Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species.
Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae.
As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry.
Photo: AFP
Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary committee set up to tackle the spread of the fish.
“We talked to local residents and found out that the spread of tilapia has got worse — they found them in small canals, which was not the case before,” Nattacha said.
The outbreak of tilapia would cost the Thai economy at least 10 billion baht (US$292 million), he said.
The fish, native to West Africa, were first discovered in Thailand’s rivers in 2010 before spreading rapidly in 2018, and are now also found in the US state of Florida and in the Philippines.
In July, the Thai government declared the eradication of the species a national priority and began encouraging people to consume the fish.
Promotional activities in Phetchaburi Province advertised tilapia-based fish sauces and sausages.
Restaurants have also increasingly used the fish in cuisine, fried with garlic or sun-dried.
It remains unclear how the fish arrived in Thailand, but local media reports have said they could have been imported by a company from Ghana in 2010.
A parliamentary investigation is under way to determine the cause of the infestation, Nattacha said.
The Thai government has encouraged locals to catch the fish, offering to pay people 15 baht per kilogram.
It has also designated 75 vending areas around the country where the fish can be sold.
Authorities have released predator species to hunt down the tilapia and are also developing genetically modified blackchin tilapia to produce sterile offspring.
A UN science panel last year warned that the tilapia are spreading faster than ever, wrecking crops, distributing disease and upending ecosystems.
More than 37,000 alien species have taken hold far from their places of origin, costing upwards of US$400 billion a year in damages and lost income, the panel said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS