The owner of this affected fish farm (above), Mr James Low, will have to wait six to nine months for new stocks of sea bass and garoupa fry to mature. -- ST FILE PHOTO
THE waters off north-east Singapore may have returned to normal following an overgrowth of plankton late last month, but life has yet to get back to normal for the farmers who lost their fish stocks as a result.
Many fish farmers contacted yesterday said they were struggling to raise the cash to buy new fish fry to make a fresh start of their businesses.
Some help is on the way.
Yesterday, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said it was taking several measures to help get the affected fish farmers back on their feet.
It will bear the cost of disposal of the dead fish and help the farmers buy good-quality fish fry at low cost through bulk purchases.
It will also continue monitoring the water and provide technical advice.
Expert help is also being sought to develop an early-warning system to try to avoid similar incidents in future, as well as to carry out research, develop technological solutions, and identify the triggers for plankton blooms.
Most farmers said that although this help was welcome, what they now needed most was financial aid to restart their operations.
Mr Phillip Lim, whose farm a kilometre offshore lost thousands of fish in waters starved of oxygen because of the plankton bloom, says he just does not have the money to buy new fish fry.
Others are determined to carry on the trade.
Mr James Low, 53, whose farm is about 3km off Pasir Ris Beach, has pumped in $10,000 to purchase 7,300 sea bass and 3,000 garoupa fry to restart his farm.
He said it would take at least six to nine months before the fish matured and were ready to go to market.
The bloom killed about 400,000 fish at over 30 fish farms off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin.
That number, said the AVA, is equivalent to 0.5per cent of the overall fish consumed here.
LIM WEI CHEAN
Fish Farming 