FISH farmers in Teluk Bahang, Penang, are staring at long spells of unemployment as they have no way of rebuilding their aquaculture farms all over again without any aid from the authorities.

After losses of more than RM500,000 per farm, breeders said the operational costs of restarting their businesses are too high without any support, as fish seedlings alone can cost RM10,000 for one type of fish.

The fish farmers also told The Malaysian Insight that the recent death of more than 50,000 fish at a farm on August 11, the second such incident this year, is the result of waste dumping from land works in Penang as the state pursues development by reclaiming more land.

They are also angry that since the recent incident, not one representative from the federal or state government has met them.

Farmer Lim Soh Giah, 55, said the fish farming business is a lost cause and is willing to give it up after 30 years.

“Thirty years in this business and none of my fish died, now everything is gone. How am I going to live? We don’t want to do this any more if we do not get any return,” he said.

“Seedlings for each fish cost RM7. If I am to buy them again, I must buy for 20,000 to 30,000 fish. 

“Then, the cost of feeding them. How am I to earn any money?” he told The Malaysian Insight when met at the Teluk Bahang jetty.

Lim asked why the government didn’t take any action after the first incident of fish death in May, despite complaints lodged then.

“The losses I suffered were around RM650,000. The government did not say anything about replacing or compensating us.

“This is not the first time this has happened here. In May, we made a report about it but they (the government) are still quiet about it,” said Lim, a father of one.

“If no officers or state representatives or ministers come, how are we to explain our predicament to them?”

He said, however, officers from the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) came to enquire about their losses. He said researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) also came to take water samples.

USM’s Centre for Marine and Coastal studies (Cemacs) is currently investigating the cause of fish death with a study on water samples in the area.

In the May incident, the presence of heavy metals in Teluk Bahang’s waters was said to be a possible cause, but a follow-up study by the Department of Environment found that these were within acceptable limits. It also found no industries in the town which could have caused the levels to be higher than usual.

No longer sustainable

Lim said there were five or six fish farms in the Teluk Bahang waters and all of them supplied fish mostly to the local Penang market and a few buyers from Kedah.

Fish farmers blame dredging and land-reclamation works that have increased in Penang over the years.

Lim dismissed the exco in charge of the environment, Phee Boon Poh’s claim that the fish died from low levels of oxygen.

“How does he know it is because of low oxygen? We have been here for 30 years. It’s the dredging and mud that is thrown into the water. That is why the fish died.

“But he (Phee) is the government, what can we do?” Lim added.

Another fisherman lodged a police report after spotting a vessel discharging what looked like mud in the waters off Butterworth. The fisherman filmed the dumping near the Butterworth port.

Another fish farmer, Ooi Hye Hin, 56, said he was convinced that the fish died from the waste from sand dredging.

“Not once, but many times we have seen dumping of waste but we don’t have any evidence. We have only recorded a video recently.”

Ooi said the dumping is around 5km away.

Ooi, who claimed he has accrued losses of up to RM800,000 from fish death, said there’s no way he could rebuild his fish farm business without assistance or compensation.

Lim said even if they could start again, fish farming has become too uncertain as development in Penang becomes more intense.

Besides Teluk Bahang fish breeders, fishermen from the state and northern Perak have also expressed fears for their livelihood now that the state has received federal approval for the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project.

Fishermen said the massive project to create more than 1,800ha of three man-made islands will cause silt contamination and destroy one of the peninsula’s prime fishing and prawn-breeding grounds. 

Environmentalist have also raised concerns that sand dredging for the project in northern Perak will affect fishing there and reduce the amount of catch.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state could not verify the cause of the recent fish deaths as USM is still conducting research. – August 21, 2019.