Curb illegal fishing at Tip of Borneo, Sabah Parks urged
Published on: Thursday, May 23, 2019
By: Leonard Alaza
KUDAT: The recent discovery of a dolphin with superficial wounds on its body has prompted a group of tour operators and conservationists to call on Sabah Parks to have a permanent presence at Tip of Borneo in Tanjung Simpang Mangayau to curb illegal fishing activities.
The group who calls themselves the Tip of Borneo & Tun Mustapha Park Tourism and Conservation Association said it is high time the conservation-based statutory body stationed its enforcement team in the area to crack down on such activities.
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“Our association is calling on Sabah Parks to move there as soon as possible. Actually they have a site there already.
What we’re asking is they speed up stationing of their personnel there,” said the association’s spokesman, Tommy Lam.
The dolphin, measuring two metres, was sighted at 7am by a dive instructor and tour operator staff in shallow water near the beach not far from Tommy’s Place, a private lodge. It was said to be weak with some superficial wounds on its body.
“They noticed there were superficial wounds on its body which looked as if it had been trapped in a fishing net but managed to free itself,” he said.
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The rescuers informed Sabah Parks which instructed them to release the dolphin back to the sea. The Wildlife Rescue Unit also deployed a team to the area.
But, he said, the rescuers found it strange that it did not want to swim out to the open sea but instead kept coming back towards the shore.
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“They tried to release the dolphin back to sea many times but it kept swimming back towards the beach,” he said, adding the dolphin was described as skinny.
It took the rescuers more than four hours before the dolphin finally swam out to the open sea and did not return.
But the marks seen on the dolphin’s body and its strange behaviour have caused the association to feel concerned about human activities around the Tun Mustapha Marine Park.
“Obviously something must have happened to the dolphin. Otherwise, why would it have those marks on its body and display such a strange behaviour?” he said.
Lam said dolphins are often sighted in the waters off the Tip of Borneo.
There have been many reports about carcasses of dolphins, small whales and sharks being sighted on beaches in the State, with the most recent one in Likas Bay in March.
It was reported few years ago that a three-metre dolphin died days after it beached and left a disturbing tale. A total of 4.25kg of plastic rubbish was found in its belly during post mortem. Before it died, the dolphin gorged 21 small plastic bags, 11 plastic sheets, one plastic detergent and a six-metre tape line.
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