AN acute shortage of crew has forced a great many fishing boats operating from ports on both the east and west coasts of the peninsula to be tied up in ports, the fishermen’s associations said.

Malaysia Fisheries Association president Chia Tian Hee said nearly all its members’ C class licensed boats have not gone out to sea, while the number of boats operating out of ports in Selangor, Perak and Pahang going out had been reduced by half.

Chia said, as a result of the shortage of workers, only about 10% of the boats based at the country’s busiest fishing port, Hutan Melintang in southern Perak, will be utilised.

Hutan Melintang is the home port to over 600 fishing boats and supplies about 30% of the country’s domestic seafood demand.

There is now a real fear the prices for fresh fish will spiral upwards as catches dwindle.

The situation could be compounded by the expected rise in demand at next February’s Chinese New Year.

The fishermen are now calling on the government to intervene to help solve the worker shortage.

Chia said consumers could be forced to buy expensive, locally landed fresh fish or poor-quality foreign imports.

“Even if we import the fish to meet the demands, we will not get the best ones because the rich countries would have bought them all.

“We will only be left with the B or C grade fishes to choose from.”

Chia said there were no options other than getting the boats out to sea.

Fishing boat owners in coastal states in the north of the peninsula, like Perak and Kedah, historically rely on Thais to man their boats, while those in Selangor rely on Burmese and Indonesian workers.

The latest estimate is that the industry needs more than 10,000 foreign workers to man the boats.

“If the shortage remains unresolved soon, the inclement weather of the rainy season and the anticipated demand for Chinese New Year could push fish prices up by as much as 4%,” Chia said.

To resolve the problem, he said he had written to the Fisheries Department to intervene and resolve the shortage that was compounded by travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

To bring a foreign worker in during the restrictions could cost the employer as much as RM10,000.

This includes the cost of testing and quarantine.

Chia said one way to ease the shortage without having to pay too much is to renew and extend the work permit of foreign workers who were still in the country under the workers’ recalibration programme.

Expensive workers

The sad situation now, Chia said, is that foreign workers have not only become “precious”, they do less work.

He said, in the past, the number of days they spent at sea was, on average, 22 days a month. The norm now is “half of that”.

Boat owners’ earnings have also halved.

According to Chia, prior to 2020, foreign workers were paid RM1,300 a month “for a full 24 hours of work.

“Now it’s RM1,800 and, on top of the salary, the surplus of their catch has to be shared with them.

To add to their worries and financial strain, boat owners now fear the policy that hopes to tie the Minimum Standards for Worker Accommodation and Facilities Act of 1990 (Act 446) with the issuing of temporary work permits for foreign workers.

Under this policy, employers must comply with the Act and obtain the relevant certifications from the Labour Department.

Once this certification is obtained, they could then import foreign workers or renew their existing workers’ temporary work permits.

Previously, the renewal of foreign fishermen’s permits was done by the Fisheries Department, while the temporary stay permit was handled by the Immigration Department.

Employers have found that arrangement to be time consuming as it could take a month or two, if not longer.

As the fishing season is only nine months long, many employers would rather not waste time applying for the permit. – November 28, 2021.