I had a chat with my office mate earlier today on my fishing. Among the things we chatted about was about my passion not for fishing but on conservation.
He told me that conservations are normally for the westerner, we Asian don't do such thing...
This is a very worrying sign...when probed further I found out the reason behind such attitude...lack of understanding on the importance of conservation...
Why in a 21st century Malaysia, such attitude still exist?
With so many campaign by the Government, Corporations, NGOs and even individuals on raising awareness towards conservation, one must be very naive not to understand right?
Well, as human we normally discards things or news that are not related to us. This may give us a clue on how much impact has all the campaigns managed to garner...also, it brings us to another question...are we using the right campaign towards the right group of people?
As for myself and my fellow angling enthusiast, the closest things related to us apart from our family is definitely our hobby...it's the one thing that brought us anglers together...
With that, I strongly believe that by relating conservation and fishing will have a much better impact on raising the awareness among anglers in the country...
Consider this...
Fact #1- Fishing is no longer as good now as it was back then...
Fact #2- More and more fishing spots disappear as development is reaching further and further towards what was once remote areas...
Fact #3- The size of the fish caught are considerably smaller...
Has all the fishes gone due to over fishing?
With all the development, are we reaching a stage where all natural fish habitat are replaced by buildings and roads?
As for the size of the fish, are they in some kind of evolutionary mode and reducing size in order to survive in a tougher environment?
I believe that as an angler, I have the responsibility to protect the fishes for future generation of anglers. It doesn't matter where one comes from...Europe, America, Asia...conservation is the responsibility of every single human on earth.....I may not be able to change the world on my own but that does not mean I can't try...
I myself started fishing without a single thought about the environment and the effect of fishing on the habitats. Fishing is a hobby I shared with my old man and when I first started, conservation was never in my mind. Why do I need to think about it when there are abundance of fish.
Why do I need to release a mother snakehead I caught? It's my catch and I have all the right to bring it home...even if I don't really eat the fish...and most of the time the fish would end up becoming cat food...
But exposure better understanding and awareness change the way I think.
I use to bring back all my catch regardless of size or whether or not I'm going to eat it. Now I've adapted "Catch & Release" practice.
I now understand that a mother snakehead need to be released back to ensure the survival of it's young. Without a protective mother, the young snakehead has no chance to survive in the harsh environment. No snakehead equals no fishing...as simple as that...
In trips to the river or sea, I teach my son that if we catch 2 fish and take only one back for a meal, the one we release will have a chance to reproduce and that in turn will give us more chances of catching more fish in the future.
All these seems a reasonable effort by an individual...and it was at first....that was until I went back to my old hunting ground over the weekend
-It was a place me and my son use to go and spent sometime together fishing for snakeheads. We use to catch between 6 to 7 snakehead a day, and that is just roughly about 2 to 3 hours of fishing. It's located within an abandoned oil palm estate that is waterlogged due to the development in the surrounding areas. The shades provided by the oil palm tree made it a nice place to hang out especially during the hot mid day sun...although the presence of wild boars may not be to your liking-
It has been a while since I paid a visit to the place so since I had nothing much to do on Sunday, I decided to pay my old hunting ground a visit. As I reached the place, I stood in horror at what I saw....what used to be a mini melting pot for swamp fishes has now turned into a dumping ground for rubbish. It seems some rubbish collector had found a quick way to dispose off rubbish without having to travel to the actual site. They must have made a huge saving in both time and operational cost by doing so...but they have also caused a huge environmental disaster to the place...
Rather then snakehead, it is now way easier to find an actual snake -a cobra was resting under one of the fallen branches during my visit- as the rubbish has attracted rodents and other pest. A group of wild dogs was also seen approaching the area and it was the clearest of indication that I should leave the place. You wouldn't want to be having a confrontation with them in the wild with only a fishing rod as weapon...
The condition of the place hurt me deeply, so deep that I had difficulties falling asleep that night. I used to complain that some irresponsible people are overfishing the surrounding swamps. This is simply far worse...
Could this have been prevented?
The answer to that is YES, it could...if there are awareness among anglers in the area of the importance of maintaining the place, I doubt anyone would dare to dump all the rubbish there. I remember the story of a group of anglers chasing a rubbish truck driver away from a swamp in another place to protect their fishing spots.
This shows that with awareness, not only we can save fishing spots but also helps in ensuring the survival of the fish species and the environment at the same time.
Now, it is my personal mission to spread the awareness. Like everything else in life, I'll start small focusing on those close to me. Through this blog, I hope that the awareness is reaching a wider audience not only here but everywhere in this planet we call home...
Ride On...Fish On...
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