1. sports
2. fishing

KP
JB
127
The Malayan Purse Seine (Pukat Jerut) Fishery
by K. GOPJN.lTII
Senior Re 'earch Ofjicm',
Fishery Devclolnnenl
CH eme, 'i."1·a'l:all core .
(Received, Jttlle 1949).
The material for thi. paper wa ohta in ed in 1948 durin g a
four month' vi it to th e Malay state. The tour was
ctioned by
the Travancore Governmen t, a t the ug(re tion of the Go,ernment
of India . It object \Va to tudy the method of ring-net fi bing"
practised in Malayan and . iame e water, and to investiO'ate the
possibility of introducing it in Indian water. The author W"a ;
af'si ted considerably hy the whole-hearted co-operation of
Mr D . ,V. Le Mare (Director of Fi heries, Federation of Malaya..
and ingapore) and th member of hi
tatf and b~r the many
fllc ilitie afforded him by )1r C. P. hen, proprietor of the Malayan
F i herie , Pangkor.
Both fre h and pre en-ed mackerel are in great demand in
Malayan market, and the industry i one of the most important
fi heries in the country. Before the war th e annual output per heaa
of the Pangkor purse !'ein e fi hermen wa about 10 ton. Thi
compare fayourably with the 8.3 ton of the Japalle e Bream fi hermen during the same periocl. and the 1.5 tons of the :Malay fi hermen
of the ea t coa t., In 1941, 13.:1,,5 0 piculs 1 (159,80.:1,. 82 cwt ) of
mackerel were la1ll1ed in Pangkor by thc ein e 11 ts . Thi formed
58% of the total catch for Perak, ~hich produces more fish than
any other tate in the F deration. The greater part of thi was"
_ent to the ingapore market. and the remain(ler to rr'elok An 011,
Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. 38,859 piculs of fi h were landed at
Kuala Kedah in 1947, more than 65% of which wa made upof landinas from the pur e eine boat . Thi al 0 found it mainmarket in Singapore, some 560 mile away, while a small portion
wa distributed in the neighbouring towns of Alor tar, Sungei:
Patani and Penang.
.
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
HISTORY OF THE PURSE SEINE IN
YA
About 1877 a group of Uh inese fi hermen from Pakboi
in South China miarated with their boat and net to iam, where·
they began fishing for mackerel (KiJmbong) . Later the majorityof them mo\'ed farther outh to :Mala.·a and ettled at Kuala Kedah,.
while a few went a far a Pangkor, an i land off the coa t of Perak.
(I) A picul = 100 knt;es.
A tahil is I 1/3 oz.
1950] Royal Asiatic
One kati is equivalent to I 1/3 lbs.
oDie/yo
- 7 S P 1 95
n
Malaysia
egara
16
K. Gopiuath
ted
WR' made a duty-free commodity in the
till later, when
Federated Malay tates, the men who had ettled in Kedah follo",,:ed
the others down to Pangkor. Thirteen years aO'o the pur e seIDe
,va taken back to Kuala Kedah by a Chinese fisherman, and was
'u
uently adopted with light modification by the local Malays.
Kuala Kedah and PanO'kor are till the only place in Malaya
where pur'e eine fi hing i carried on on a large scale, though
thi net has recently been tried at Mer ing on the east coast of
Johore. Originally the net were operated from
. boats, but
in recent years, at the ugO"estion of the Department
Fisherie ,
the e have been replaced by power-driven boats.
When power fi hing wa tarted there were only 14 boats
operating from Pangkor, but the number ub equently in crea ed
to 44 during the pre-war period. In 1948 there were about 30
pur e eine boat on Pangkor J land: 19 in the village of ungei
l'enanO' Kechil and 11 in the village of Pangkor. All were owned
and worked by
.
fishermen. In the Keelah area there were
24
seine boat in the village of Kuala Kedah, 3 in the viJlaO"e
of uala Per' and 2 in the villa O'e of Yen.
ix of the 24 net
in Kuala Kedah were owned and worked by Malay fi hermen. The
remainder were owned by Ohine e merchant. Six of
were
being worked by
.
fi hermen in the Ohinese style and 12,
t hough Ohinese owned, were being worked by Malays in the Malay
, tyle.
,
•
Two purse .
which were introduced into Singapore waters
immediately after the war were later tran ferred to Mer ing, on
the east coast of J ohore. These net are similar to the Pangkor
and Kedah nets, but they are being used for other local shoal fish
in addition to mackerel.
SPECIES, SEASONS AND GROUNDS
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
On the west coa t of :Malaya the pur e ~eine i u ed exclu ively
-for fishing for mackerel (KJiJmbong, Tihnenong) , mostly Scomber
micl'olepidotus and comber kanaguria. ·The hardtail, Camnx
l'Oile1'ii, and al 0 Cl1tpea and Opi, thopiel'llS pp. are occa ionallv
taken in this net. A it i operated on the l\fer ing coast, with
light alterations in the yarn' and the eize of the mesh, it can al 0
be used for tunnies, ribbon fish, hor-e mackerel and other fi h which
me found in large shoal .
,
Macker.:!l occur on the we t coa t throuO'hout the year, but
there are seasonal variations in the numbers taken. The monthly
total of fi h landed at Pangkor during 1947 how a small peak
period d tHing April ancll\fav, followed hy a hiO'her peak in r ovem ber
and December. In Keelah on the other hanel. poor catche are
u ually recordecl in June and Jul', when fi hing activitie are
hicted by the south-west
. The number of
present
Journal Malayan Branch [Vol. XXIII, pt. III,
The Malayan Pur e
eine (Pukat Jerut)
. hery
rl;lry through the ea on, and they ma:v appear on the grollnd for
a number or day together and then . ppear for several weeks.
On the Pangkor fi hing ground ' they generally stay for only a
hort time, bu t On the Kedah ground they remain for longer
period . Exce ive rain, or a great influx of fre h water into the
ea from the river, probably ha a considerable influence On their
movement.
Quantities (in piculs)
Month
Jan.
• •
•
• •
Feb .
• •
• •
March
• •
•
April
• •
May
• •
•
June
• •
•
of mackerel landed at Pangkor during 1947.
PiclIls
MOllth
7,97 0
Jul y
Aug.
• •
•
•
5,21 1
•
•
•
•
4,100
J ,73 5
8,860
Sept.
•
•
•
•
4,}40
• •
19,4 8c
Oct.
•
•
•
•
17,000
•
11. 68 4
ov.
• •
•
•
2 0,000
• •
2,200
•
• •
20,000
•
I
Dec.
•
The shoal are u ually located by the pho~ phorc cence tbrown
up by their movement. Theil' depth can be judged by t he inten it}"
of the luminance produced . In general a typical mackerel sboal
mores in All arrow h ad formation :
time ' it may be roughly
em i-circular in hape. Experienced fi hing kipper say that each
specie ha. it own characteri tic shoal format ion and t ha t they can
identify th e l,oa1 at a di tan ce . Xaturally, fi bing operations are
conducted only on dark night. T'
not mean that fi harenot present on moonlit n ight, but their detection i r endered
difficult by the licrh t on the water.
A fi hing
tart about ix day after the full moon and
extend to about ten or eleyen day after the new moon. During
the waniner pba e the fi hing i done in the dark period preceding
moonri e, and in the waxing pha e in the hour follo" 'in g the
. g
of the m oon . In the early part of the
, therefore, the fi bermen tart from their ba e at about 5 p .m. and return by about 1 a.m ..
The tarting time i erradually delayed a the ea on advance, ana
by t he day of the new mOOn the men are fi hing all through thenicrht. [T oward the clo e of the
they tart at about 11 p.m ..
or midnicrht, when the moon . well down in the sky, and fi h untiI
th e mominer, getting back to their
at 7 a.m. or even later.
lack tide ' con idered to be the
time fo r the operation of
the net, moo there i then no chance of it being carried away by
trong curren t.
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
No definite boundary can be eriven to the mackerel
crround on th e we t coa t, but at lea t the majority apparently h e-
19.jO] Royal A iatic
ocieiy.
•
K. Gopinath
8
()ff the m ouths of br oad estu aries and big rivers. The Pangkor
g round is situated beyon d the 10 fathom lin e opposite the mouths
of the Perak an d Lumut River s, outh an d n orth of the Pulau
Sembilan group of island s and n orth-west of t he I sland of Pangkor
(Fig . 1.). In the course of a survey con c1 uctec1 by the Fishery
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PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
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Journal lJialayan Branch [Vol. XXIII, Pt. III,
The :Jlalayan Pur. e
eine (Pukat Jerut) Fi hery
79
Depllrtment' motor
1 !\/hnbonq in 1937 it wa found that the
largest catche were obtained with in the area bounded by 4' 01'
and G' 10' orth Latitude and 99° 53' and 100' 21 ' Ea t Longi. iT he main ground i rather muddy in nature. It varies in
<Jepth from 25-35 fathoms, except in the vicinity of the Sembilan
group where it reaches 50-60 fathoms . The fishermen operate in
ihi area with the White Rock Lio-hthouse, Pulau Katak Lighthouse
(at the onthem entrance to the Lumut River) andl"anjong Hantu
Light (on the nortbE'rn entrance) a their importmlt navigation
marks. At certain time, e pecially during heavy eas, mackerel
have even been caught clo e to Pangkor Island, well in ide the
-entrance to the two rivers.
.
'TIle Keclah fi hino- ground lie within the 10 fa thom line
oOpposite the mouth of the Keelah anel Perl is nivers. It is coniderecl to be richer th an the Pano-kor ground. The main fishing
.area lies between the i Jan:l of Pulau Panjang anu Pulau Langkaw i to th e north, and the Pulau Paya group to th e south (Fig. 2)_
The fishermen seldom go beyond the latter group of i Ian ]s, but
'OccasionallY', when the ca tches are poor on the Keelah gronn ds, they
go as far ~outh a Penang J lanel anel north to the Siam ese COli. I.
ear the Paya group the water i about 15 -16 fathoms deep, but
where the main ground lie it varies from 5-6 fathoms; farther
north it i only 4-5 fathoms . The
bottom in this area is again
muddy. Often the men fi h within sight of Kedah Lighthouse,
Pulau Panjang Lighthouse off Perli and Pulau Eno-gang Light
'On the Langkawi gr oup .
.
In December 1947 and Januarv and Fehruary• l!)-I-R ma ckerel
were scarce on the Pangkor ann Kedah ground., and fi hing was
-extremely pOOf. At the me timc large hoal were reported from
further north, off toiel on the iame. e coa, t where some of tbe
Kedah boat were operating. The )larch eason in PanO'kor howed
a defin ite improvement, and 1aro-e catch were made.
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
EQUIPMENT
1.
Nets.
The purse seine u ed in Malaya is roughly sim ilar to the
American purse . ein e. except that it i much shorter. In the
:Malayan net the kngth and depth depend largely On the locality
in which th e net is to be u ed. 'T he net at Pangkor are longer
and deeper than tho e at Kuala 1\:edah, where the sea is shall ower .
Th ere are a1. 0 minor difference heh\'€en the nets used by th e
Chinese and the .Malay fi hermen.
.
I
The purse eine owned hy the Cheng Rai Co., at Pangkor, is
150 :fathoms long anel 25 fathoms deep, th e :Malayan Fisheries net
- 152 fathoms by 25 fa thoms, and the net owned by the :Marine
1950] Royal Asiatic Societ y.
K. Gopinath
80
Products Association 180 fathoms by 30. In Kedah, the net owned'
by Ban Hock Lee F isheries wa~ found to be simil~r to the. Pangkor
net, measuring ] 60 fathoms In length and 30 fathoms III depth,
while the net owned by Ahmed Majid, a Malay fisherman, was only
140 fathoms by 25 fathoms .
'The Chinese nets show a rather
uniform depth. with a slight decrease at the tips of the wings. The
Malay nets deerease gradually in depth from the centre piece to
the wing nets.
.
( a)
Chinese net.
A typical Chinese net consi t of a centre piece (or Codend)
of strong net with a number of pieces on each sille. A net measuring 152 fathoms has a centre piece of 12 fathoms length and 25
fathoms depth, with 10 7-fathom pieces on each side. The length
of the centre piece varies in different net. A Pangkor net 180',
fathoms long was founel to ha\'e a centre piece of 20 fathoms length,
while in Kedah a net of 160 fathoms length had a centre piece of
3·0 fathoms. The centre piece has a half inch mesh of 12/208
yarn (3 x 4 ply), the adjoining pieces on each side have a half inch
mesh of 9/ 20 yarn (3 x 3 ply) or 8/20S, and the remainder of
. Sometimes 4/ 20S yarn
the net a half inch mesh of 6/ 20S
is used for the wing nets. The m
measures slightly more than
half an inch when the net is new, but it shrinks to the exact size
after treatment in cutch and long use. The centre piece and the
adjoining nine pieces have a uniform depth of 25 fathoms; the
last pieee has a reduced depth of 22 fathoms (Fig. 3.).
The two head and two foot ropes are usually of ~ inch manila .
.sometimes they are slightly thicker. Along both head and foot
rope is a hodd ing of about 25-30 me he" which runs the entire
length of the net. This is made of 12/ 20S yarn and serves to
increase the trength of the net. In a short report of the Pangkor
purse seine prepared by the Fisheries Department it is stated
that the hodding shows a variation in breadth towards the centre
of the net. This variation was not seen in any of the nets examined.
Wooden floats, each measurinO' 9" x 5'" x 2" and biconvex in shape
are fastened along the heac1 rope at intervals of about 10" . They
are mac1e of Uton.q wood and are attached between the two ropes
in such a way that they always float with their flat surface upwards (Fig. 4.). 'The last piece of the net is devoid of floats. The
purse rings, about 76 in all, are attached along the foot rope at
intervals of 1 0
2 fathoms. About 2 3 fathoms of the centre
of the net and. the last piece in the wings have no rings. The first
two rings in the centre are large and heavy. Each is actually a:
combination of two rings; a large one and a small one rotating on.
a swivel (Fig. 5.) . JI'he large ring is attached to the net, whil e
to the small Oile is attachec1 the enc1 of the pursing- rope of
1 ~ inch manila. The rings are made of brass with an internal
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
JourTi-al Malayan Branch [Vol. XXIII, Pt. III.
"
,
The Malayan Pur e Seine (Pukat J erut ) Fishery
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PERPUSTAKAAN
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82
diameter of 2Y2-3 inches anc1 an external diameter of
inches; each one weighs roughly one pound (Fig. 6.) .
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PURSING IUNO
WJTH LEAD SJNHCR ATTACHED
,
Except lor the central swivel r ing and the next two or three
ring on each side, all the rings ha ye lead inkers a ttached to
them (Fig. 7.) . These sinkers weigh from 8 tahils (11 oz.) to
one and a half katies (1. 9 lbs.) . It is said that roughly one
picul of leael is used in making 70 sinker. 'The smaller inkers
are attached n(:;ar the centre of the net and the heavier ones towards
the outer edge in order to prevent it from lifting when the pursing
rope is drawn taught.
,
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
•
(b)
Malay Net.
A Malay nbt ordinarily yaries in length from 120 150 fathoms .
.A net of 140 fathoms length has a centre piece of 20 fathoms length
and 25 fathoms depth . This is followed on each side by 6 pieces
of 10 fathoms length, which show a gradual decrease in depth from
25 in the centre piece to 16 fathom ill the last piece on the winO".
Thi centre piece ha · 11 half inch mesh of 10 ply (2 x 5) yarn.
the adjoining pieces on each side have a half inch mesh of 8 ply
J oumaZ M aZayan Branch [Vol. XXIII, Pt. III.
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PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
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K. Gopinath
84
(2 x 4) yarn and the rest a half inch mesh of 6 plJ: yarn. rr'hehodding is not so prominent as in the
net (..I!lg. 8.).
IThe floats measure 8" x 40" x 2" each and are placed at.
intervals of 6 8 inches. These floats are also of wood and are'
similar in shape to those on the Chinese nets. The swivel
rings are placed about 20 feet apart at the centre of the
net and the other rings are attached at intervals of 7Y2 feet. Theserings have all external diameter of 3~" and internal diameterof about 3". Sinkers are attached only to alternate rings, and
weigh about one kati each (1.33 lbs.). The tips of the wings for
a distance of about 6 fathoms are devoid of floats a.nd rings, as in
the Chinese net. The head ropes, foot ropes and pursing rope are'
also similar to those of the Chinese net.
( c)
Treatment of Nets.
The only material used for the preservation of the net is thebark of the mangrove tree, which is abllndant ill the swamps lining'
the coast. It is used both fresh and after drying. T'he fresh bark
is soaked in water for about 1 2 'weeks, while the dry bark i oaked
for 2 3 weeks, -or 1m til the solution turns deep red in colour ~
The net is then steeped in this brew, section by section, until it
acquires a dark red tint. After being steeped, the net is rinsed,..
wrung out and dried in the sun. All these operations are usually
done by hund. Sometimes, to facilitate the process, the bark is.
boiled in water and the net steeped in the hot solution.
(d)
Drying the Net.
A special platform and framework are generally erected forhanging the net to dry after use. '1'his frame is always situated.
near the factory building and within easy access from the fishing '
boat. It consists of two rows of 4 long poles, each about 40 it in
length. '1' he upper ends of opposite poles in the two rows areconnected by horizontal beams, and the sides a.re strengthened by
cross struts. The whole structure has rather the appearance of a,
rectangular tnnnel. Below, at a height of 3 4 feet above thehigh tide level, is a tage of spl it Nibong or Pen(1ng, running the
entire length of the drying platform. There are usually 10
horizontal poles with a pulley at each end, from whi h ropes run to
blocks on the topmost rail, for raising the net on the frame .
PERPUSTAKAAN
NEGARAMALAYSI
A
•
The movable 'short poles are dropped to the platform and thenet laid on them, with the codend towarc1s the shore and the wing _
at the seaward end of the drying stage. IThen they are raised about
four feet above the platform and the net spread uniformly a.nd
properly. Finally they are pulled up and secured, so that the net:
hangs in the air from the top of• the scaffolding .
Journal 'Malayan
B1'~nch
•
,
[Vol. XXIII, Ft. III, .
•