Christina Chin, photo by Gary Chen The Star 12 Feb 12;
MARKETGOERS could hardly believe their eyes when they saw a whopping grouper at Cecil Street Market in Penang.
Fisherman Tan Kah Seng, 38, caught the grouper, or loong tan to the Chinese, off the Teluk Bahang coast early yesterday morning.
The fish weighs 165kg and is about 2m long.
It took six men at the market to hang up the giant fish and remove its scales.
The fish is among the biggest caught in Malaysian waters in recent years.
“It probably takes some 30 years for a grouper to grow to this size.
“Bigger groupers definitely taste better because the flesh is sweeter,” Tan said when met at the market yesterday.
The fish was sold to Kar Be Cafe operator Chew Kean Ghee, 40.
Chew, who runs the popular eatery at Weld Quay, paid more than RM8,500 for the fish.
“It’s a little pricier than the giant grouper I bought from Tan last year but my customers love it,” he said.
He added that the fish would be used to make more than 300 bowls of noodles.
This is not the first time Tan has landed a giant fish.
In August 2010, Tan caught a fish weighing a whopping 168kg.
He later landed a 203kg shark believed to be a nurse shark.
Seven-year-old Yannie Tham, who was at the market with her grandmother, said she had never seen a fish so big.
The largest catch in Malaysian waters was a 180kg fish caught in 2008 near Pulau Sembilan in the Straits of Malacca.