TRACC Borneo Volunteers

2.5.16

Sharing the Love of the Ocean: Newly Certified Divers and Ocean Outreach at TRACC

Fiedos and Ronald Gearing up!

Part of what TRACC does is encouraging the community to get involved with the ocean. Part of how TRACC does it is through subsidizing Discover Scuba Diving and Open Water Diving courses for community members and TRACC staff.

This week, we were pleased to certify two members of the police stationed on Pom Pom Island - Mohamad Firdaus Bin Baharum (Fiedos) and Ronalius Bin Kineal (Ronald.) Fiedos and Ronald happily shared their experience getting certified and their thoughts on the ocean with us.

"We see many fishing hooks and broken coral and the population of fish is sometimes low. Before this (diving) we liked the fishing, but when we joined TRACC we saw the sensitivity about the coral and the fish and it made us wake up! We do not want to go fishing here!" - Fiedos and Ronald

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Fiedos and Ronald Practicing Skills

Lark: How does it feel to be a newly certified diver?

Fiedos and Ronald: Feels good! (Smiles and laughter all around)

L: Have you enjoyed the Open Water Course?

F & R: So enjoyed the course and the new experience!

L: What is your favorite thing about diving?

F & R: We like to see the underwater creatures: turtles, Nemo’s, big fish, also the wreck.

F: It also makes me release my stress and I like the new experience. Now, I have a new skill, and I am so confident and comfortable in the water.

Fiedos and Ronald Enjoying the Dive!

L: Did you enjoying seeing the artificial reef TRACC has built on the open water dives?

F & R: Yes! There are more fish (on the artificial reef). When we dove we saw, one frogfish, and the leaf scorpion fish around the artificial reef. So nice!

L: How has your view of the ocean changed since becoming more involved with the ocean and diving?

F & R: We see many fishing hooks and broken coral and the population of fish is sometimes low. Before this (diving) we liked the fishing, but when we joined TRACC we saw the sensitivity about the coral and the fish and it made us wake up! We do not want to go fishing here!

L: Do you planning on continuing to dive in the future?

F & R: Yes! Hopefully we can take the Advanced Course and Rescue, and continue to dive. We want to go from 5 to 50 dives!

F: I hope I can be a Divemaster one day and if I have time I want to be a volunteer at TRACC. I have asked to be stationed on Pom Pom again in September, and if I am I will take the Advanced and Rescue with TRACC.

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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to TRACC are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

20.4.16

Palten Part 2 - Changing Ocean Perspectives at TRACC

Palten started working at TRACC about a year ago. In part two of our interview he shares some knowledge about what he’s learned from TRACC and how his view of the ocean has changed.

“What I want to do is show my family, the beautiful things to see underwater, so they can appreciate them, and how the conservation work would make their lives easier. Now I only tell the stories, when I can take them for a dive its better that they can see themselves.”

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Gon & Lark: Did you know about the work TRACC is doing before you started working at TRACC.

Palten: Before I started working here I did not know about TRACC. I only knew Miti (another TRACC staff from Kalapuan). When Miti paid me to make the bottle reef I asked Miti what it was used for. Miti said only to throw it the sea. I was curious about why. At that time I only did what Miti told me to do because of the money. When Miti told me about throwing the bottle reef in the sea I wondered what would happen after with the bottle reefs.

G & L: Now do you know why TRACC puts out the bottle reefs?

P: To effect the fish and because it is beautiful, and with more corals there will be more fish. Because we have planted all the corals there, the fish will have a place to sleep. If it’s just sand the fish will have no place to hide.

G & L: Since working at TRACC How has your view on the ocean and Marine Conservation changed? What have you learned since starting work at TRACC?

P: My view of the sea has changed after doing the conservation work because the people I dive with love the ocean and it’s life. Now, I also have the same view. I love the fish; some of them are so cute. Some people that dive with me, show me really beautiful things that I can see underwater and now I am really interested. I have seen most of them before, but I didn’t care before. Now I appreciate them. The more I see them the more interested I am. Before there were a lot of beautiful things, now I see something that is more beautiful and there are always new beautiful things every time I go diving.

G & L: Why do you think it is important to conserve the marine ecosystem?

There are many beautiful things in the ocean and many fish, this means we can fish them. Without the fish there is no food.

G & L: How would you spread the message of conservation to your family, the village of Kalapuan and the wider Bajau community?

P: I want to take my family diving to show them the beautiful things in the ocean.

G & L: What are your plans for the future?

P: If possible I want to be a Divemaster. To be a Divemaster at TRACC would be good. What I want to do is show my family, the beautiful things to see underwater, so they can appreciate them, and how the conservation work would make their lives easier. Now I only tell the stories, when I can take them for a dive its better that they can see themselves.

G & L: If you were not working for TRACC do you think you would go back to blast fishing?

P: If life becomes really hard, I will do whatever I can to support my family. Even bomb fishing. But since I started working at TRACC I do not want to be a fisherman again.

Read Part 1 of the interview!

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

Palten Part 1 - Former Fisherman to Aspiring Divemaster

Palten comes from the neighboring community of Kalapuan, just a 15-minute boat ride away from Pom Pom Island and TRACC. As a Bajau, he’s always fished and knows so so much about the ocean. At TRACC he’s a general handy man, doing all the things needed to keep camp afloat. He’s great with tools, boats, air compressors, kitchen knives, cement mixers, and just about everything else. He happily shared some of his vast knowledge with Gon and I about fishing and how his view of the ocean has changed since starting work at TRACC.

this is part 1. Read part 2 here-->

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Gon and Lark: I understand that fishing is part of the culture of the Bajau people and of Kalapuan. Can you tell me a little about the fishing methods of Kalapuan and your personal history fishing?

Palten: There are 44 ways of line fishing, more than 20 ways of net fishing, 7 ways to spearfish, traps for prawns and lobster, and Sahat traps for mantis shrimp. There is fishing with bare hands, compressor diving fishing, and bomb fishing.

To catch octopus we make a fake octopus and place it near another octopus and pull towards the surface on a line. The female octopus has small suckers on her arms and the male octopus has large suckers, if the octopus is pregnant it will have a bigger head (because of the eggs in their mantel).

To catch cuttlefish we dive down and look for the eggs. The cuttlefish always lay in the same area and when they deposit their eggs in the coral the adult cuttlefish guard the area for a few days and then disappear. A few days before the eggs hatch many of the adults come back. But very close to hatching the he really big cuttlefish will be near the eggs, this is when we catch the cuttlefish.

When we see a big school of fish we put a big net, maybe 100 meters with a 1000-meter rope, around the whole school and wait for the tide to go down. Then we pull pull pull to make a circle around the fish.

I know all the different ways to fish. I started to fish 15 years ago and now I am 23.

G & L: You mentioned bomb fishing as one of the ways to fish. Why did you use bomb fishing?

P: If the area is only one or two meters it is ok for using the net so we use the net. If the site is deep and a lot of coral we cannot use the net so we use the bomb. Nets can be used in open sea or sandy places. If we go net fishing and we find a big school of fish but there is a lot of coral in that place, it will destroy the net, so we go back another day with the bomb.

It is the easiest way to catch fish, because for bomb fishing because you get fish you didn’t see when checking out the place and it does not destroy the net.

G & L: Did you know about the effects of blast fishing at that time?

P: Yes – they break.

G & L: Did you think it was a problem?

P: No I didn’t. The coral is useless for us.

G & L: How did it feel to bomb fish compared with the other methods of fishing like net and line fishing?

P: The fishing depends on the site and the fish. The fishing is all the same.

G & L: When and why did you start working at TRACC?

P: June last year (2015). When Miti (another member of the TRACC staff from Kalapuan) was building his house he hired me to help him build it. Later, when Miti was making bottle reefs, he hired me to help him make the bottle reefs. When TRACC moved the camp back to Pom Pom Miti introduced me to Dino (another TRACC staff member), who hired me to work a short while at TRACC. After awhile TRACC offered me a permanent job.

I am staying here to work for TRACC because it is more fun then fishing and close to Kalapuan. Before I worked in Kota Kinabalu with construction, and at a car wash. I didn’t like it because it was too far from my village. It’s hard to work in Kota Kinabalu as a Bajau and its far away from home.

G & L: Do you feel connected to the ocean?

P: I like to see the marine life, I can make a living from the ocean, and sometimes there are places that are beautiful. I miss the ocean when I do not see it. When I was in the city, even though I did not fish, I would walk to see the ocean.

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Read part 2 of the interview to discover how Palten's view of the ocean has changed since starting to work at TRACC.

_________________________________________________________________________________

If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org

For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.

13.4.16

Turtle Hatching on Pom Pom

Photo by Lizz Fitt

Hatchling sea turtles smaller than the palm of my hand, and cute enough to warm even the stormiest of hearts, tumble onto the beach. A line is drawn in the sand to keep spectators at a distance, and the hatchlings scurry down the beach attracted to the ocean by the light of the setting sun. These tiny turtles are protected from the natural predators of land by our presence and poachers through our nightly turtle walks and eggs collection. Yet, even with our protection, the onset of a sea turtles life is fraught with obstacles and dangers. The short stretch of beach leading to the sea is difficult to navigate, footprints present themselves like craters to the hatchling, some of whom must momentarily rest before they struggle up what must be a mighty staircase to their small selves.

Once reaching the water their weight will reduce and the physical struggles of a creature made for the sea moving on land will

Photo by Lizz Fitt

diminish, but the danger of the ocean and its predators increases– so much so that only 1 in 1000 hatchling turtles will reach sexual maturity. Just offshore ocean predators wait, even from the beach a barracuda is seen lurking in the shallows.

The first task of a hatchling sea turtle is to find a raft of seaweed, which will provide a degree of shelter from harsh ocean conditions, and under which it can hide from predators. This refuge-giving raft also provides the fresh hatchlings a chance to rest and makes it easier for the little turtle to reach the oxygen it needs above the surface of the ocean. If it finds enough cover and has enough luck, baby sea turtles will float with the current in their seaweed raft feeding on smaller crustaceans and fish until the age of 5 or 6 and it is big enough to handle the open ocean. However, even at this adolescent stage the turtles are still small, roughly the size of a dinner plate, and subject to much predation. But if they survive the odds, Sea Turtles instinctively return to the beach on which they hatched when they reach sexual maturity at 35.

Photo by Lizz Fitt

Female turtles lay anywhere between roughly 250 - 700 eggs each of their season, meaning they will produce roughly 4 – 8 offspring throughout their life if they die by old age. For Pom Pom, with our many nesting turtles, and the many nests they lay, we estimate about 2000 eggs are laid each season – and we hope two more turtles from this seasons nesting will return to lay and fertilize eggs and make more hatchlings in 35 years.

We cannot protect out hatchlings from the perils of the ocean, but we can protect the eggs from the danger of poaching, and offer the hatchlings a chance to test their luck and survival in the ocean.

More Marine conservation projects

Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from

GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.

If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.