RM15 reward for tagged fish

KUALA LUMPUR: The Fisheries Department has given new meaning to the term, "fishing for money".
All an angler or fisherman -- who catches small pelagic fish displaying yellow tags on the fins -- needs to do is merely return the fish to any local Fisheries office.The department will pay a RM15 reward for each fish.The tagged fish is either of the kembong (mackerel) or selayang (Japanese scad) species. Southeast Asia Fisheries Research and Development (Seafdec) and Marine Fisheries Resources Development and Management Department project coordinator Abu Talib Ahmad said the move would help them study the migration routes of pelagic fish species in the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea.
"The tag carries information because it has unique numbers. "So, with these unique numbers, we know the size of the fish and its species and the location they migrate to."Abu Talib said this after attending the Second Core Expert Meeting on the Tagging Programme for Economically Important Pelagic Species here yesterday.He said besides Malaysia, other Seafdec member countries, such as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, were also carrying out tagging and releasing pelagic fish.He said the process of tagging the fish such as Indian mackerel, Indo-Pacific mac-kerel, shortfin scad and Japanese scad would be ongoing until 2010.Abu Talib said those who had caught such fish should keep it in the freezer, record the date and location found, record the tag number and make arrangements for the staff of DOF to collect the fish. "But if they have to destroy the fish, they should record the tag number, date and location found; write their name, address and contact number; remove the tag and return it, together with other information to the nearest DOF office" The project, which is funded by the Japanese Trust Fund, involves several programmes, including meeting and training, tagging operation in the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea, and also the analysis and collection of data.Four of 13 tagging sites in the South China Sea are located in Malaysia, such as Kota Kinabalu, Mukah, Tok Bali and Kuantan, while Kuala Perlis is one of the six tagging sites selected in the Andaman Sea.Earlier, director-general of Fisheries Datuk Junaidi Che Ayub said small pelagic fish contributed about 37 per cent of the total fish landings in the west coast and 42 per cent in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. "Although this region produces marine catches which are among the highest in the world, information and data on the fish resources are poor and not adequate."The lack of resource knowledge such as spawning areas, spawning time, migration patterns and unit stocks, can be a major obstacle for effective management."
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