Bubuk Sungai Mukah
MUKAH: There’s an old Malay saying, “Tuah ayam nampak di kaki, tuah manusia tiada siapa tahu” which means you can tell the fate of a chicken from its claws but not so for human beings.
That’s what happened to a fisherman from Kampung Sungai Alo, Sufiyan Abri, when he and his friend found ‘bubuk’ (shrimp) in Sungai Mukah, a river near to their village, last Tuesday evening.
‘Bubuk’ is a major ingredient for making ‘belacan’ (shrimp paste) and ‘cencaluk’ (fermented shrimp), and it is one marine resource that is a source of income for fishermen when the season arrives.
“This has never happened in our river because ‘bubuk’ is in the sea. That day, my partner and I went down to Sungai Mukah around 6pm to catch freshwater shrimps (known as ‘paderk‘ by the local community) using a method called ‘memakak‘ (similar to scooping).
“While catching the ‘paderk’, we were surprised to find ‘bubuk’ in the river,” he said yesterday.
According to Sufiyan, it has been almost a month since seawater went up the Mukah River.
“The river does have its own ‘bubuk’, but the ones that we caught were from the sea (based on their appearance). And river ‘bubuk’ are rarely found. We managed to catch about 4kg,” said the 40-year-old who has been a fisherman since 2011.
Regarding the catch, he said, it was for personal consumption with some given to friends.
The discovery of the ‘bubuk’ by Sufiyan and his friend on Tuesday has gone viral on Facebook.
