Some habits die hard, especially for a group of former residents of Pulau Sudong, an island south of the Singapore mainland.
Every Saturday and Sunday morning, about 20 of them set out from West Coast Park on their motor boats packed with traditional fish traps called bubu. These are conical iron-mesh traps placed on the seabed during low tide.
One of these dedicated fishermen is delivery driver and father of four Hamzah Mohamad, 60, who says he seldom buys fish from the market.
He says: "Having grown up by the sea, you get used to eating fish fresh from the sea. They have a kind of sweetness to them."
He now lives in a three-room HDB flat in West Coast with his wife and youngest daughter.
These weekend fishing trips hark back to a simpler, more rustic "island lifestyle": the fishing culture common to Pulau Sudong and the southern islands of Singapore. […]
In any case, most islanders resettled on the mainland between the 1970s and 1990s for various reasons. For instance, Pulau Sudong was turned into a military live firing area while Pulau Seking and Pulau Semakau were joined to enclose a rubbish landfill. […]
Wee, L. (2016, January 19). Lives of residents of Singapore's southern islands captured in documentary. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/travel/lives-of-residents-of-singapores-southern-islands-captured-in-documentary