# Malayan Fishes

BY
C. N. Maxwell

## INTRODUCTION.

"Fish is not a luxury, but an absolute necessary of life, with a rice-eating population."
"It is obvious that in order to secure an adequate and plentiful supply of fish, especially to large cities like Calcutta. . . . . . . . . . . . we must go further out into the deep sea—which, after all, is the largest repository of piscine wealth. . . . . . . . . . . . facts and figures relating to the sea-fisheries of Great Britain, the United States and Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . ought to open our eyes to the great possibilities which lie before us."
"In Bengal, Government will have to do a great deal more; it will have to create and build up the sea-fishing industry, with the object of handing it, let us hope at no distant date, to private enterprise.
"It will also be necessary to show the best way of working the estuarine fisheries by improved methods of capture and of bringing the catches expeditiously to market in a sound state."
Sir K. Gupta, K. C. S. I. Report on Fisheries of Bengal and into Fishery matters in Europe and America, 1908.
"I appeal-to the whole population of these Islands, a maritime people who owe everything to the sea. I urge them to become better informed in regard to our national sea-fisheries and take a more enlightened interest in the basal principles that underlie a rational regulation and exploitation of these important industries. National efficiency depends to a very great extent upon the degree in which scientific results and methods are appreciated by the people and scientific investigation is promoted by the Government and other administrative authorities. The principles and discoveries of science apply to aquiculture no less than to agriculture. To increase the harvest of the sea the fisheries must be continuously investigated. . . . . . . . . . . ."
W. A. Herdman, C.B.E., D. Sc., F.R.S., etc. Annual address of the President of the British Association 1920.
"In no other section of our food supply. . . . . . . . . . . . could the application of capital to a comparatively small amount mean so considerable a development. . . . . . . . . . . . Both as regards railway and cold storage facilities the fish trade is in its infancy. . . . . . . . . . . . Transportation—cheap and rapid, must be provided by the State-fish trains should have precedence—and rates should be very low, even to the extent of entailing considerable loss."
The Earl of Dunraven. Paper read before the Royal Statistical Society, March 20, 1917.
​Fish are curious creatures and we have still a great deal to learn about their habits. Some like the Salmon and the Shad (Ikan tĕrubok) live in the sea and spawn in the rivers. Such fish are termed anadromous and the term is also applied to fish which make a migration from the deep sea coastwards for the purpose of spawning.
Others, like some Eels, live in the rivers and spawn in the sea. The common Eel of Europe (Anguilla vulgaris) spawns far out in the ocean, after which both males and females die, never returning to fresh-water a second time. Fishes which live in the rivers and spawn in the sea are termed catadromous.
Some fishes do not lay eggs but bring forth their young alive. Examples of viviparous fishes occur in the Shark and Ray families and also in the Blennidae, Cyprinodontidae and Scorpaenidae. Instances of functional hermaphroditism occur, and some of the Serranidae (Sea-Perches) are invariably hermaphrodite and self-fertilising.
A Sea-Bream, Chrysophrys auratus, is an example of successive hermaphroditism, the male and female sex-cells ripening alternately. As an occasional variation hermaphroditism has been recorded in such well known fishes as the Cod, the Mackerel and the Herring.
The eggs of fishes may be divided into two kinds; the large (demersal ova) which are heavy and sink; and the small (pelagic ova) which are buoyant and float at or below the surface according to their density. The buoyancy of the pelagic egg depends, however, on the density of the sea and the pelagic egg becomes demersal, in position, in brackish water and in fresh water.
Demersal eggs may be either viscid and adhesive or smooth and non-adhesive.
Pelagic eggs are distinguished by their lightness, buoyancy, small size and remarkable transparency. They are always non-adhesive and free and they invariably belong to Marine Fishes. As a general rule it may be said that fresh water fish produce demersal ova and marine fish pelagic ova.
When we realise that the eggs of most Marine fishes float, it is obviously futile to speak of guarding the "spawning grounds" on our coasts. It is necessary to mention this because at one time it was thought that spawning took place on shallow banks or even close in shore but this is now known to be incorrect, except in the case of the true Herring which lays demersal eggs in comparatively shallow water, and a few less important species.
Amongst our important Marine food fishes which are known to produce pelagic eggs are members of the Herring, Mackerel, Horse-Mackerel, Sea-Perch, Mullet and Flatfish families, in fact, all our best fish.
​Fishes known to produce demersal eggs on our coasts are the Gar-Pike (Todak) and the Flying-fish (Bělalang) and their eggs have viscid threads by which they become attached or entangled with foreign objects or eggs of the same species. The eggs of the Todak may be seen entangled in fishing stakes (kelong) in masses, which look rather like cobwebs.
When the breeding season arrives fishes migrate to the localities most suitable for the deposition of their eggs. At this time our principal food fish which produce pelagic eggs proceed far out to sea against the prevailing monsoonal current. This is known as the contranatant spawning migration. After spawning, the eggs are brought back by the current towards the coast. This is the denatant drift.
Though the eggs of many species of fish hatch out fry which are miniature representations of the adult fish, the eggs of others hatch out larval forms, known as Leptocephali, which bear no resemblance to their patents. These Leptocephali are transparent, attenuated creatures, often ribbon-like in shape, with very small heads. They appear to be incapable of much effort and to be specially adapted for passive drift; in fact, the Leptocephalus stage appear to be a marvellous provision of Nature to enable the young of certain fish which spawn far out at sea to reach the shallows near the coasts in a state of suspended animation. We know that the Tarpin (Megalops cyprinoides) Malay Bulan-bulan and the Giant Herring (Elops hawaiiensis) Malay Bandang, pass through a Leptocephalus stage, and as no Malay fisherman whom I have questioned, has ever seen the Parang-parang (Chirocentrus dorab) until it was a few inches long, it may be because this fish passes through a larval metamorphosis also. It is only within recent years, that certain Leptocephali, long known to naturalists, have been identified as larval Eels.
For example, Leptocephalus brevirostris is now known to be the larva of the common Eel of Europe (Anguilla vulgaris) and Leptocephalus morrisii has been watched through its metamorphosis into the Conger Eel (Conger vulgaris).
If the contranatant spawning migration is against the S. W. monsoonal current, the ova and larvae will drift in a N. E. direction and those that enter the Straits of Malacca, for instance, would gradually approach the West coast of the Peninsula. Similarly, a spawning migration in the South China Sea during the N. E. monsoon would result in the larvae being carried along and dispersed along the East coast of the Peninsula.
As the larvae approach the coast they come within the influence of the tides and while continuing their progress with the monsoon current they are carried backwards and forwards by the daily ebb and flow of the tides.
​Their density causes them to sink lower in brackish water until they eventually find bottom in the shallow bays and estuaries and in this way are gradually dispersed all long the coast. Then a metamorphosis takes place and the feeble Leptocephalus is transformed into the active little fish which swims vigorously against the current and feeds incessantly and voraciously all the time.
In a recent report on the Fisheries of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States the writer drew attention to the Chinese fish-traps called pompang and other licensed fixed engines known as ambai, langgai, etc., of which there are several thousand between Penang and Port Swettenham. Though there are many kinds of these traps they all work on the same principle. In every case there is a wide V-shaped entrance terminating in a long funnel-shaped bag made of sacking or plaited split bamboos. The position of these traps is arranged with respect to the currents and tides so as to intercept the larvae and immature fish during their denatant drift to the shallows. Most of these traps float, and swing round with each tide so as to take toll both with the ebb and the flow.
An examination of the contents of these traps shews that in addition to immature fish, which any Malay fisherman will tell you are the fry of valuable food fish, the bulk of the catches are made up of feeble, attenuated, small-headed larval-like fishes which the Malays call Bunga ayer and to which they attach no value.
There can be little doubt that scientific investigation will prove that the Bunga ayer are valuable food-fish in the Leptocephalus stage.
This subject has been treated at some length because of its great economic importance and because the questions raised cannot be answered except by a specialist in marine biology.
Though myriads of larval and immature fish are caught daily for duck food, pig food and manure, and thousands of pikuls are exported as dried fish refuse, it has been argued, while admitting ambai catches are used mainly as pig food, that it appears a debatable point whether the flesh value thus produced is not as reat as the extra fish value which might be caught if the fry killed by ambai were left undisturbed!
We cannot afford to allow such points to remain debatable.
Let us go on with the life history of the tiny fish which we left in the first stage of an active existence in the shallow waters near the coast. These shallows are the nurseries or recruiting grounds where the fry keep together in schools or shoals.
   "After a period in relatively shallow water, the shoal migrates to deeper water. At first the migration is not to a great distance, but with growth the annual pulsation becomes greater and greater.
   ​"The migration is not merely inshore and offshore, but is at the same time in a definite direction with respect to the coast.
   "Thus the life of the fish is spent until in from three to six years at the most, the call of maturity comes. In response thereto a migration takes place which appears to be usually beyond the limits of the seasonal migrations of the school."
A few moments' consideration will enable one to realise that the life habits of every species of fish are subject to certain fixed laws. It is only a matter of systematic organised research to discover those laws and to apply the knowledge to the development of Malayan Fisheries.
We can learn what has been done in Canada, Great Britain and the United States, but this general learning must be supplemented by detailed local research. We must work out our own local tables.
There are, probably, no less than 2000 species of fish in Malayan waters. There are certainly not less than 500 species of economic importance, and if we take 250 species as being valuable Marine food fishes, some idea may be formed of the amount of research required before we shall be in a position to state definitely where a certain species may be found in full roe, where its spawning grounds are, where the recruiting grounds of its young are and when and where it travels during its seasonal migrations.
Information of this kind will enable our fishermen to catch fish in the best condition and in the greatest quantities and this is the information which the Fishery Departments of Canada and America give the fishermen, even to the extent of using aeroplanes, fitted with wireless, to locate shoals and disseminate information.
There is a great deal of knowledge, of which no use is being made, in the possession of many illiterate Malay fishermen, spread over wide areas, all along the coasts of Malaya. This knowledge should be collected and tabulated.
The Departments of Fisheries in Ceylon, Australia, India, the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines have published records dealing with the fishes which also inhabit our seas and, in consequence, the Fishery Officers and scientists have the benefit of a vast amount of scientific research work on which to build up local data.
Though the question of damage to our marine fisheries has evoked some attention during the past two years, it is doubtful whether serious thought has been given to the terrible damage done to the fresh water fisheries by mining silt. Engineers have fought for their roads and railways against the invading silt, but, to judge from official reports, no one has fought for the fisheries and the need for protection of the riverine rights of the people would appear to have passed unnoticed.
​Within the writer's memory the main rivers of the West coast were fine clear streams. The waters provided irrigation for the rice fields and contained quantities of fine edible fish. These rivers are now thick turbid streams carrying a heavy burden of slime and silt.
We have probably one hundred different species of Carp alone, besides dozens of species of Catfish and many fine fish belonging to the families Osphromenidae, Notopteridae, etc., etc. Catfish can exist in slime and silt though it is questionable whether they can thrive, but Carp certainly require clear water to breed in.
One of our Carp the Kělah (Barbus sp.) has been described by Swettenham as the finest fresh water fish he ever ate in the East, and the Kalui (Osphromenus olfax) is so highly esteemed that several attempts have been made to introduce it into France, and it has been acclimatised in Mauritius, Australia and parts of India.
Tin mining is necessary and some pollution of the rivers is unavoidable, but there have been many cases where carelessly constructed dams have broken and a turbid flood of slime has been allowed to pour direct into the rivers for months while leisurely repairs are being made. Though much of the damage done in the past is irremediable, let us hope that a more general recognition of the value of the fresh water fisheries will result in a fair measure of protection in the future. There are still rivers which can be saved.
By saving our fresh water fisheries we shall save, incidentally, our rice-fields, for Rice and Fish in addition to being the two staple foods of the country are inseparable. When you destroy one you destroy the other.
Where you can grow rice you can catch fish and where you can no longer catch fish you cannot grow rice.
To explain: the mining silt which pours into the rivers gradually raises the bed of the stream and so causes a rise in the water table. A rise in the water table limits the area of drainable land, and drainage is as necessary to a rice field as irrigation. So the area which can be planted with rice becomes smaller and smaller until eventually the water table is so high that the river channel can no longer carry off storm water. The resultant floods deposit a layer of slime and silt on the rice fields and complete the work of destruction.
Fish cannot breed in the rivers polluted with slime and silt, so the Fisheries and rice fields perish simultaneously. In our policy of construction and development these facts should not be lost sight of.
There is yet another point which has received no attention and that concerns anadromous Marine fishes which enter rivers to spawn. Among these fishes the principal one is the Shad (' ​'Tĕrubok), which ascends the rivers to a considerable distance during the breeding season. It arrives on the coast in enormous shoals, and twenty eight years ago, as Skeat has recorded, they were invariably taken in full roe, when they are in the best condition.
Recent reports show that Těrubok have fallen off both in quantity and, as the writer knows from his own experience, in quality, those now taken being mostly spent fish in which state they are positively unwholesome.
These fish used to be taken in such numbers that the nets contained more than the boats could load. Within the past few years the writer has, on several occasions, picked up these fish by hand in a dying condition apparently choked by silt in their attempt to ascend the rivers. Failing to ascend the rivers the Shad must either spawn in the sea or in the polluted lower reaches and in either case the eggs perish.
Unfortunately, the migrations of the Tĕrubok do not, as far as the writer's experience goes, take it to the East coast of the Peninsula, so that, the Tĕrubok fishery of Malaya appears to be in danger of extinction.
This introduction would not be complete without some mention of the conditions under which the transport of fish from the source to the consumer takes place.
There is a general agreement that transport is bad. Many schemes have been evolved for ensuring rapid transport and reduced prices, but none of them have been put into practice and probably none are commercially practicable. A permanent scheme is required that can be built up by degrees; the writer has advocated in two reports the use of cold storage. While allowing that the expenditure will be great we should not lose sight of the fact that it will be a permanent and sound investment.
Let us consider the existing conditions first.
In a temperate climate fish will keep fresh for days. Here, near the Equator, fish caught in the morning are in an advanced state of decomposition before the evening. Decay is arrested by the use of ice. For instance, ice manufactured in Kuala Lumpur is taken by train to Port Swettenham and sold to small middlemen who go to sea and purchase from the fishermen. These middlemen are bound as a rule to sell the fish to the ice dealers, who again sell to other middlemen, who sell to the retailers in the markets. The result is that fish costing $15 a pikul at sea cost $80 a pikul in Kuala Lumpur, 30 miles away.
Ice melts rapidly in the trains, in the boats, and in the markets. A box of fish must therefore contain an enormous proportion of ice to allow for wastage, and the fish instead of being fresh, cold, and wholesome are in a swollen and sodden condition.
​While these are the conditions under which fish are transported a few miles in this country, we are indebted to a single Cold Storage Company for the privilege of being able to purchase, if we can afford it, fish, meat, game, butter and fruit, imported in refrigerated chambers from Great Britain, the United States, Australia and China.
Briefly, it amounts to this. We can eat foreign fish and foreign fowl but not the fresh produce of Malaya. Hundreds of tons of prime fish are caught every year on the East coast, where the inexhaustible supplies of the China sea are available, but all this fish is dried for export for lack of cold storage transport, though much of it is caught within 24 hours steam of Singapore.
There can be little doubt that the whole future of the perishable food business in this country depends on cold storage, but there is no decided opinion as to the part that the State should take in the development of the trade.
It was realised many years ago, that for sanitary reasons the ordinary shop house was not a suitable place in which fresh meat, fish, etc., could be exposed for sale, and, in the Malay States, the sale of such perishable produce is confined entirely to the markets built by the State.
It would seem, therefore, to be but reasonable and logical for the State to go a step further, and instal cold storage in the markets, and to rent space to the retail dealers in the same way that stalls are rented.
The State owns the railways which run from the coast to the market towns and the installation of refrigerated vans on the railways would appear to be a natural development of a State enterprise, as it is in other countries with State Railways.
This disposes of the problem as far as the Colony and the West Coast States are concerned but the problem on the East coast is quite different.
The development of the States on the East coast has been retarded because they possess no natural ports and harbours which can be entered during the North East monsoon.
Though the deep sea can be fished all through the N. E. Monsoon and steamers run regularly up the East coast to Bangkok and Saigon, no fishing is done because the fishermen live on the mainland. A heavy sea breaks on the shallows and sandbanks which extend from the coast, and dangerous rollers break on the bars which guard the entrance to the rivers.
Further out, in twenty fathoms or so, the seas are regular, and conditions for fishing far better in every way than they are in a strong wind in the English Channel or in the North Sea.
​We know that the sea off the coast of Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan swarms with fish all the year round, and all that is necessary is a scheme for supplying the Western States and the Colony, where fish is now very scarce.
The writer advocates State enterprise in the establishment of cold storage depots on the islands, where there is always safe anchorage and shelter in smooth water.
There is a chain of these islands all the way up the East coast. An island with a cold storage depot will become a permanent fishing settlement. Rent would be paid by the fishermen for space in cold storage, to be collected when the fish is sold. So far State enterprise is advocated.
It would pay steamers, running from Bangkok, Saigon and China to Singapore, Port Swettenham and Penang, to call at these islands for fish, and those steamers not now fitted with refrigerating plant would instal it.
Schemes for ameliorating the lot of the fishermen by granting loans, etc., have not succeeded because no scheme protected the fishermen from the middlemen, but the depots which will be the Penny-banks of the fishermen, always ready to receive deposits, however small, until required, will render the fishermen independent of the middlemen.
For example, there would be nothing to prevent a group of Malay fishermen from consigning regular shipments of fish direct to a Malay retailer in the market.
Shipments would be so frequent that loans should be unnecessary, but allowing that loans were asked for, to start Malays working on a co-operative basis, as indicated above, there would be no risk in advancing money on the security of the stock of fish.
With State organised depots and State transport there would be a fair field for steam trawlers and steam drifters owned by Companies or individuals. The depots would receive the fish and save the trawlers a journey to port with every catch, and here again the middleman would be eliminated.
This work deals, very inadequately, with fishes only. Much could be written and will, no doubt, be written later about our Crabs, Prawns, Crayfish, Pearl oysters, Edible oysters, Scallops, Cockles, Corals and Sponges, but considerations of space prevent more than the briefest mention.
The writer has seen Pearl shell taken close to Singapore and has handled a pearl valued at £800 taken off the Kelantan coast.
Rock oysters grow well here, but as they take about three years to mature, and no native can resist taking them while still small, they are practically unknown in the markets.
Leases could be granted and oysters cultivated. Sponges too, can be cultivated. Commercial sponges can be grown from ​cuttings, like flowers, and are so grown in the Philippines, and there are yet other marine growths which can be cultivated in the gardens of the sea.
Few countries have the potential fishery advantages that we possess and have neglected hitherto.
Our position between the Indian Ocean and the China Sea is unique and not only gives us access to an unlimited area for deep sea fishing, but also accounts for the large number of species of fish.
From Kuala Perlis on the West to Kuala Tabar on the East we have a thousand miles of coast line; more than some nations possess.
As to the vital importance of fish in the diet of all dwellers in this tropical country there is no question: as to the existence of an enormous area of potential fishing grounds there can be no dispute, and as to the large variety and good edible quality of our fish there is ample proof. Can we doubt therefore, with the experience of other countries to guide us, and while remembering that the economic stability of every country depends on the price of the peoples' food, that our fisheries are capable of enormous expansion and can we doubt that an enlightened policy of exploitation and regulation combined with constant scientific investigation will render the Fisheries one of the great economic assets of Malaya?
* ↑ Camb: Nat: Hist: 1904.
* ↑ Meek, Migrations of Fish.
* ↑ Meek, Migrations of Fish.