ANGER AT SLAUGHTER OF RAYS
Divers shocked by fishermen killing endangered species on Pulau Mabul
TOURISTS to an island off the coast of Semporna on Sunday were shocked to witness a mass slaughter of more than a dozen endangered sea creatures.
Foreign visitors were stunned by the sight of 15 live giant rays — including a manta ray species listed as “vulnerable to extinction” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Redlist — being “finned” next to Big John’s scuba dive lodge on Pulau Mabul.
The rays had been transported to the island on boats by fishermen living in a water village next to the lodge.
Horrified tourists, who were mostly divers, took pictures of the fishermen cutting off the rays’ pectoral fins and uploaded them to social media, where they went viral and earned the ire of Netizens and marine conservationists .
Sabah Shark Protection Association chairman Aderick Chong told the NST that one of the manta rays slaughtered was an oceanic manta (Manta birostris), while others were Devil Rays.
The oceanic manta is the world’s largest species of ray and is on the verge of extinction. It is protected under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
“I was saddened to learn about this, especially after the steps taken by the Fisheries Department to protect these animals.
“Many tourists come to Sabah for our unique wildlife, and we urge the complete protection of these animals. More protection will not only ensure the health of our oceans, but will also safeguard our tourism industry.”
He said there was a need to come up with ways to provide alternative livelihoods to fishermen in Semporna, and to make it understood that endangered marine animals were more valuable alive than dead.
“We need to ensure that some of the revenue brought to the area through tourism reaches parts of the community (whose only livelihood is fishing for these creatures).”
In Sabah, only whale sharks and sawfish are listed as “threatened” under the Fisheries (Control of Endangered Species of Fish) Regulations 1999 of the Fisheries Act 1985.
The Fisheries Department has proposed that four shark and two ray species, which have been listed under Cites, be categorised as “threatened” under the act.
The shark species are the great hammerhead shark, smooth hammerhead shark, winghead shark and oceanic white-tip shark, while the ray species are oceanic manta and reef manta.
Until the protection of these species is put in place, catching them in Malaysian waters is not against the law.