Musa, Amet, Arol, Suria, Musalfie and 4 others
Jety/Berth Location: Kampong Beripat Niah. Location Location : N3°50'50.0" E113°45'30.3"
Survey River: Along Niah River from Kampong Berlipat to close to Niah Bazzar.
The 7 Km boat track of Niah River and Crocodile sighting location along the track.
This is another an opportunity for me to do firefly survey because my nephew in Tanjung Berlipat Niah invite me to Prawn Spearing session. This time of the year when the seawater reached this area and people take the opportunity to do prawn spearing. I have never attended this method of catching prawn and I thought about time to see how they do it.
So from Miri Suria and Arol were also invited to this session. We have no idea of what to expect, I only bring my catching net, GPS, Night vision Scope and Camera. We started late because Arol only come back from his work at 6pm. We started from Miri at 6:30 and reach Berlipat at 8:50pm.
When we reach Kampong Berlipat, Amet with his 4 gangs already waiting for us. He warns us not to bring any expensive equipment on the boat that might get destroyed. We are expecting the boat to get tumble in the river, and we could get wet. So we left all our precious belonging in our car.
Suria with the Night Catch
We borrow 2 boats from the village head and one belongs to Amet. The boat look small and there are 8 of us. I was so skeptical if the two boats can carry us. Before we board the boat, Amet brief us about crocodiles are plenty in the river. If we encounter them we should warn them and move to different location. He warns us not to mention word “Buaya” we should call it “Nenek” for respect. “We are encroaching their territories and we should respect them. And if we saw them we should move away because we are not going to compete with their food” he said. Hearing what he said my heart missed a beat.
The prawn spearing will be in two groups. We will be doing the prawn spearing on both side of the river.
Realising my body size is bigger than the other; He suggested I should be in the bigger boat. The bigger boat is just a foot longer that the smaller one, only 17 feet long and 3 feet wide.
Amet son with Ikan Kalui
After one of them hook up the 3.3 hp out boat engine in one of the boat. We are ready to go. The water level is very low. I thought I could walk down the riverbank and board the boat. Then I was to realise to get bogged in the mud knee deep, both my slippers cannot be retrieve. Very lucky my night vision scope is high hanging around my neck. I have to get the mud clean before boarding the boat. The GPS is in my pocket, is ok because it waterproof. Everyone laughs at my misfortune, it looks funny indeed with my leg and trouser filled with mud.
All 7 of us are on the boat with the engine. Two are in the next boat. Then Amet tied the other boat rope to our boat and we tow the other boat. Surprisingly our boat is stable and we could move quite fast, around 8-9km/hr. All along the way we see people are spearing prawn. I could see people on the boat and also people in the water. But what they are doing I could not see because we are just moving pass them.
I can only see a single firefly flying among the trees. I scan the riverbank for crocodile and the trees for fireflies. Each time we saw a crocodile Amet will tap on my back and whisper to me “nenek”, pointing his torch light to the crocodile. The crocodile eyes are red in normal torchlight. You can only see the eye, not much of the body. With the night scope I could see it body. Their eyes are bright in night vision scope and you can see the body clearly. Most of the crocodile I estimated to be about 3-4 feet long. Each crocodile seen I marked the WPT. There are 13 crocodile seen on this outing.
Spear gun used
We went up river toward Niah bazaar. According to Amet they have done the spearing last night around the kampong. We passed the Niah park Jetty at 9:18pm. At 9:41 we reach the area of our Spearing begin.
Gasah, Anyi abd Benson just come up from the dive
When we reached the intended area Suria and Arol boarded the other boat joining the other two. They paddle to the other side. Musalfie, Amet, me and the other two are with our boat on the right side of the river.
The 4 divers Having coffee break after whole night of diving
I watch as they unpack their equipment. It’s the home made spear-gun, a diving mask and a torch light. The spear-gun is home made powered by a strong bicycle inner bladder rubber. They can choose to use one layer of rubber, to 4 layers. It depends on what they want to shoot. For Ikan kaloi Osphronenemus goramy it need 4 layers of rubber, for prawn 1 layer is sufficient. One of the man plucks leaves from any trees at the bank of the river. He takes a lot of it. I wonder what the leaves for. Then all of them go down into the water and take the leaves. They crumbled the leaves with their hand and rub it into their face-mask to prevent fogging of the diving mask.
My job with Musalfie is to watch for crocodile and paddle the boat so that it within reaches to them. It was an eerie feeling to watch them diving in almost crystal clear water. What you see are bodies in the water with light. When they got deeper, its just an orange light you see in the water. Then suddenly you hear a splash with breathing sound and a shout. “Agang” Mean a big prawn, "betutu" or "Kaloi".
I should have my camera with me. Next time I am thinking to get their photograph when the catch is being display. Musalfie is to paddle close so that any one of them will drop the catch into the boat. I am seriously scanning for crocodile around us.
Suria and Arol sorting catch size then break them up in 8 shares so that it's fair
After Some 800 meters of riverbank been scanned by the divers, and all around dead tree that are in water are scanned and anything they see will be shot with the spear-gun. This include ikan Bantak (Osteochilus microcephalus) a kind of carp. They caught some Betutu (Oxyleleotris marmorata). Ikan Baung (Mytus nemurus) that has 3 posionous spines cannot escape their sharp eye. The spine have to be remove by breaking them with wood. A huge Belida (Notopterus borneensis) also known as knife fish are also caught. A few Toman Channa sp. were also found. Then I saw two bright eyes just meter from where they are diving. When they surface we called them to climb back to the boat. The panic climbing is dangerously swaying the boat.
We move to another location 0f the river as not to compete with the crocodile. We got plenty of catch. A scanning the river for 600 meters and the time is already 4:00 am next day they called it a day.
The other boat is also doing spearing the other side of the river with Suria and Arol are watching crocodile and paddling the boat for this group.
We reach Amet house at 4:30 am have an early breakfast. Suria and Arol is sorting the catch by categories of fish, prawn and sizes. Actually all have eight equal share. This is how these people divide their catch normally. Later we equally get our share of prawn and fish. We got around 2 kilo of catch each, not bad for the whole night of diving. I wonder how this young guy can stand the cold water and having all the energy. I was having nausea on the boat the whole night and then need to drive back to Miri. Reach Miri at 6:30. Not sleeping yet, just to catch up with this writing otherwise all the event of the night gone. Anyway it was an interesting moment making me feel young again.
The Fire fly survey was conducted by all in the team. If there is any they will notify me. Just unlucky this section of river does not have any Display tree.
I scanned ever trees along the track, there is no firefly found.
Date : 5th. March 2010
Field work START Time: 20:49
Field work FINISH Time: 23:26
PHYSICAL CONDITION:
a. Moon Phase
Last quarter, cloud covered, only seen early morning around 0200.
b. Weather
Dark cloud covered sky, Moon only seen early morning on Saturday.
Relative Humidity: Low
Temperature: Warm.
Water temperature 28.7 ° C
Air temperature 27.5 ° C
Wind : No Wind.
Haze : light
c. River Condition
Current: Not moving, Clear Sea water
A lot of people do spearing prawn.
Boat used : Yamaha 3.3 hp.
Survey Average Speed 6.5 Km/hr.
Tide: Low
At 20:55 sighted first single firefly at the left side of the river. The next single firefly was seen at 23:15. There is no display tree seen at this track. No mangrove or Gurah tree reported along the river according to Amet (my Nephew). For many years this section of river have already being cut and the original riverbank system have been destroyed and people have populated this area. The heavy used of motorboat many years to and pro from Niah Bazaar to the cave Jetty have destroyed the bank. The people who support the Niah Cave tourism, Bird nest and Guano collection also live along this river.
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