Expeditions
Terempah is the commercial hub of the Anambas Islanders and is on the island of Siantan. Ship's traffic comes in and out here and the town has a fresh food and fish market to which we conducted two expeditions. (Photo of Siantan below)

Observations
We arrived at the fresh food market at around 9am and it felt like most of the day’s business had already been done. We bought most of our food from a collection of stalls in one corner that had between them the widest selection of produce. The stall owners belonged to the same family. Fresh food for sale included chilies, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, celery leaves, very small spring onions, bananas, limes, ‘ugli’ limes, green beans, long beans, beans with very prominent pods, zigzag okra, potatoes, garlic, onions, shallots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lotus flowers, mangos (it’s mango season), dragonballs, imported apples and oranges, salak, bananas.

In Tebu, we spent time with the Tolam family - Steven, his wife Lofifi, his sister Li Lin and her two children, Dominic and Calista. They have established a guest house in Tebu with rooms for visitors built on stilts over the shallow bay. Steven spent time with us, giving some background and history on the reefs of the Anambas Islands. Dynamite fishing was rife up until two years ago when there was encouragement and training given to teach other fishing methods to some of the fishermen. For the last two years, there has been very little blast activity. Thai boats fish here illegally. In attempts to protect the reefs, there are now two patrol boats operating in the islands, one from the Indonesian Navy and the other from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, however, the latter is only able to patrol in calm seas.

There is a live fish trade occurring here, but the fish are brought as juveniles from Bali to Batam where they are reared to half a kilo. They are then shipped to Anambas to be reared to full size, from where they are collected by ships from Hong Kong. There is a trade in shark fins, as observed with shark fins drying on the roof of a fishing boat in Terempah. These are sent to Kalimantan for distribution.

Li Lin commented on the changes she has seen since she was a child here. She used to swim with sea horses in front of the family house in Terempah where there is also coral reef. But now there are no more sea horses.

 
SV Infinity approaches Siantan, passing Terempah before anchoring in Tebu

there are no cars, only boats and a couple of motorcycles

scenes from the fresh food market

street scenes in Terempah

reef fish and tuna at the fish market which starts at 5am

stingray and small reef fish

   
clams cut up ; shark fins drying on the roof of a fishing boat

guitar fish, shark fins and a very small juvenile shark

  
everyone in town comes to buy their catch early in the morning, the market closing for the day around 7am

Li Lin, Lofifi, Calista and Dominic in Tebu

    
their guest house in Tebu; most houses we saw in the Anambas Islands are built on stilts over the sea

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