Safeguarding fishing sector
Published on: Wednesday, September 04, 2019
By: Sherell Jeffrey
KOTA KINABALU: The State Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry is looking into introducing a Fisheries Enactment which enforces protection and conservation efforts on ocean habitats and marine life.
It would include stiffer action on fishbombers, who recently were suspected of causing three deaths in Semporna.
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Its Minister, Datuk Junz Wong (pic), said they will look into this once the Sabah Agriculture Blueprint which is already at its final stage of implementation is done.
The Fisheries Enactment will be the Ministry’s second phase of undertakings which still needs a lot of studying and research on what needs to be protected.
Among list of things which will be looked into include the size of fishes that can be caught, the size of crabs that can be sold, the size of lobsters and whether sharks should be included in the Enactment, etc.
“We must have our laws because now we can only tell people not to catch but there is no law to enforce it,” he said after attending a meet-the-people session at SK Pulau Gaya, Tuesday.
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On shark protection, he said a lot of hotels in Sabah are not really serving shark fin anymore and for people to be eating shark fin in the State is not an issue.
He said it goes back to the very fundamental issue which is Sabah don’t have its own Fisheries Enactment.
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“It all goes to the Federal, the Federal Government is the one calling the shots, whether we should protect this 18 species or all the sharks. But since shark fin is not really served in Sabah, I don’t see any problems in Sabah supporting protection of the 18 shark species. Maybe now we are not looking into the species, but maybe later when the enactment comes we will then do more studies on the species and the Cabinet will decide,” he said.
He pointed out that the argument is actually on trawlers which will also be among matters which his Ministry will be looking into.
He said a lot of destruction on marine life and corals are caused by trawlers which do not comply with the stipulated netting size, etc.
He also said that they are in the process of introducing heavier penalties on fish bombers.
“We are considering what penalties for those who possess fish bombs as well, perhaps imposing criminal charges instead of just revoking their fishing licenses,” he said.
On another matter, he also talked about the possibility of relocating the Koporasi Pembangunan Desa to Kinarut where a bigger land can accommodate an international bazaar taking into consideration the current site in the city centre where traffic congestion can be an issue.
He said this is a good possibility but again it needs approval from the Cabinet.
On power theft involving RM45,000 monthly losses in Tanjung Aru, he acknowledged that the issue does happen.
“Not only power theft but also water theft happens, and as the government we are constantly making efforts and studies on how to solve this,” he said.
In terms of power theft, he said most important is for Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to be handed over to the State.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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