Fishermen beach traditional boats in preparation for monsoon season

KOTA BHARU: Each year before the start of the monsoon season, the fishing community at Kampung Pulau Gajah, Pantai Sabak, near here, will come together for a ‘gotong-royong’ to haul their traditional boats or ‘perahu kolek’ to higher grounds.

This year, the Meteorology Department of Malaysia (MetMalaysia) predicted that between four and six episodes of heavy rainfall would hit the country throughout the rainy season from November until March 2021.

Kampung Gajah Fishing Network head Nik Ruzulaili Nik Yusof told Bernama that the ‘gotong-royong’ was held today to coincide with the high tide in order to facilitate the efforts to pull the boats, which weigh four to five tonnes each, to higher grounds without damaging their structure.

He said while the boats were on land, the fishermen would repair or repaint their boats as well as mend the trawls in preparation before returning to the sea to earn a living when the monsoon season ends.

Twenty-seven of the 30 traditional boats had been pulled to higher grounds today, while the remaining three boats would be beached tomorrow, he added.

Fisherman Mat Daud Mohamad, 62, said the process of hauling the boats to higher grounds had been the practice for decades to avoid damage to the boats, thus preventing the fishermen from experiencing financial losses.

Mat Daud said some of the boats were 100 years old and the price of each was between RM22,000 and RM40,000.

He said the boats would be covered with canvas or tents to prevent exposure to the elements and to enable the fishermen to do maintenance work before heading back to sea in four months' time.

Mat Daud said in order to supplement their income during the monsoon season, some of them would work as labourers at construction sites.

Fellow fisherman Sakri Mat, 51, said some might think that fishermen would just be enjoying the free time throughout the monsoon season without really knowing what was on their minds particularly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sakri, who has been a fisherman since he was 15, said he would do various odd jobs to support his family during the season.

-- BERNAMA