Mombasa's giant fish puzzles local scientists

BY PATRICK BEJA

Mombasa fisherman Masood Rashid is still on top of the world, two days after he caught one of the biggest fish in the Indian Ocean.

But as the 600kg Sunfish he donated to the National Museums of Kenya continues to attract onlookers and researchers, Rashid has become the focus for scientists who now say his prize catch could be a pointer to environmental changes facing the ocean.

A marine and education officer at the Fort Jesus National Museum’s of Kenya (NMK), Mr Hassan Mohamed Hassan said the Sunfish caught on the New Year’s Eve off the Pemba Channel was an indicator that climate change was quickly catching up with Kenya.

He explained that the giant fish usually stays between 100 to 150 nautical miles from the shoreline but the one caught by Mombasa fishermen was found only 30 nautical miles away and attributed it to environmental upheaval.

COMMON HABITAT

"Climatic change is being experienced globally and we suspect there could have been a disturbance somewhere that forced the fish to move from their common habitat," he told The Standard yesterday.

Hassan believes Kenya is the first country in Africa to have caught such a big fish in recent times.

Mr Arthur Tuda, a marine scientist at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says the Sunfish could have been bred there or migrated from someplace else.

He said there was need for an urgent survey of the ocean to establish why the fish moved nearer to the shoreline.

Marine experts, he says, need to accompany the fishermen to the sea what was exactly happening in relation to fish population in the ocean.

"The Sunfish lives in temperate and tropical waters and can be found where there are sharks."

He adds: "There could be a population of Sunfish in our region or they may just be migratory."

The fish also known locally as mola mola and whose main food is the jellyfish are usually caught using long liners and are delicious.

They are found in many areas including Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

The 38-year-old fisherman from Mombasa’s Old Town said he and his colleagues were returning from a fishing expedition near Pemba Island last Sunday when he caught the fish.

Armed with an 800m-meter liner, he bravely fought the big catch for several hours before he overcame it.

ARDUOUS TASK

"It was an arduous task subduing and pulling it to shore. My boat used up a lot of diesel and I even thought I had snared a shark," he said.

Instead of allowing residents to feast on the delicious fish, he put it on show at the Fort Jesus gardens where locals paid Sh50 to view it. The money was to compensate him for the fuel he used while at sea.

The fisherman says he first ventured into the sea when he was only seven years old.

"I am a very brave and expert fisherman but I have never caught anything like this. It puzzled me," said Rashid.

He added: "At one stage, the fish appeared to be over powering us but I used my experience to silence it."

His biggest worry was that the boat would run out of fuel as they battled the Sunfish.

The fish will be handed over to the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and will be transferred to Nairobi for preservation.

This was the second time, Rashid had caught a Sunfish.

He had caught a smaller one just before Chistmas, an indication that the population of the rare fish was multiplying around the Kenyan coastline.