DEAR Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow,

Surely you know that Malaysia was at one time the world’s biggest tin producer. What happened after all the rich deposits were mined?

After the tin ores were extracted, the mines closed shop.

But suppose the tin ores were able to “reproduce” so that supply was never exhausted, wouldn’t the mines still be operating today?

A living example of such a concept is the Bay of Teluk Kumbar, which has an unending supply of fish, prawns, etc. The inshore fishing industry here has been operating for centuries without suffering the fate of the tin mines that operated for only a small fraction of the time that inshore fishing has operated. This is for the simple reason that fish keep reproducing themselves all the time so long as they are left alone to do so in their habitat where there is ample food and good shelter for them.

What do fish like the “kembung” and other shallow water species need to keep reproducing? They need an area of the sea that is shallow, well sheltered from strong currents, has plenty of food, and is quiet and peaceful, for fish also need rest and sleep! Seagrass meadows are the perfect places that provide all of these.   

There is no human input needed to feed the fish. What is needed is good sunlight to keep their food chain running on “auto-pilot”. The sunlight keeps the underwater sea-meadows in shallow waters lush to provide all that the fish need for living and reproducing in an unbroken cycle. Sea-meadows are akin to fields of underwater “lalang” in shallow mud flats.

Now, your grandiose fantasy reclamation project is going to destroy permanently the sea-grass meadows that cover the whole of the mud flat that makes up the Bay of Teluk Kumbar. I am wondering whether you are even knowledgeable about this fact, or are just regurgitating what your “developer experts” have educated you about dumping an estimated 189 million cubic m of sand and rock to bury the sea-grass meadows and create a fairy-tale city to make tonnes of money. 

You say: “We would like to assert here that we do not have to choose between PSR and safeguarding the fishermen and food security. We can do both because fishermen will still be able to fish when the reclamation begins.

“During that period, fishermen will still have unobstructed access to the sea. Therefore we disagree with the deputy minister that PSR will be a disaster to fishermen”. 

“That period” refers to the estimated 20 years of reclamation work.

This only shows how naive you are about the subject. Having access to the sea is not the be all and end all of inshore fishing as you nonchalantly state. There must be sufficient stock of fish in an area of the sea to make fishing there worthwhile.

Once work starts, with machinery dredging out the mud and the sea-grass, transporting the dredged material a few miles away and dumping it into another part of the sea, and more machinery bringing in sand to dump in the dredged area, do you think the fish will be comfortable to remain in the area or even close to it?

It is foolhardy to fantasise that the fish will just move a little further out to the sea and loiter there for the fishermen’s harvest. Is there any scientific study done to show this? Otherwise what is the basis for you to say so? Saying so without any solid data is just a flight of fantasy, a false representation.  

Fish are as much disturbed as humans by nuisances around their habitat. Do you know that the houses fronting Green Lane (now Jalan Masjid Negeri) were once coveted residences. But when the road was widened and traffic increased it so disturbed the peace and ambience of the area that residents moved out. Almost all the houses are no longer residential, but have been turned into commercial premises. The place is just not conducive for human residence. The situation for the fish in the Bay of Teluk Kumbar will be worse as you are going to totally destroy the whole habitat of the fish.

When construction work disturbs the fish in the Bay of Teluk Kumbar what with the noises of the machinery, the murky waters due to very fine particles of mud that would make breathing difficult (fish also breathe), like heavy diesel smoke affects human breathing, and no similar mud flats covered with sea-grass to set up a new home, where do you think the fish will go? Will they just hang around outside the reclamation area where the fishermen can still go “unobstructed” by the construction works to harvest them? What a daydream!

Dr Jillian Ooi, an expert on seagrass and marine scientist and senior lecturer with Universiti Malaya’s Geography Department refers to seagrass meadows as “the unsung hero of the marine world” and explains that they play an important part in our lives –. they serve as a nursery for fish and also attract a lot of the fish we consume on a daily basis”.   

Dear CM Chow, you have no personal experience in inshore fishing or of where and how fish breed in the wild (i.e. not in cages, but the open sea). So please do not try to be a teacher to the fishermen who have had decades of on-the-job experience, which is the best form of experience. Their experience has been passed down from generation to generation and has stood the test of time solidly. It is not a dying industry as the state government has mischievously tried to portray, but an evergreen and self-sustaining industry that is thriving and feeding tens of thousands of Penangites daily.         

So please do not continue being in obstinate denial of the obvious fact that the Bay of Teluk Kumbar is an irreplaceable seagrass meadow that is home and breeding grounds for fish and other sea life and an important  source of fresh seafood – cheap protein for the middle- and lower-income people.   

Food security does not consist of preserving only the padi fields in Penang as the state has stated, which is appreciated,  but also of preserving other sources of food. So why is it that not only is the preservation of the seagrass meadows in the Bay of Teluk Kumbar not on the state’s agenda for food security, it is on the anti-food security agenda of the developers? – June 17, 2021.

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.