ANN/THE STAR – Carrying some cash while paddling in the middle of nowhere can be handy, as you might encounter fishermen. This gives you a great opportunity to access incredibly fresh catches. For example, in the bay off Gertak Sanggul, Penang, I once came across clam collectors. The seabed was about four metres deep, and I watched as two men drove a galvanised iron pipe into the bottom. They used it as a guide to scrape the seabed for clams with custom-made stainless steel cage-rakes.
They looked like commandos to me, with cloth around their heads and holes cut out for their eyes and mouths.
“There are many jellyfish here. We cover ourselves like this to protect our skin,” one of them explained.
The clams they raked up were huge.
Luckily, my wallet was in my waterproof bag, and I had some money with me. I bought some clams from them for MYR10 and boy, were they delicious!
In Chenderoh Lake, near Kuala Kangsar, I bumped into a fisherman with a large haul of kelabau fish (Osteochilus melanopleura).
He offered me one for free when I said I had no money with me. But I couldn’t accept it, knowing he was in the B40 group.
So, we exchanged phone numbers, became friends, and now whenever I visit Chenderoh Lake, I text him and bring along some cash so I can buy fish from him fair and square.
He sells kelabau fish to collectors for MYR20 to MYR30 per kilogramme, while at river fish restaurants, we, the end consumers, buy them for about MYR100 per kilogramme.
Whenever I meet fishermen at sea or on a lake, I try my best to pay them almost what I would pay at a restaurant to give them the joy of selling to end consumers.
It’s good enough for me to buy super fresh fish just a little cheaper than market or restaurant prices while enjoying the chance to meet with another person on the water.
That said, I have encountered fishermen who were not so friendly; it was as if I was an intruder on their fishing grounds. Perhaps someone had violated their nets or traps in the past?
Now, I greet them heartily from metres away, ask permission to come abreast of their boats before drawing near.
The friendly ones tend to get curious about my kayak or paddleboard and really want to know how stable my watercraft is, since mine is a whole lot narrower than theirs.
Once the ice is broken, they become really proud of showing what they have caught, and if there is a tasty fish on their boat, the money I would be carrying would make the humble fishermen happy and grant me a fabulous meal to remember for a long time. – Arnold Loh
