The dugong not seen here since the 1960s. Gajah Mina the great sea elephant whose nebulous body washes up on Natuna shores; the only sign of it here is the occasional cropping of sea grass, visible at low tide at the cape, as if a lawnmower has been driven over it. The dolphins are travelling from the northeast, the same direction as monsoon winds, the loudest of cyclic effects. High sediment loads related to forest removal and land  development flow out into the seas, travel the currents to the islands where they coat the coral reefs, smothering their photosynthetic processes. An intimate knowledge of creeks  But the thing became really acute after the arrival of the first Europeans, said the curator. Unlike nearly all their predecessors in Borneo, they did not at first wish to control the land, only the sea. Nor did they wish to control the sea in a positive way. For example, they did not wish to fish in it. What they mainly wanted to do was ensure that no one else should go freely and independenly to or fro across it. All other sorts of boat, carrying trade or persons, must either pay tribute or - and preferably - be eliminated.  The blunted point of the frontal lobe spines of Scylla serrata / The blunted frontal lobe spines of Scylla tranquebarica*  The triangular frontal lobe spines of Scylla paramamosain  The rounded frontal lobe spines of Scylla olivacea*   Resinous damat laut washed up on the beaches, illuminant  At night the sea glows blue with bioluminescent dinoflagellates. To speak of Nyemah, the spirit of the sea, the sea, the offering to Nyemah is also Nyemah, the island also Nyemah and also where Nyemah dwells  A model of a boat, offerings of daun rokok and betel pushed out to sea in a model boat; also Nyemah, for Nyemah   Relations between Peoples of the Sea and the West.   The degree of folding and faulting makes any estimate of the thickness of these strata merely an erratic guess. The plantation, a telescope. I get confused, swept away by Nyemah   For a moment that lasts a year, Nyemah is the primary sea spirit, a ritual practice, a small effigy, the name of phenomena, a named entity connected to the island and to the sea in general, a greater spirit than the generic antu laut; Nyemah is a whatsapped drawing of an offering of betel leaves and cigarettes placed on a small model boat and pushed out to sea as an offering for Nyemah, a drawing, a leaf, a boat, an island, all Nyemah. Immanent to all. Nyemah is theirs or not theirs only, unislamic, is culture not religion, is the wind that picks up on the day of the semah ritual no matter how calm the sea has been beforehand, so many partial things overlapping. And after a year, my misunderstanding, mistranslation, micommunication refusal to understand that  Nyemah is simply ritual, and.  My mistake.   So many tropes about the sea. Woodchips to Japan for rayon.  Charcoal. He extends the map into the sea, silting layer on top of layer. A list of fish, migration patterns of dolphins and deep sea currents, the wind directions right now. The location of the underwater reef balls. Gentle coercion to settle  Regulation. Species by species classification. Dark shapes swoop a tangle of backdrop painting and cut branches. And between them curving bursting out a floor to ceiling diorama of talang talang island. A dream is a serious thing. We don’t talk about that. Rhythm for Nyemah  A stream of text in flight. Regularities  Fluvial  Marine Machine that interrupts   Fugitive by nature  Flooding.  Dynamics, up to vanishing point, no centre or circumference  The west makes/wants objects of desire/knowledge   layering into an accretion. Supralittoral (above shoreline but damp from spray or capilliary action of water).  The plantation, a telescope.  Unfolding. Relations between Peoples of the Sea and the West. To speak of Nyemah  He draws the main conservation sites - turtle hatcheries, underwater locations of reefballs and crayfish breeding sites, the locations of islands. I want him to draw the paths he takes by his boat to go fish, but he’s dismissive, another evasion - because it is pointless or because it is private? I get the feeling it’s closer to pointless.  This opacity, is it the same as hesitation?  tells me this beach is haunted by a small child, someone who got lost or abandoned, or something. He doesn’t do anything bad, the child, just runs up and down. They fold out into bigger stories, about ecology, pests, landscapes, climates.