Compare and contrast, and guess which is the tourist accommodation.
Click to enlarge.

Photos from eastern Sabah and the Sulu Sea.

Don’t you just wish you were me?

Alas though, this month sees the end of our 18 month sojourn in Sabah. My husband has taken another job, at the National University this time. We are returning to our home in the Peninsula, far from the sea (sob).

Back to rush hours that last all day and traffic jams that never end. Back to the heat of a city and the dust of endless construction.

Back to where sunsets are never like these.

Sabah, I love you.

Pix 1: the poacher’s boat – carved out of a single piece of rainforest driftwood, with cross pieces then inserted. The paddle is another single piece of wood.

Ok, now let’s see if I can get all the photos downloaded properly today – and then I shall my blog anzeigen in einem neuen Fenster. Read yesterday’s blog post first, if you haven’t already done so.
[No idea why Blogger has decided to test my German when I post. At least I have learned a new word: Tastaturkürzel It sounds like a root vegetable, but it actually means those keyboard control shortcuts]

Pix 2: The crew of the outrigger, all brothers. They reckoned the younger ones were 8 and 11, but I think that was a ploy to gain sympathy. The younger one was probably more like 11 or 12. Here their names and details are being recorded by the park staff, while they anxiously observe what is being done to their boat.
Pix 3: a pile of confiscated wooden dugouts.

Pix 4: My husband with part of the catch: octopus.

Pix 5: the fish they catch then use as bait for the larger ones – Moon Wrasse.

And they do catch big, expensive fish too.

Pix 6 shows some more bait: that “jelly fish” has a large hook and nylon line inside. The handsome guy is Dr Hamid, one of the senior staff from the Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation at University Malaysia Sabah.

So what happened to the poachers? The man had his boat added to the confiscated pile. The boys were made to stand on the boat and be photographed holding some of their catch. The fish that were still alive were released. The others – most of them anyway – were eventually returned to them.

Then all four of them were set to work carrying large gunny sacks, with orders to clean up the flotsam rubbish on the beach.

I think some of their equipment may have been confiscated; not sure about that. After the cleanup, they were released with the outrigger and strict instructions not to return to fish inside the park boundaries. (The outrigger, by the way, has a propeller powered by a pump engine, for use in emergencies.)

The only people who can fish inside the park are the few who lived there before the park was gazetted. More about some of them next time.

Most of the poachers are the Sea Gypsies (Orang Perahu) a sub-group of the Bajau Laut peoples. (Laut means sea). Originally many of them came from Philippines where they were made unwelcome. They are often stateless, living on their boats, sometimes on houses built out to sea (more about that soon too) or on temporary huts built at the shoreline somewhere. Many of them are not poor – not in the sense of starving or without money. Those large fish and octopus fetch good money.

Hassled, they move on, roving throughout the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas, living a life at sea … given a chance to put down roots, many of them would not accept, although they would like to have some kind of legal status somewhere.

Before the Sabah Parks moved into this area, poachers were devastating the corals with bombs and other unlawful, wasteful and STUPID methods (not all of them non-Malaysians, either). One guy I know, doing research work on the reef, was almost killed by a bomb while he was diving. I have no sympathy for poachers.

Or do I?
Suddenly they have a face. Three young people roaming the sea with a wok of tapioca and a hold full of fresh seafood – and they didn’t look so very different from me as a kid, running wild every summer, fishing around Mandurah in Western Australia.
Life is complicated.

Pix 1: the Sabah Parks boat comes in with a poacher’s boat slung across the back, and the owner on board.

I loathe poachers. I have seen too much of the damage they have done, and the callous way they tend to treat their environment, in this case the marine environment – fish bombing, cyanide poisoning, dragging nets over corals, and so on. And far, far too often I have witnessed the enforcement authorities turn a blind eye.

Pix 2: A second poacher’s boat is being shepherded to shore with a crew of three

[Please don’t now tell me that what they do is nothing compared to the legal depredations of big business and developers. I know that.]

Pix 3: poacher’s boat. Note the back far corner…

Well, while we were in the Semporna Islands we witnessed the enforcement authorities at work, not only doing their job but doing it strictly, yet with compassion.
Yes, that’s a fire on board the boat. They were cooking their tapioca in the wok (now removed from the fire). The burning wood rests on a piece of metal sheeting. Doubtless they would have thrown their catch on to the fire when the tapioca was cooked.

I actually had downloaded a stack of other photos (which takes time because I don’t have broadband) and when I scrolled down this far, I found they had all vanished. So you are going to have to wait until tomorrow for the rest of the story of these poachers…

Sometimes Blogger can be very hard to manage. And does anyone know why half the directions for my postings are now auf Deutsch????

Actually the real name of the Marine Park is the Tun Sakaran Marine Park (the name of a past political leader), but I didn’t actually hear anyone call it that…

We went there courtesy of Sabah Parks, able to stay in their facilities, taken by their staff in their boats – a real privilege not given to the public. We were part of a scientific team from the university (UMS). I cannot thank the Park Staff enough for this wonderful experience.

The islands of the park are mostly part of an ancient volcanic rim; the crater is now filled with sea water and corals. The island we stayed on is called Bohey Dulang, or Water Tray. That picture of a rock on the beach near where we stayed (taller than a man) is part of the volcanic evidence…

The first pix are the whole park area from a distance, then closing in…

People who lived in the park before are permitted to stay and use the seas in sustainable ways; fishing is not permitted by outsiders.

The red-roofed building at the foot of the cliffs is the Sabah Parks complex, where we stayed.

Today’s post is just to whet your appetite. More to come…

Leaving for the islands in the next hour. Well, actually I have to give the workshop in Kinabalu National Park and World Heritage Site first. We will be staying in the Warden’s cottage for 2 nights, and then on to Sandakan for one night, and Semporna the next day.

Then three nights in the islands – Bodhey Dulang Island (literally Water Tray Island) followed by Sipadan. Unlike the normal tourist these days, we will be staying overnight at the latter dive site. Especially interesting to me because of the birds… And the snorkelling. I don’t dive and have never had any wish to learn.

The blue line is our route across North Borneo…and to think when I first came here, too many years ago to count, there was no way of driving across the island.

I will be back next Tuesday, and may manage to get online in between whiles, but don’t bank on it.