264 July 27, 2004

Tried and True: Malaysian Fishermen Doing Fine with the Familiar

A trawler being fitted out at the Chan Boatyard in Teluk Intan.

Fishermen the world over face risks as a fact of daily life. If it isn’t adverse weather it is scarcity of fish. If the weather is good and the catches strong, chances are the market prices will be low. It is little wonder then that many fishermen choose to stay with that which they know when it comes to boats and engines.

Scott & English sales representative Ronnie Cheah with a Cummins KTA19 installed in a wooden purse seine boat.

The fishermen of Teluk Intan in Malaysia’s Perak province are no exception. With good wooden craftsmanship still available at shipyards like Tan Cheng Hong & Sons, they see no reason to switch to steel, especially when the price of a solid-built 24-metre boat is still only around 350,000 Malaysian Ringgits (US $84,000) for the bare hull and just over a half-million MR for a fully equipped boat with engine and electronics. At the Tan Cheng Hong shipyard several boats were under construction in late June with a pair of 24-metre purse seine boats in the water with their 500 HP Cummins KTA19M mains installed while interior finishing and the installation of electronics, including sonar, continued. Two more vessels of a similar size were nearing completion while the massive 13x10-inch keel, formed from two timbers scarfed together, of another awaited the beautifully crafted bow stem, sawn frames and deadwoods. Mr. Tan explained that all the wood used in the boats from keel to planking is cengal (Lhopea Sangal korth) from the eastern side of the Malaysia peninsula. There was no need to steam or heat planks before bending as the pliable wood allowed for carefully selected planks to be bent into place on the sawn frames. These purse seine boats would be equipped with lights for night fishing. A smaller 12-meter light-boat for attracting fish was also being finished up in the yard.

A well rigged trawler leaves a dock on the Bernam River.

At a nearby yard another half dozen boats of a similar size but designed as trawlers were in various stages of construction. All of these boats were being powered with Cummins KTA 19M main engines. Malaysia regulates it fisheries through a classification system that protects near shore fisheries by requiring C-1 class boats, those between 39 and 70 tons, to fish at least 12 kilometers off shore. While C-2 class vessels, over 70 tons must fish 30 kilometers off shore. This introduces another level of risk for fishermen in the Straits of Malacca where pirates, most reportedly from Acheh in Sumatra, are an all too real threat. Vessels are further designated according to the province in which they are licensed by the color of their cabins. Those with red cabins are from Selangor or Kedah, those with yellow cabins from Perak or Pahang while those from Penang have blue deck cabins.

Silver scabbard-like fish being delivered at the Kim Huat Fisheries in the village of Hutan Melintang on the Bernam River.

On a recent visit to the area reports of 95 percent of the larger fishing vessels being Cummins powered were substantiated when literally all vessels building in the yards as well as those off-loading catches were observed to be Cummins powered. The 500 horsepower KTA19M engine, that workhorse of the world’s fishing fleets, was favored by the larger vessels with the Cummins NTA855M finding a place in the smaller boats.

This held true for the trawlers seen off loading catches at Kim Huat Fisheries in the village of Hutan Melintang on the Bernam River where the variously named dragon or silver belt fish predominated. These sleek silver fish, similar to the silver scabbard fish in the Atlantic, are primarily frozen for export to China with the smaller catches of grouper, squid and various flat fish consigned to the local Malaysian and Singaporean markets. The boats at Kim Huat and neighboring fish-docks had each completed trips of about 12 days and offloaded eight to ten metric tones of fish.

For further information:

Tan Cheng Hong & Sons Shipyard
1996-E, Batu 2 1/2.Jin Mharaja Lela,
36000 Teluk Intan
Perak Darul Ridzuan
Malaysia

K. H. Cheah (Ronnie)
Sales Manager
Scott & English (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
92, Jalan Jelapang,
30020 Ipoh,
P.O. Box 36130740 Ipoh
Perak, Malaysia
Phone: 605 5277177
Fax: 605 5278177
E-mail: cheah_Ronnie@sne.com.my

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