We reel in a shark on Sisters' Island!

Date: Jan 30, 2016

Trip #13
Weather: Fair, sunny at times, rainy on return leg 
Waters: Sometimes choppy, and shallow (4 ft!) in some parts out in open sea; high tide in the Sisters' Island lagoon 
On board: C, A, Uncle Wong, D, KH, J and ZQ
New on board: Wet bags 

This black-tip reef shark was caught by 10-year-old ZQ, who was on the
beach, practising the art of casting a line under his dad's supervision. 
It is still a baby, about half a metre long - and a good sign of the state 
of the Sisters' Island Marine Park.

The junior angler, in Primary 5, also regularly solves Rubik's Cube puzzles
in under a minute. He took 42 seconds on the outward journey on the
 boat, and cried foul over Uncle Wong's timekeeping. He claims 
20 seconds is his best time. 

This must surely count as the trip with the most encounters with the wild side of Singapore so far! 

We are talking about catching a baby black-tip reef shark and a parrotfish and having a face-off with one of the islands' resident macaques, which got its hands on one of our bags of chips. It boldly came within a metre and a half of the whole group of us, only to drop the bag when we shouted at it. It looked to be an aggressive alpha male.

After its failed attempt at chip theft, it shimmied up a coconut palm and glowered at us from about 10 metres up. Two other members of its troop also stared at us from trees nearby. They dispersed after a while, perhaps convinced we weren't going to leave our food and drinks unattended.

After that close encounter with the macaque, some of us armed ourselves with
sticks to ward off further attempts at snack theft. 

Chips, nuts, wine, champagne and good conversation. It was a lovely afternoon,
not too hot, but the air was still. 

Meanwhile, angler KH, using chopped prawns as bait, reeled in a parrotfish, which, like the shark, was released alive.  

The white stuff near the mouth is the chunk of bait.

We packed up to leave the island, and bagged and binned our trash. As we waded into the lagoon to load the boat, the macaques reappeared and made immediate tracks for the bin. Their leader effortlessly pushed the swing cover of the bin open and their feast began - green tea, loose tobacco from C's empty pack of Marlboros (yes!) and leftover grapes and groundnuts. The mess they left around the bin made it look like we were the litterbugs.

I think the simians got the drill already: Wait till the humans leave. Raid the bin.

NParks, are you reading this? The islands need monkey-proof bins! [See post-script.]

Our return trip took nearly two hours because of a stretch of really shallow water near Pulau Sebarok and Pulau Semakau. We could see the sandy and rocky bottom among the seaweed. C slowed the boat down for nearly 20 minutes till we were well past Junk Island. (See map here; enlarge map so Junk Island is identified.) 

We usually pass the island (a small circular patch of tree-covered land) on our port side on the return trip, but today, we passed it on our starboard because a storm was brewing on our usual route. This was where the water was shallow.  C's note to self: Stick to the usual route. 

We ran into rain on the return trip anyway, and everyone huddled under bath towels to blunt the sting of the rain drops.

Post-script
I wrote to NParks to give them a heads-up on the failed rubbish bins, and told them that the aggressive monkeys somewhat spoiled our visit to the island. NParks replied fairly quickly to thank me for the tipoff;  regarding the monkeys, they said (somewhat condescendingly) that the "monkeys" are macaques (we knew that), are native to Singapore (we also knew that), and that we are not to stare them down, feed them or engage them in any way to prevent attacks (we knew that as well). In short, I guess, NParks won't do anything about them (and I had in mind shipping them off to another of Singapore's offshore islands that are off visitors' radars). I think we won't be visiting Sisters Island that often from now. Who likes spending island time being wary about where the monkeys are??