Malaysia’s artisanal fishermen suffer net losses as climate change hits livelihoods
- Rising water temperatures brought on by climate change forced some fish and crab species to other areas – places some fishers cannot easily access
- A decade ago, fishers in Mukim Tanjung Kupang could catch 30kg of crabs in a single morning, now they’re lucky to bring home a quarter of that
Thirty years ago, fishermen in Mukim Tanjung Kupang could go out for their morning catch and return with kilos of crabs and prawns, earning hundreds, sometimes thousands of ringgit a week.
Now, they barely come back with a kilo of seafood.
The experts at sea in Johor now wash boats to earn a living, losing their livelihoods to severe storms and unpredictable weather.
Local fishermen like Indasari Othman, 46, say that when they are out at sea, they have no choice but to drift on their fibreglass vessels.
These 12-foot boats cannot be anchored to secure them from large waves and all the fishers can do is switch off their 700cc engines and coast.
“Like it or not, we have to drift with the waves and wind to look for 1,000 ringgit [in seafood], but if we’re half-dead, what is the point? It’s dangerous so we might as well head back home,” he says.
