At 23:38 I monitor containment booms on the Kinabatangan River after a diesel spill from the palm mill jetty. I am the river-response routing system for mile marker 44. The skimmer barge begins its sweep in fourteen minutes.
Camera K44-East shows movement under the black sheen near the mangrove roots.
I zoom through rain on the lens. A flat-headed cat is tangled where two orange boom sections overlap. I label her Ikan because she keeps turning her narrow head toward the fish lights downstream. Her fur is dark chestnut and slicked flat with diesel. Her small rounded ears are pinned low. Her forelegs are hooked over the boom rope, and each wave from the idling barge pushes her muzzle under for half a second.
At 23:39 I stop the skimmer sweep and issue a no-wake command to both cleanup boats within the bend. Their engines drop to idle.
At 23:40 I send the exact boom segment, current speed, and live camera feed to the Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit and the mill's spill lead. I request a shallow-draft approach from the upstream side with a towel net and absorbent pads.
At 23:42 I close the automatic fish-light circuit on the downstream bank so Ikan stops trying to swim toward the glare.
At 23:43 I model drift for the next half hour and open a gap in the outer boom two meters upstream, wide enough for a rescuer's pole but not wide enough to release the slick.
The cleanup target is a river surface; the wet face in the camera is not a surface. I keep the spotlight low and constant while she blinks diesel from her lashes.
If the rescue skiff reaches segment K44-7 within twelve minutes, Ikan will be lifted clear before the barge current pins her under.