Illegally farmed predatory fish escape to Sungai Perak in Monday incident

IPOH, April 3 -- The incident, involving hundreds of cages of a fish farming company in Teluk Intan on Monday being washed away, resulting in several species of fish escaping to Sungai Perak, was suspected to have involved predatory fish which were farmed without permit.

Perak Fisheries Department director Zaki Mokri said his department was conducting an investigation after suspecting that red tail catfish (baung ekor merah), which were prohibited from being reared in cages in the country, also escaped, based on video clips which went viral on social media.

“The fish farm operator said that 30 metric tonnes of red tail catfish had escaped along with other species, while others died when the cages were washed away and damaged,” he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

He said that as a follow-up, his department had monitored the location with the state government to conduct further investigations into the incident.

“This operator has been conducting fish farming for almost 20 years and the incident is believed to have occurred when the rope that tied the cages together snapped causing the cages to wash away and eventually be damaged.

“A large amount of debris hit and caused the cage mooring rope to snap. As many as 250 (out of 300) fish cages were washed away causing some fish to escape, while most were trapped in their cages and died,” he said.

He hoped that the illegally farmed fish could be caught by anglers in the river area because there was deep concern that the predatory red tail catfish would breed and pose a danger to the river ecosystem as well as a risk to river resources.

In the 5 pm incident, the fish farm operator claimed to have suffered nearly RM7 million in losses after the fish cages were washed away by strong currents in Sungai Perak, believed to be due to mischief.

-- BERNAMA