Abstract
Problem statement: A widely held belief that climate change has impacts on sustainable fish catch leads us to find out how these effects influence fish landings in Sabah, Malaysia, especially for the west and east coasts, based upon monsoonal periods. Correlation of fish landings with rainfall suggests that local fish landing is believed to be sensitive to the effects of climate change. Approach: Rainfall, temperature, wind, the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and fish landings time series for 3 specific regions (Kota Kinabalu (KK), Tawau and Sandakan) have been studied using available local data for the last 9 years. Results: Results indicated significant fish landing variations due to the fluctuation of these meteorological parameters, for example, ~20% reduction is found during Northeast (NE) monsoon at KK. Heavy rainfall correlates well with high fish landings when fish landings lead rainfall by 1 month. Fish landings and temperature were also highly correlated. Fish landings leads wind stress by 1-2 months with 99% certainty and it is high when the wind direction is between 150-200° from north (approximately for South Easterlies and South Westerlies). Conclusion: The results confirmed that fish landing is low during NE monsoon period. In regard to the effect of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), low or negative SOI indicates high fish landings.
Highlights
When investigating climatic effects on fish landings, the focus has been made on commercially important and popular dinner-table fish species, such as, different types of grouper (Bleeker’s, Marble, Green, Greasy, Mottled), wrasse (Maori, Green), sea bass (Humpback, Blue-spotted, Squaretail), snapper (Mangrove red, White blotched), giant sea-perch, glasseyed perch, white sea bream, spotted sweetlips, footballer trout, vermicular leopard cod and few other species in this study, especially for the Kota Kinabalu (KK) area in the west and, for comparison purpose, Sandakan and Tawau in the east of Sabah, Malaysia
Fish landings versus Southern Oscillation Index (SOI): Having analyzed the effects of several meteorological parameters on fish landings at the east and west coasts of Sabah, we look at the general influence of SOI on fish landings in KK (Fig. 7), since El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event is regarded as a global phenomena
At the same time, when we look at the wind direction (Fig. 6b), fish landing is high when the due to the fact that other areas on the east coast of Sabah have almost the same fish landings throughout the study period
Summary
When investigating climatic effects on fish landings, the focus has been made on commercially important and popular dinner-table fish species, such as, different types of grouper (Bleeker’s, Marble, Green, Greasy, Mottled), wrasse (Maori, Green), sea bass (Humpback, Blue-spotted, Squaretail), snapper (Mangrove red, White blotched), giant sea-perch, glasseyed perch, white sea bream, spotted sweetlips, footballer trout, vermicular leopard cod and few other species in this study, especially for the Kota Kinabalu (KK) area in the west and, for comparison purpose, Sandakan and Tawau in the east of Sabah, Malaysia. Sabah is the second largest Malaysian state situated on the northern tip of the island of Borneo (Fig. 1) covering an area of 73 711 km with a coastline of 1600 km facing the sea (considering all coasts with direct marine exposure (lagoons, mainland and islands) the total length of the Sabah coastline becomes around 4315 km) It shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south. Sabah is known as ‘Sabah, Negeri Di Bawah Bayu’, which means ‘Sabah, the land below the wind’, because of its location It is situated below the typhoon and monsoon belt (just south of the typhoon-prone region around the Philippines) and has a uniquely diverse population of approximately 2.6 m consisting of 32 ethnic communities. Sabah is a key exporter of marine fish products in Malaysia (Cooke, 2003)
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