GOING out to the sea is becoming more challenging for coastal fishermen in Gelang Patah, Johor, who are blaming the changing weather patterns for their predicament.
Fisherman Faidarus Abd Rahim said weather patterns and atmospheric conditions were fairly predictable in the past.
“But today, we can’t totally rely on the weather forecast,” he said when met at the Kampung Pendas Laut Fishermen Jetty in Gelang Patah.
Faidarus, who started going out to sea at the age of 13, said due to climate change, weather conditions were hard to predict.
He said for generations, the Malaysian fishing community’s lives and livelihoods had been defined by seasonal monsoon winds.
“This knowledge is passed down from our grandfathers to our fathers and from us to our sons,” said Faidarus.
He said the prawn population would usually flourish during the southwest monsoon, typically occurring from late May or early June until September.
However, he said prawns were hard to come by this year.
Faidarus said this was unlike what fishermen in Pontian in the west coast and Sedili in the east coast had experienced as they enjoyed bountiful catches.
“On Oct 1, I only managed to harvest about 11kg of prawns from 6am to 10am,” he said.
Basirun Salikun agreed that climate change and shifting weather patterns had impacted the marine life breeding cycle.
“Gelang Patah coastal fishermen are usually blessed with plentiful crabs, prawns and fish from August to September but not this year,” he said.
Basirun, who has been a fisherman for 43 years, attributed this phenomenon to wind patterns.
He said warmer seawater was not ideal for marine life, and they would have probably moved to cooler climes.
“Even low and high tides at Gelang Patah seem to have changed in recent years,” he said.
“I find that the time between high and low tide phases seems to have shortened,” he claimed.
“We depend on the sea for our livelihood, regardless of changing weather patterns, as this is the only job we know,” he added.
