Kota Kinabalu: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Assoc Prof Dr Bernadette Mabel Manjaji Matsumoto said the loss of wetlands in Sabah is putting the State’s seafood industry at risk, with coastal communities losing their main source of income.
“Those who eat seafood, have you actually ever wondered where the seafood begin their life? The answer is wetlands,” Bernardette said during her talk on how wetland damage affects the fishing industry.
She was among panel speakers for Session 2: Wetland Fire - Regime/Wetland Urban Interface at the 5th International Symposium on Conservation and Management of Wetlands held at the Sabah International Convention Centre, here, Wednesday.
“Wetlands are where fish start their lives and grow up, while bigger fish use these areas as feeding grounds,” said Bernadette, who heads the Borneo Marine Research Institute’s Coastal Connections Living Lab.
“These coastal ecosystems function as essential nurseries, breeding grounds and feeding areas, forming the critical link to fisheries productivity and food security throughout Malaysia.
“The muddy areas in wetlands can support up to 47 different species, while more complex wetland areas can house over 100 species,” she said, with research indicating that Malaysian wetlands support between 47 fish species in simple mudflat environments to as many as 119 species in more diverse wetland systems.
“According to data from Sabah’s Environmental Protection Department published around 2000, fishing activities in wetlands bring in about RM1.2 million per month for each local household through fish, prawns, shellfish and crabs,” she said.
She said wetlands provide eight different services that help support farming and economic activities for coastal communities.
“In Malaysia, for many of these coastal communities, wetlands are the foundation of their security and their livelihoods,” she said.
However, she pointed out three major problems threatening this important relationship between wetlands and fishing.
The first is habitat loss, where large wetland areas are broken up for city development, water projects and farming including fish farms.
“This habitat reclamation for development and aquaculture projects has become increasingly problematic across the region.
“When the natural landscape becomes fragmented, that will affect the life cycle of the fish.
“Wetland fragmentation disrupts the natural patterns that fish depend on for breeding, nursery care and feeding, ultimately impacting the entire marine food chain,” she said.
She said the second problem is overfishing beyond natural replenishment rates in wetland areas, which makes fish stocks go down quickly.
“The intensive harvesting pressure exceeds the capacity of these ecosystems to naturally regenerate their fish populations,” she said.
The third issue is pollution and declining water quality from farm runoff, especially when factories are built in wetland areas.
“This contamination not only affects the immediate aquatic environment but also degrades the water purification services that healthy wetlands naturally provide,” she said.
