It was a relief not to see masses of dead fishes at Lim Chu Kang on both Saturday and Sunday. This portion of the shore had a line of dead farmed fishes on Friday.
Sadly, I got word of some dead fishes found at West Coast Park.
On both Saturday and Sunday, I checked a 20m stretch of mangroves. There were a handful of freshly dead farm fishes on the mid-water mark. The fish eyes were still intact.
I only saw a handful of freshly dead farmed fishes on the low water mark. There were no new dead fishes on the high water mark, although there were several rotting old dead fishes there.
On Saturday, I noticed two rows of about 8 green bins on the jetty.
A closer look at the green bins
On Sunday, the green bins and the platforms they were on were gone. The 'mobile' platform that I saw beached on the mangrove trees on Friday was now next to the jetty. Two people were busily removing things from the blue drums.
They were harvesting bags of Green mussels. Oh dear. Are these safe to eat? With the media reports of Vibrio infecting farm fishes?
The skip tank at Lim Chu Kang was changed on Saturday and Sunday (the tank had different numbers on both dates). The tanks were mostly empty at the time of the check. And there was no smell of dead fish near the tanks or blue bins.
From the jetty, I had a look at the boats, nets and other stores 'parked' in the mangroves. Who do these belong to? To the fish farmers?
I got word that on Saturday there were no dead fishes at Sungei Buloh. I checked Sungei Buloh from the Main Bridge on Sunday. I didn't walk much further in. The Sungei was still full of live. A large crocodile was basking on the side.
Wild fishes were lively. A school of what look like mullets were chasing the plentiful halfbeaks out of the water. I also saw some Archerfishes near the sluice gate, although there were none under the Bridge. I didn't see any dead fishes, wild or farmed.
I did notice, however, large clumps of what look like dried algae floating by the river banks on Sunday. I just heard that on Sunday, it stank of dead fishes at Sungei Buloh between Platform 1 and Platform 2.
I also heard that on Saturday, there were no dead fishes spotted at Pulau Ubin.
Once again, I would like to highlight that the authorities should work together to provide all fish farmers a practical and reasonable way to accommodate their trash needs. Today, every business and household on the mainland and every ship parked in port is provided with daily door-to-door trash collection. But all coastal fish farms licenced by AVA are NOT provided with a similar service.
Dead Fish Alert!
Please help me monitor dead fishes washing up on the Johor Straits. Please let me know if you see large numbers (more than 10) especially of large dead fishes (more than 20cm long) washing up on the northern shores such as Pulau Ubin, Lim Chu Kang, Sungei Buloh, Kranji, Sembawang, Punggol, Pasir Ris, Changi.
Thank you!
