Woven island memories

Before the sun rises over a beach enclave located next to a yacht club in West Coast Park, the brothers can be found loading their sampan.

They pack scuba equipment, ice boxes and fish traps woven from galvanised steel chicken wire, and then head out to sea.

They do not need a compass or map - they have been setting these fish traps, known as "bubu", in the same places that their father told them about since they were boys living on Pulau Sudong.

The Sudong brothers, Mr Ahmad Sah Mohamad, 69, and Mr Hamzah Mohamad, 66, are among former residents of the island who still weave their own bubu and set them out at sea.

This is a method of catching fish that has been used in Singapore for decades and the duo are among the last fishermen here keeping the craft alive.

The brothers and other inhabitants of Pulau Sudong, located some 10km south-west of mainland Singapore, were relocated to the mainland in the late 1970s to make way for redevelopment.

The island is now used for military purposes.

"Every weekend when we go out to sea, we're not that far away from the island. We get to look at where the old housing areas on the island used to be," said Mr Hamzah, a retired deliveryman.

"Bubu fishing is a tradition that has been passed down for generations," he added.

The brothers anchor their sampan and Mr Ahmad Sah, who is semi-retired and serves as watchman for the fishing boats at West Coast Park, puts on scuba equipment to retrieve the bubu traps that he set in the sea weeks before.

On a good day, Mr Ahmad Sah's traps, which are bigger and placed deeper than his brother's, can each weigh up to 80kg with fish. He does not retrieve a trap if he feels that it weighs less than 5kg.

Mr Hamzah loosens a string that secures a hole in each trap and empties the fish into the boat.

He brushes down the trap before throwing it back into the sea for his brother to set on the seabed.

"It's like cleaning a house so the guests will want to come," he explained. "It also keeps the rust off and allows the bubu to last longer."

The brothers then sort the fish and put them in ice.

The catch often includes rabbit fish, grouper, white pomfret and even pufferfish, a poisonous fish that the siblings' relatives know how to cook safely.

It is usually close to noon when the brothers come back to shore, and their relatives and regular customers would have been waiting for them to bring in the catch.

On weekdays, the duo can be found weaving bubu to prepare for the weekend. New traps are always needed as they get corroded by the seawater after a while.

The brothers make them for their own use as well as to sell to other fishermen.

While Mr Hamzah's son - Mr Amir Hamzah, 40 - regularly follows him out to sea, there is concern that the tradition of bubu weaving and fishing may be vanishing among the former islanders.

"The younger generation don't really know how to make bubu. They will have to learn," Mr Hamzah said. "I plan to teach my son before it's too late."