8.5 km of Nyalau River survey on 9 Oct 2010.
Our survey team at Sg Nyalau : Sim, Affendy, Nazeri, Musa, Zeana. Sara took the photo so was on the opposite side of the picture. Photo by SW.
Our humble abode for the nite of CFZ. Photo by NA.
Jetty/Berth Location: Affendy Jetty. Location: 3°38'27.39"N 113° 33'08.20"E
Nyalau is 136 km Southeast of Miri and was once a well known fishing village. It used to be only accessible from the sea. The majority of people living there are the Brunei Malay. Since the opening of the new alternative road to Bintulu the place is now easily reached via this new road. My mother used to tell me a story of my great grandfather who was a fisherman, who sailed with his small sail boat to Nyalau from Miri. He related stories of meeting Nyalau folks bartering rice with dried sea products. It was during my younger days that I wanted to visit this place. In those days, rivers and seas were the only mode of connection between people living along the coast.
Most of the estuarine villages became quite well known. People took shelter in these villages and traded with the occupants along the way.
It is also well known that Kuala Nyalau is a great place for fishing. The fish there were reputedly stonger and more powerful than many other surrounding rivers nearby.
Sg Nyalau is one of the rivers on the list for our CFZ survey. A week earlier I was here to make arrangement for a boat and accomodation for the MNS Miri Branch survey party. I took the opportunity then to bring my son and his friends to fish for barramundi and mangrove jack. There were other people doing the same too. While fishing we saw an egret, a Collared Kingfisher and an Asian Black Hornbill flying among the casuarina trees nearby. We heard a sudden big splash from the other side of the rivermouth, apparently a crocodile was seen jumping out of the water probably trying to catch a bird flying across.
Last Saturday the MNS Miri bRanch team comprised of Sara, Zeana, Sim, Nazeri. Each was assigned a particular task while on the boat. Sara was assigned to record our encounter on the logbook. Zeana was assigned to record our GPS position and that of the display trees. I am to take water pH, temperature and density. Nazeri was to catch firefly sample and Sim to secure collected samples into labeled bottles. That nite, we had Affendy Gudang from the village as our boatman.
We started our survey at 6:33 pm. The sky is still bright with a low thin cloud. While waiting for darkness to come, we slowly maneuvered up river with a 15hp Yamaha outboard motor. The water pH is 5 and air temperature is 26.3° C and water temp was 25.8° C. The wind is gently blowing, the reason why most of the display firefly is positioned just above water, slighly below the tree lines where the wind is at its lowest speed. The first single firefly was detected at WPT 232 at 6:35pm.
Sim and Sara admiring a particularly interesting display tree along our traverse. Photo by NA.
While going up river our concentration was on the fireflies display. We only happen to see two crocodiles, when Affendy pointed them to us. The river is lined up with nipah trees and sporadic bakau and berembang trees. The only other fauna at the river are mosquitoes and small insects. We came across a Black-crown Night Heron and several unidentified bats flying away from us.
Thorughout the nite we can flashes of lightning hidden by heavy clouds. As we reach the 8 km mark, we were warned by the boatman that the river at this point to turn back due to high occurrence of submerged logs in the river. We read water ph at this point again that read pH 5 and water temperature of 25.4° C and air temperature at 25.5° C.
Cruising at slow speeds along Sg Nyalau, from the estuary to Kpg Nyalau Tengah. Photo by NA.
We backtracked and we noticed that the trees that bear fireflies did not diplay anymore. My experience tell me that bad weather is coming and that the reason the fireflies were a bit not showing off that night. On the way back we move a bit faster and the boat man is able to scanned the river with our powerful search light. We counted 25 crocodile along the way back.
Leaves of the Bakau Tree where the fireflies normally congregate. Photo by MM.
Typical vegetation along the river, fireflies were present on both the bakau trees and nipah palms. Photo by NA.
It was a surprise that most crocodile concentration is close to the river mouth. We saw two juveniles on the beach very close to teh house we rented.. We concluded our survey at 8:30pm.
While the girls are preparing dinner I went out to river mouth, to see the crocodile that we saw earlier from the boat. I saw the crocodile only few feet from the water's edge. It came close to investigate my LED headlight, probably mesmerised by the light, I did not bring a camera and slowly move back to take my camera that I left at the house. It look might be a 2 meter length crocodile. I got back to house as dinner was being served. We had papaya and noodles that nite mixed with canned anchovies and sambal prawn. Delicious!
Our plan to check out the beach after dark (for crocodiles and others) as well as a nitewalk to look for firefly larvae went to nought when heavy rain started minutes after dinner. What a waste!
The night was quite except for the humming of generators in the distance. The brushing of the coconut leaves against the zinc roof is sometimes annoying, but it was sort of quirky. The night is cool and we made sure the mozzies stayed well away with several smaking mosquito coils in the house. We all had a goodnite's sleep.
After breakfast we head straight to the beach. We found a crocodile track nearby. Nazeri and me tried our luck casting for barramundi. While casing there I could see the fine bubbles jus meter from where I was fishing. This is clearly bubbles made by a crocodile, as described to me by my geat grandfather.
While we fish Sara went out far to the river mouth bank where an old lady is fishing a mantis shrimp. She use a rattan thorn to fish the mantis out from a meter in the sand.
Zeanna and Sim were busy cleaning up the house in preparation for our departure, they joined us later for a short walk on the beach. We packed up and left Kpg Kuala Nyalau around 10am.
We reach Miri at 12:30 pm after a short recce excursion to Kpg Kuala Sibuti.
A tell tale sign of a crocodile, "I was here!" not 15 feet from where we slept the nite before. Photo by MM.
River Water Property:
Specific gravity 1.000
Water temperature of 25.8° C
Air temperature is 26.3° C.
We set off from the jetty 18:33hrs.
Fieldnotes Nyalau CFZ Firefly
Survey Date : 9th. October 2010
START Time: 18:35
COMPLETION Time: 20:03
PHYSICAL CONDITION:
a. Moon No moon
b. Weather 80% Cloud covered sky, and raining at end of survey.
Relative Humidity: Low
Temperature: Cold.
Water pH : 5
Specific gravity: At jetty 1.000
Wind : Slight breeze No Haze
c. River Condition Current: Fast moving down, Clear rain runoff water.
Boat used: Yamaha 5 hp.
Survey Average Speed 6 Km/hr. Tide: high
WPT Time Coordinate Side Amount
232 18:35 N3 38.417 E113 23.274 Right 1
233 18:38 N3 38.341 E113 23.410 Right 1
234 18:44 N3 38.204 E113 23.592 Right 1
235 18:45 N3 38.178 E113 23.624 Right 20
236 18:49 N3 38.172 E113 23.626 Right 20
237 18:52 N3 38.141 E113 23.660 Left 50
238 18:53 N3 38.116 E113 23.677 Right 50
239 18:54 N3 38.115 E113 23.678 Left 30
241 19:00 N3 37.935 E113 23.912 Left 20
242 19:00 N3 37.899 E113 23.903 Left 10
243 19:02 N3 37.792 E113 23.860 Right 5
244 19:03 N3 37.759 E113 23.866 Right 5
245 19:04 N3 37.731 E113 23.898 Right 30
246 19:05 N3 37.732 E113 23.922 Right 150
250 19:10 N3 37.770 E113 23.971 Left 20
251 19:10 N3 37.769 E113 23.997 Left 10
252 19:12 N3 37.695 E113 24.027 Left 5
253 19:12 N3 37.679 E113 24.030 Right 50
254 19:16 N3 37.582 E113 24.184 Left 10
255 19:17 N3 37.679 E113 24.192 Right 50
256 19:19 N3 37.702 E113 24.292 Flying 1
257 19:21 N3 37.654 E113 24.439 Left 150
259 19:26 N3 37.483 E113 24.349 Left 100
260 19:27 N3 37.425 E113 24.339 Right,Big tree 150
261 19:30 N3 37.385 E113 24.505 Left 20
262 19:32 N3 37.481 E113 24.553 Left 150
263 19:35 N3 37.574 E113 24.694 Left 20
264 19:44 N3 37.245 E113 24.904 Left 300
265 19:48 N3 37.130 E113 25.059 Left 20
266 19:49 N3 37.071 E113 25.044 Right 300
268 19:55 N3 36.792 E113 24.916 Right 150
269 19:56 N3 36.778 E113 24.925 Left 20
270 19:58 N3 36.781 E113 25.052 Left 50
271 19:59 N3 36.792 E113 25.093 Right 10
Article by Musa Musbah/MNS Miri/Oct 2010
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