WWF Malaysia: Eat farmed fish instead

Stephanie Lee The Star 2 Sep 12;

KOTA KINABALU: With marine life dying and fish from the sea becoming acutely scarce, a conservation group is pushing for farmed fishing.

“Fish species, such as the leopard coral trout (locally known as sunoh) and the hump-head wrasse (mameng) are decreasing. Yet, people do not seem to care,” said World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia conservation director Dr Sundari Ramakrishna.

“There would be no more fish in the sea if people don't start protecting marine life and fishermen do not change the way they catch fish,” she said during a reef fish campaign here to encourage consumers to eat farmed fish.

Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Tengku Zainal Adlin launched the campaign at the Tanjung Aru beach yesterday.

“Let us all start to conserve the environment,” said Dr Sundari.

“Fish by using sustainable methods and make it a habit to choose farmed fish instead of endangered species of marine life,” she added.

Tengku Zainal, the WWF Malaysia past chairman, urged fishermen to catch only “mature” fish and let the smaller ones go.

“If you stick to serving bigger fish, you can still earn a lot of money. The cake is still huge and there is enough for everyone.

“So, don't kill the small fish,” he said, adding that over-fishing must stop and fish bombing and using coral-destructive chemicals in the ocean had caused fish stock to diminish.

Chefs from hotels and restaurants here came together to cook farmed fish at the event to show they were just as good as those caught in the sea.

Spurring fish farming
Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 2 Sep 12;

BETTER ALTERNATIVE: Campaign to make live reef fish trade sustainable and curb destructive fishing methods

KOTA KINABALU: CHEFS from restaurants and hotels joined WWF-Malaysia to show their support for sustainable seafood consumption at Tanjung Aru, here, yesterday.

The Live Reef Fish Consumer Campaign, organised by the national conservation trust, is aimed at creating awareness on the destructive fishing methods associated with the supply of reef fish.

During the event, six chefs took the challenge to cook sustainable farmed leopard coral trout (grouper) to match the taste of wild caught fish. This was to demonstrate that farmed fish was comparable with wild caught fish.

Present was Sabah Tourism Board chairman Tengku Zainal Adlin Mahmood and WWF-Malaysia conservation director Dr Sundari Ramakrshna.

"In the 1980s, when the live reef fish trade was first introduced in Sabah, reef fish species, such as groupers and humphead wrasse, were caught using hook and line.

"Unfortunately, the increasing demand for these types of fish led to the use of other faster extracting methods, including using sodium cyanide," Sundari said.

The campaign was one of the efforts to help reduce pressure on the wild reef fish population and promote good fishing practices to help make the live reef fish trade a sustainable industry.

Apart from urging the industry players to pledge for more sustainable cyanide-free fish supplies, consumers were also advised to choose farmed fish or sustainably caught fish.

Tengku Zainal said the tourism sector in Sabah was very much dependent on the marine ecosystem, but with the population of highly valued fish fast decreasing, the state was in real danger of losing its charm.

"The seafood industry is thriving and has become a lucrative business, and it is closely linked to tourism. In fact, almost all of the 2.8 million tourists who visited Sabah last year went to seafood restaurants during their stay.

"Many visitors from Singapore and even China ask where to find good seafood restaurants the moment they arrive in Sabah."

Praising WWF's efforts to help consumers select fish wisely, Tengku Zainal said there were always alternatives to healthier, tastier seafood.

He advised hotels to emulate Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort's efforts to obtain its seafood supply from sustainably cultivated fish farms.