Six major fish landing sites were selected for sharks sampling; Hutan Melintang and Kuantan on the west coast and east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, respectively, Mukah and Bintulu in the state of Sarawak, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu on the north-east and west coasts of the state of Sabah, respectively. The states of Sarawak and Sabah are located in north Borneo (Figure 1).

Hutan Melintang: This is one of the major landing area along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The landing sites here are private enterprises with most of the shark landings coming from trawlers.
Kuantan: The landing site sampled is owned by the government and managed by the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM). All sharks landed at this site were caught in Malaysian waters of the South China Sea off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
Bintulu: The main landing site is owned by the government and managed by the Bintulu Development Authority in Sarawak. Only trawlers of more than 40 GRT and gillnetters land their shark catches at this site. The fishing areas are from the shore to 100 nautical miles offshore including largepatches of coral reefs and rough grounds. There were also a number of small landing jetties located 2-3 miles upriver that can only be approached during the high tide.
Mukah: Sharks landed are mostly caught by gillnets which operate in coastal areas, less than 30 nautical miles from shore off Mukah, Sarawak. The bottom type is flat to undulating with mud/sand substrates and some areas are interphased with coral reefs.
Sandakan: Fishing areas are from Kudat down to Tambisan in the northern part of Sabah. Landing time for most of the trawlers is around 4 am - 10 am daily.
Kota Kinabalu: The fishing grounds are around the Mengalun Island, Tiga Island and Mantanani Island.

Figure 1: The six landing sites covered during the study

Fish trawl contributed almost 100% of sharks landed in Hutan Melintang, Kuantan, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu, while in Bintulu, this gear contributed 61%. However, in Mukah, gill net is the major fishing gear with 88% of all shark landings. Other fishing gears which also landed sharks are long line and purse seine.


Table 2: Fishing gears, vessels, and number of fishers in each landing site

Landing site	Gear	Vessel size	Registered vessel	Number of fishers
Hutan Melintang	Fish trawl	Mostly 40-70 GRT	267	942
Kuantan	Fish trawl Longlines purse seine	Mostly 40-70 GRT	586	2,399
Bintulu	Fish trawl Gillnet longline		275	1,015
Mukah	gill net longline	Mostly 10-39.9 GRT	270	791
Sandakan	Fish trawl longline gillnet	Mostly 10-69.9 GRT	1,461	3,760
Kota Kinabalu	Fish trawl	Mostly 10-39.9 GRT	383	1,521

Trawls

Gillnets and entangling nets

Longlines (nei)

Seine nets

Environmental limitations to fishing: monsoon.

Hutan Melintang: Fish trawl is the major fishing gear landing sharks at Hutan Melintang in Perak. This gear contributed 15,346.96 kg of sharks or 0.30% of the total landings (shark and non-shark) which were recorded from 502 landings during the study duration. An average of 4.3 trawlers/day have sharks among their catches.

Kuantan: Fish trawl is the major fishing gear landing 99% of all sharks caught followed by longlines, purse seine and other gears (especially fish trap) at Kuantan. Total shark catches from these gears were 74,893 kg or 0.58% of the total landings (shark and non-shark). The 74,398 kg of sharks caught by trawlers came from 1,068 boat landings with an average of 8.68 trawlers/day having sharks in their catches.

Bintulu: Fish trawl is also the major fishing gear landing sharks in Bintulu, Sarawak. It contributes 61% of the total sharks followed by gillnet (21%) and longline (18%). A total of 15,852 kg of sharks were landed by these three gears during the study duration which made up 4.0% of the total landings. The number of boats sampled were 53 fish trawlers, 34 gillnetters and 3 longliners. An average of 1.89 boats/day for both trawlers and gillnetters were found to have sharks in their catches.

Mukah: Gillnet is the major fishing gear landing sharks in Mukah, Sarawak, and contributed 88.36% of the total shark landings by all gears, followed by longline (6.23%). The other fishing gears contributed 5.41% of the total shark landing. The total of 8,746.50 kg sharks landed by these gears made up 12.88% of the total landings. From a total of 312 gillnetters sampled during the study, an average of 4.22 gillnetters/day have sharks in their catches.

Sandakan: Fish trawl is the major fishing gear landing sharks in Sandakan, Sabah. A total of 7,258 kg of sharks were landed from 133 fish trawlers landings sampled during the study duration. This amount contributed 94.63% of the total shark landings followed by longline (3.91%) and gillnet (1.46%). The shark landings from these three fishing gears contributed 3.64% of the total landings (shark and non-shark). An average of 1.27 fish trawlers/day, 1.0 longliners/day and 1.0 gillnetters/day were found to have sharks in their catches.

Kota Kinabalu: Fish trawl is the only fishing gear landing sharks in Kota Kinabalu during the study duration. A total of 9,293 kg of sharks were landed from 138 trawler landings sampled. Sharks constituted 1.30% of the total landing (shark and non-shark). An average of 1.2 trawlers/day have sharks in their catches.

The utilization, price and market destination is almost similar throughout the study duration. Once sharks are caught by fishers, the sharks are not discarded but are brought back where they were usually sold to the local markets and sometimes processed into other products.

Sharks, especially the larger ones, are sold without fins. The prices of fresh whole sharks range from US$0.23 to US$2.05 per kg depending on various factors such as species, size and location. Wet shark meats are traded for between US$0.66 and US$2.10 per kg. In certain places, the shark head is also being sold as bait while the liver is sold for human consumption. Shark fins are mainly processed into three main forms i.e. dried whole-fin, dried loose-fin and wet loose-fin. Dried whole-fins are processed from larger and higher grade shark fins while the loose-fin products are mainly derived from smaller and lower grade fins. Other products, which are derived from sharks, include dried salted shark meat, shark skin, shark cartilage and shark jaw/teeth.

Malaysia's trade in sharks and shark products are mainly confined to the domestic market due to the small volume of supply. Only shark fin products are being traded externally but the exports of these products from Malaysia were rather small amounting to only about 10 tonnes in 2001. Shark fin products are being traded in three categories i.e. dried, salted and prepared/preserved forms. Most of the exports are destined for countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Substantial quantities of shark fin products traded are in the dried category while only a small amount is in the other two categories.