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| Rising sea levels continue to wash away leatherback and other endangered sea turtles nesting beaches in Madang province. Picture of a leatherback returning to sea after nesting at Dawang beach, Mur village, Rai coast District, Madang. Picture curtesy of Leeray. |
Pictures and stories By WENCESLAUS MAGUN
One had arrived earlier, most
likely at three in the afternoon and had dropped off a fisherman on our island and
left.
The other boat had just anchored
at the shore.
The warm afternoon sun seem to
welcome the fishermen home as if to bid them farewell for accompanying them
throughout the day in the open sea as they were fishing.
The sun’s heat continued to warm
the lagoon’s surface. If only we had
eyes to see, we could tell that the heat from the sun was actually causing the
lagoon to rise in millimeters.
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| Warmer sea and rising sea levels have washed away many shores including Kaviak's on Karkar Island, Madang. |
The volume of the sea water in the lagoon continue to increase as it swells and swallows the edges of our coasts. Some of our islands and coastal areas have sunk over the years as a result of the effects of climate change.
The lagoon and our islands
continue to get additional pressures from plastics, and the waves of boats that
continue to sail the seas and the lagoon, washing away the shores of our
islands.
Our islands homes are enveloped
by Madang lagoon. It is surrounded by
mangroves, swaying coconut palms, shrubs, and dots of houses filling the
mainland and or lining our islands.
Whilst the mangroves and the
seagrass in our lagoon store and sequestrate carbon to mitigate the impacts of
climate change, our actions to cut mangroves for firewood and build houses and
destroy seagrass from overfishing, disturbs them from fulfilling their
potentials.
Land which our ancestors once used
for gardening, collecting firewood, looking after pigs, and planting coconut
trees for food and income are now submerged under the sea.
The rising sea level in the
lagoon has seen much of our Islands being washed away or continue to sink.
Rising sea level has not only shrunk
the size of our islands but has caused our water wells to taste salty.
The sea water has definitely intruded
our fresh well waters and destroyed our food gardens.
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| Steven Kalom in blue jeans sharing his concerns on the effects and impacts of climate change in Riwo village, Ward 6, Ambenob LLG, Madang province. |
I strolled over to the skipper of one of the fishing boats that just arrived. The skipper was having his meal of boiled bananas under his hut.
His hut is made of thatched sago
palm roof, palm bark floors, and it’s surrounded by sago palm stalks tightly
woven together with strips of canes.
Joining him were his children
aged between three and 12 years. They
huddled themselves together and giggled with smiles at me as I approached them.
The day’s heat from the sun had taken its
tolls. I could see the fishermen’s skins
all darkened.
“Peter (not his real name). How
was your catch?” I asked with curiosity, as I sat next to him respecting him
for his tireless efforts of fishing to fend for his family.
“Bagarap stret, (Very bad),” he
responded with a sad face. The other
fisherman who accompanied him confirmed Peter’s answer. He stressed that they had fished whole day
and returned with only eight fish.
“This catch,” said Peter, “is not
enough to even buy fuel for our next trip,” he stressed with a sad low voice,
staring at me and searching for an appropriate answer to explain to his
children and to the lady who owns the boat he was fishing on.
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| Karkum villagers in Madang province have taken steps to protect, restore, increase, and sustain their marine ecosystems and biodiversity by establishing their Community Managed Marine Area using Conservation Deed. Picture of their Natural Resources Management Area Map. |
As I left Peter and headed back to our house, the lady, the boat’s owner (my cousin) greeted me from her sit on a bench under a mango tree next to Peter’s house.
“Cousin, not a good catch today,”
she reaffirmed her fishermen’s concerns with a tone of sadness.
My cousin sister’s concerns is
further reiterated by other fishermen.
A 23ft fiber glass dinghy with a four
stroke 60hp Yamaha dinghy had returned around 10am with three weary
fishermen. They had left Malapau Island,
in Riwo village, at about four o’clock in the morning today.
Malapau Island, in Riwo village,
Ward 6, of Ambenob local level government, in Madang province is about 10km
north of Madang town.
The seasoned fishermen had left
their warm houses and loving families behind in the early hours of the morning
to catch fish. The fishermen aimed to
catch sufficient fish so they can sell at the Madang fish market to earn money. With the money they could buy food, clothes
and meet their other basic needs.
As they pulled up at the beach,
and were unpacking their fishing gears, they informed a few of us waiting
expectantly with high hopes at the shore of a good catch.
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| Late Bob Khonn expressing his concerns on the environmental, social, economic and cultural issues of Karkum village with lawyer Tamalis Akus at Karkum village. |
“Solwara bagarap stret. Strongpla tait, na mipla i no hukim wanpela pis. (Bad sea with strong currents and we did not catch any fish),” two of the fishermen said with heavy hearts.
The boat’s skipper, the more
experienced fishermen in his early 60’s confirmed the two younger fishermen’s
comments.
He added, the current has changed
causing the fish to either move away from the Inshore Fish Aggregating Devise (IFAD),
commonly used by the locals to catch fish or the IFAD needs to be maintained to
attract fish.
There used to be more than four
IFADs and off-shore FADs located in between Kranget Island and Malas village
some 80km to 90km northwest of Madang town and between Karkar and Bagabag
Islands. With just one IFAD left,
fishermen are literally struggling to catch fish to earn an honest hard working
living.
“We call on the Madang Fisheries
Division, the National Fisheries Authority, the RD canning or any other
appropriate authorities to replace the missing IFADs to help us catch fish for
our living,” appealed the elderly fishermen as he unpacked his fishing gears
from the dinghy.
After failing to catch fish from the IFAD for hours, they followed the current south, heading towards Rai coast in an attempt to see schools of fish to catch. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find any to catch and returned downhearted.
Their stories reflect my
understanding on the effects and impacts of climate change causing changing sea
currents. With global warming comes sea
level rise, extreme weather events, longer periods of droughts, and rainy
seasons, strong winds or cyclones, and increase diseases.
Our villagers are the most
vulnerable. They bear the price of
global warming created by industrial nations during the industrial revolution.
We all contribute to increase
greenhouse emission from the use of fuel, coal, and gas and from farming as
producers, traders, and consumers.
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| Environmental steward Liberty Betuel shares her sea turtles restoration stories with Dibor, and Tokain villagers at Dibor. |
Unless we play our part at our
communities by joining our government to mitigate greenhouse emission our
inactions will continue to exacerbate, exhilarate, and amplify the ongoing
upwards trend of climate change effects and impacts.
Our fishermen are like canneries
in the coal mine. They warn us that
climate change effects and impacts are on the rise affecting their normal daily
catch and making it difficult to look after their families.
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