The Place of Artificial Reefs in the Lives of Small-scale Fishers in Terengganu, Malaysia

408 Pages·2017·55.36 MB·English

The Place of Artificial Reefs in the Lives of Small-scale
Fishers in Terengganu, Malaysia
Jarina Mohd Jani
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Edinburgh
2011
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Declaration
I hereby declare that the thesis has been composed by me, that the work is my
own, and that it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional
qualification.
Jarina Mohd Jani
January 2012
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Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks go to my first supervisor, Elizabeth Olson. She has been
unfailingly generous w ith time, ideas and moral support. I also thank my
second supervisor, Genevieve Patenaud for her dedication and efficiency, and I
acknowledge w ith grateful thanks David Howard who made critical
contributions during the early stages of the research project. W ithout their
guidance and motivation, this thesis would not materialise.
I wish to also acknowledge the Malaysian Ministry of H igher Education
which provided the financial funding to undertake this doctoral research. Also,
this thesis would not have been possible w ithout the kind assistance of the
Gong Batu and Rhu Sepuluh villagers who I met during my fieldwork. They
were my research participants, teachers, mentors and friends. Memories of
their generosity and warm th, together w ith kind words of encouragement
from other friends and family, often provided me w ith much needed
motivation to go on whenever my spirits were low.
To Feeming, for everything, I am grateful.
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Abstract
Mainly deployed w ith the objective of enhancing fisheries resources, artificial
reefs began to gain scientific attention in the 1970s. They continue to be a
popular agenda in fisheries management, largely due to their potential in
improving the lives of coastal communities. Current performance evaluations
of artificial reefs, however, continue to focus more on reef effects on the
biology and fishing gain of the area where they are deployed. This is despite
repeated calls to expand the performance evaluation to include input from
artificial reefs users. This thesis examines the dimensions of small-scale fisher-
folks' relations w ith artificial reefs in Terengganu, Malaysia. Using the
livelihood approach, the research focuses on non bio-economics data and
explores the "currently ignored" domains of artificial reefs to examine the
various components of small-scale fishers' livelihood-making. It reveals
im portant insights of the social, cultural, economic, political and ecological
changes that have been affected by artificial reef programmes from the
perspectives of fishing communities. Based on the results of in-depth
interviews carried out in Setiu, Terengganu, it is concluded that although
artificial reefs are perceived to enhance local fisheries resources, small-scale
fisher-folks' opportunity to benefit from them depends much on how artificial
reefs fit into these fishers' fishing strategies, which are strongly related to their
livelihood assets, particularly their social and human capitals. Furthermore,
artificial reefs' impacts on Setiu small-scale fishers' livelihood are related to
their effect on illegal commercial fishery in the area, where although their
presence do deter traw l fishery, artificial reefs are paradoxically an ideal
fishing site for purse seine fishery. By exploring these various human
dimensions of artificial reefs, the thesis offers a broader perspective on the
evaluation of this complex marine phenomenon.
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Contents Page
Declaration........................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements...............................................................................................................v
Abstract...............................................................................................................................vii
Figures................................................................................................................................xiv
Tables......................................................................................................... xvi
Chapter I A rtificial reefs and their developm ent in M alay s ia ............................1
Arfificial reefs: an in troduction ........................................................................... 3
Artificial reefs development in Malaysia: at a crossroad between tradition
and m ode rn ity ......................................................................................................... 8
Unjang: an artificial reefs concept from a traditional Malaysian fishery
perspective ...........................................................................................................9
Artificial reefs programmes in a new era of Malaysian fisheries: a
solution for a depleting resou rce .................................................................. 17
Research questions and objectives.....................................................................31
Towards a better understanding of artificial reefs impacts on
livelihoods of resource u s e rs .............................................................................. 36
Chapter II L ivelihood-based approach to artificialr eefs ev a lu a tio n 39
Livelihoods Approach: an in troduction ...........................................................40
SLF: m ind the gap between bio-economics andl ivelihoods........................47
Towards a broader artificial reefs evaluation p rac tice ............................47
Livelihood-based framework for researching artificial reefs
perfo rm ance ....................................................................................................... 52
Research methods and location .....................................................................56
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Page
Case s tu d y ...........................................................................................................56
In terv iew s............................................................................................................67
Field and participant observation .................................................................71
An evaluation of artificial reefs w ith a difference............................................ 73
Chapter III Fishing strategies and the status of Setiu small scale fishery .. 75
Setiu small scale fishers: an in troduction ..........................................................75
Normal season fishery ..........................................................................................80
Line fish ing ...........................................................................................................83
Pukat Kaya fish ing ............................................................................................... 87
Bubu fish ing ..........................................................................................................91
Crab fish ing ..........................................................................................................97
Tamban fish ing .................................................................................................. 99
Seasonal F ishery .................................................................................................... 102
Prawn fish ing ................................................................................................... 104
Squid fish ing .....................................................................................................112
Illegal commercial fishing operations and artificial reefs in Setiu coastal
z o n e ...........................................................................................................................119
Trawling activities in Setiu coastal z o n e ..................................................... 119
Artificial reefs as anti-trawling dev ices................................................. 123
Purse seine activities at Setiu artificial ree fs ............................................... 126
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