MIRI: Despite the current rough weather at sea some fishermen still brave the waves hoping for some good catch.
Nevertheless, some think it is too dangerous to go offshore due to the sometimes inclement and unpredictable weather. These fishermen prefer to remain onshore.
A brief visit to Kampung Piasau Utara village and its jetty by New Sarawak Tribune on Wednesday morning found that more than 18 fishing boats were anchored there.
During the visit, four fishermen were seen mending their nets on the fishing boats anchored there.
“The recent weather was very rough and it hasn’t changed much,” revealed one of the fishermen, Mohamad Jalan, 65.
Mohamad was with his best buddy, known as “Boy”, 25. Both were sitting on the same boat, mending the nets, hoping that they could use it for another trip (fishing), the next day if possible.
Like many other fishermen here, when Mohd cannot go to the sea due to the bad weather, he usually mends and patches his fishing nets, which he has been doing over the past 40 years.
He has to do this to ensure his family continues to have food on the table.
“This act (mending and patching nets) has become my daily routine since I started becoming a fisherman 40 years ago.
“It is my livelihood; I need to provide for my family, no matter what,” Mohamad, a Melanau from Mukah, asserted.
Although the monsoon season is already here with heavy rains and thunderstorms, some of the fishermen still brave the weather to look for the best catch.
“This morning, we went off to Kuala Sibuti and around 4am we took off from Kampung Piasau Utara jetty using my boat which has a 40-horse power outboard engine and we managed to bring in some catch,” he said.
Amidst the weather which was not so good that morning, they managed to bring home a catch worth about RM200.
“Although there was a decrease in the catch, I was still happy because we still managed to put some food on the table for our families,” said Mohamad.
Located not far from Kampung Piasau Utara jetty and less than 200 metres away is a stall selling fresh prawns and fish.
The uncertain weather and rough sea have forced a 24-year-old local lad, who wished to be known as Hafiz, to remain onshore, selling fresh fish and prawns.
“The fresh prawns sell for RM14 per kilo depending on the sizes,” he said.
“With the ‘bubuk’(krill) season here once again, it is certainly something to help boost up our spirit in search for income despite the hardships and struggle during the pandemic’s conditional movement control order (CMCO).
“The krill season is usually between February and March,” Hafiz said.
