Jelly Fish Processing
There are three tools used by the fisherman. The seledok is a long handled scoop net. The penchangkok is like a rake with two sharp prongs on the edge of a long wooden pole while the belat is a long drift net. The season is from mid February to April and then again in October.
The sheds are along the seaside and are secured with plastic for each step.In the first stage of processing, the jellyfish are placed in a three compartment container and then treated with sodium bicarbonate and salt for three days. The jelly fish are washed with sea water and then moved to the second compartment where they are treated with the same substances though in different proportions for three-seven days. Finally, the, jelly fish are placed in the third compartment where water is drained and they turn a brown color. This usually takes a week. The jellyfish are then moved to the cleansing stage where debris are removed and the jellyfish are packaged.
They sell for about RM6,500 ton ($1360 per ton) for the top grades down to RM5,000 ($1250) per ton for bits and pieces.
An article about how to process jellyfish was published in the International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology and was written by Chong Shin and his group of the Universiti Kebangsaan. The jellyfish which is harvested is called Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye, or uber-uber putih or uber-uber merah according to the color of the large medusa which floats on top of the sea. The research was conducted in a Pasir Pandak Village in Sarawak.
Causes of non excusable delays by contractors in Sarawak
What looked like a promising paper to report, it is not available on the Internet while only pieces of it are available on the website. To read the report, one must go to Bilik Koleksi Akses Terhad PTAR Kampus Samarahan or find Mohammed Rafiq Mohammed Radzuan. http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/36633/
New Species
The November 2020 issue of The Journal Phycology announced that two new species of diatoms, microscopic critters that swim in the sea, have been discovered. This makes 58 added to this group. There was no poison detected in these two. The harmful ingredients are responsible for red tides and killing shell fish and humans who eat the shellfish. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.13101
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Scientist made known a new species of Anchovy, Stolephorus acinaces sp. nov. found in the waters off of Borneo, Haruk Taka reported in the November Issue of Marine Biodiversity https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01115-2
Ten new small trees, Polysoma, have been named by Leng Guan Saw of the Penang Botanic Garden and was report in the recent issue of Phytotaxa. The species were all reported on Borneo. We tried to find a picture but alas, the authors e-mail could not be found. https://www.mapress.com/j/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.471.2.1
A new species of grasshopper( Lucretilis balikpapan sp. nov. (Borneo Island = Kalimantan) has been found near Balikipapen, Borneo Island as reported in Zoosytematica https://zenodo.org/record/4268327#.X7M6iaozbIU
