Fish Farmers Association, AVA discuss ways to alleviate plankton problem

Channel NewsAsia 20 Mar 15;

SINGAPORE: The Fish Farmers Association of Singapore met with the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) on Friday (Mar 20), to discuss possible ways of alleviating the "red tide" plankton or algae bloom problem, as well as providing assistance to affected fish farmers.

This was in response to the red tide occurrence last month, which affected about 55 fish farms and resulted in the deaths of almost 600 tonnes of fish.

Currently, fish farmers can get financial assistance from the Agriculture Productivity Fund. But fish farmers hope authorities can help cover 90 per cent of their equipment costs this year - 20 per cent more than last year - to help them through this difficult period.

In terms of dealing with the cause of the plankton bloom, the Fish Farmers Association proposed spraying clay into the sea to clump the water, hence killing off the plankton - a method which has been successfully tested in Korea and Japan.

Some fish farmers also expressed their hope that authorities will allow the temporary shifting of their farms to Pulau Tekong as a short-term solution if a similar episode reoccurs.

Further discussions with AVA will take place next week.

Mr Chan Wei Loong, Programme Chair for Marine Science and Aquaculture at Republic Polytechnic, said: “Shifting to another area to farm, it could be feasible, really depending on the location because for the south of Tekong, I guess it is actually closer to the open ocean, then obviously the current flow as well as the water flow could be better.

“And if it is better, then obviously chances of having an algae bloom because of nutrients being congregated together at a certain location are (lower)."

Said Mr Timothy Ng, president of the Fish Farmers Association of Singapore: "Unfortunately, what we heard or what was told to us was that the Government at this moment has no plans to give financial assistance for restocking or restarting.

“We were asking basically that apart from fish fry, assistance on restocking of fish fry, that there could be some assistance also on feeding of the fish, the fish feed, because that constitutes the biggest part of the costs of any fish farming operations."

- CNA/ms