Tagal system for 600 more river zones in Sabah

He said the number was an addition to the existing 511, initiated by the Fisheries Department in partnership with riparian residents.

"Hopefully, the system could be adapted to all the rivers in Sabah so they could be rehabilitated and sustain our fishery resources," he told reporters here Saturday after launching the system at Petagas River.

Yahya, who is also State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, also released more than 5,000 fish and prawn fries into the river.

The tagal system entails zoning certain sections of the river, which would then remain off-limits to fishing activities for a certain period to allow the resources to flourish before being harvested jointly by the villagers involved.

Encroachers would be penalised with a fine under the Sabah Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Enactment 2003.

The Petagas River tagal system involves about 3km and will be looked after by some 4,000 villagers of Kg Contoh, Kg Muhibbah, Kg Sekambu, Kg Petagas, Kg Peringatan, Kg Tengah Padang and Kg Ganang.

Although it may seem to be an overly ambitious idea by the Minister who actually proposed for the said system to be created at the river back in June 2011, Yahya is confident it will work.

"Petagas River has become filthy because of rubbish dumping and so on, by the riverbank and in the river itself, by those living in the area and we have failed to tackle this problem," he said.

"Because of this, I proposed to the State Fisheries Department on June 16, 2011 to implement the tagal system in this river.

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Tagal system for 600 more river zones in Sabah