Crisis over crustacean

Size matters: Lobsters measuring less than 6cm must be thrown back into the sea as they are too young.

THE monsoon season is usually off-limits for deep-sea fishermen due to strong water current that make it difficult or even dangerous for them to go out to sea.

Also hiding from the strong current are marine crustaceans, such as the mud spiny lobsters (panulirus polyphagus) that migrate from the deep oceans into the shallows.

The season is a much-awaited one for shoreline fishermen in Johor as this lobster species is their main catch during this period.

The shoreline fishermen at Tanjung Penyusop, in Kota Tinggi, are particularly dependent on it to bolster their income.

However, the catch has been dwindling for the past few years, and the fishermen are understandably worried.

Though they are now getting almost double the price for a kilogramme – from RM80 10 years ago to RM150 now – the catch has dropped drastically to just a quarter of what it was two decades ago (see sidebar).

Sahroney Mohd Noh, 37, said these lobsters used to come up to the sandbanks, and even children were able to catch them by hand.

“I started catching lobsters when I was about 13 years old.

“Back then, we did not need a boat to go out to sea to place bait inside the lobster trap,” he said when met at the Tanjung Penyusop beach.

“We could just come down to the beach here, look under a rock and we would find mud spiny lobsters of all kinds and sizes,” he said.

He added that in the past, the crustaceans were in abundance as they were not a popular seafood like they had become today.

The third generation lobster fisherman said lobsters used to be every fishing family’s backup food supply when they could not go out to sea during the monsoon season.

“It is funny how time changes things. The lobster could not be sold for a single sen back then, but now it has become my source of income to put food on the table for my family,” said Sahroney.

Norizam Amir Hashim, 37, decided to become a lobster fisherman 15 years ago, due to the increase in demand for the crustacean.

“I used to sell fish at the local market but due to the high demand for lobsters then, I decided focus on catching the latter.

“But over the years, the population of lobsters in the area dropped,” he said.

Norizam believed the drop was due to the ongoing development in the area which he claimed had polluted the waters around Kota Tinggi.

Fishermen in the area now have to spend more time to catch lobsters as mature ones are harder to get, he said.

“I usually set my trap in the early morning and go out again in the afternoon to check it and collect what I have.

“We release the smaller ones back into the water and only keep the large ones.

“But these days, catching large lobsters is getting harder as their numbers have dropped.

“We often find only smaller ones in our trap,” he said, adding that some fishermen have resorted to selling young lobsters due to the shortage.

Fisherman Mohd Yazid Jasimin, 41, said the price of lobster was about RM150 per kilogramme now, but they would often control how many were caught in a day.

“Fishermen here are aware of the conservation efforts and they will release lobsters that are too small.

“Once we have our target amount for the day, we will return to shore and sell our catch to restaurants nearby,” he said, adding that there was a huge demand from seafood restaurants and hotels in Kota Tinggi.

The lobster season will usually start in December and end in March every year due to the rough water currents in South China Sea, added Mohd Yazid.

Pengerang Fishermen Association board member Razak Nahar, 57, hoped that the government would increase lobster conservation efforts in Kota Tinggi.

“We are not opposing the development, but conservation efforts must also be done so that these two elements can co-exist and create a balanced ecosystem.

“There are also cases of industrial and shipping wastes being dumped into the ocean that has impacted the population of lobsters in these waters, because these crustaceans depend highly on clean water to survive,” he said.

Razak said the lobsters’ habitat was destroyed when large cargo ships dropped their anchors on coral reefs.

A lobster shop owner in Pengerang, Noorfarahana Seman, 34, said the shop received daily shipments of about 10kg of lobster per day, worth over RM1,000.

“The current market price is around RM150 per kilogramme, but consistent supply is difficult to obtain because fishermen are finding their catch getting smaller.

“They told me that the main reason is due to dirty waters, so the lobsters have moved away from their normal feeding grounds in search of cleaner waters,” she said.

In a restaurant, one lobster is priced at about RM16 per 100g (baby lobster) and RM21 per 100g (mature lobster) excluding cooking charges. The price of grade A lobster is set at RM150 per kilogramme and grade B lobster at RM105 per kilogramme.