Straits Times 12 Apr 09;
How do you move a fish farm the size of half a football field?
Slowly. Excruciatingly slowly.
Last week, three fish farmers, with help from at least eight others in the same business, hauled one such floating platform filled with nearly 70,000 fish across the Johor Strait. It was a distance of just 3km but the move took nearly three hours.
Precision was the operative word.
The trio, Mr Malcolm Ong, Mr Lim Sin Guan and Mr Tay Yong Peng - partners in their company called MPG Trading - needed to wait till the tide was in their favour. Then, they needed 10 boats positioned at intervals around the platform to nudge it forward. They also had to make sure they did not crash into other farms along the way.
Tugboats were out of the question - they could well break up the fragile platform and set all the fish loose.
It was a logistical feat only experienced fishermen like Mr Lim and Mr Tay could pull off.
The two already had farms of their own when Mr Ong, 45, a former chief executive of a French software company, decided to join them two years ago.
Buoyed by the increasing demand in farmed fish, the three spent more than $200,000 to buy a retiring neighbour's offshore farm at Lim Chu Kang.
Last week, they moved the newly purchased farm to their existing one, also at Lim Chu Kang, and are looking at doubling their yearly output of milk fish and mullet to 300 tonnes.
With this new addition, the trio, who have invested more than $500,000, have 30 nets, making them the biggest fish farm operator in Lim Chu Kang and possibly in Singapore.
Each net on the farms contains 8,000 fish.
'You either buy or build. Buying saves time but building means it would be new,' said MrOng, adding that the company is looking for new overseas markets for its produce.
