaments here, Labuan has also landed catchers of 176 kg to 228kg thereby earning top marks from anglers as having good fishing grounds."But now with the game re-named as Safari Fishing it is doubtful that such history would be repeated here," he said.Some suggest that the fishing tournament should be "unbundled" from Water Sports Festival and held on a separate day and importantly not clashing with the tournament held in Sabah. The Sabah tournament this year was flagged off on April 22 while in Labuan on April 25 - this surely is not the good way to attract more participants to Labuan's events.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The National Water Sports Festival this year was organised by the Malaysian Tourism Ministry. Several of water-based events were held such as cross-channel swimming, round island kayak, stand-up paddle jetski (slalom), grease pole climbing, pillow fighting and battle of the bands.According to officials the event was a success attracting thousands with the positive impact felt by the hotel and food industry.