Hardly any meat: Attempts to use a prawn net by this fisherman only resulted in about 1kg of juvenile mantis prawns. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: Just five days of continuous hot weather is enough for corals to start bleaching and with their eventual death comes a chain reaction that eventually leads to fishermen returning with near-empty nets, says a marine biologist.
And the temperature rise can be as little as 1°C, said Universiti Sains Malaysia Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies director Prof Datuk Dr Aileen Tan.
“Corals are in the shallows and they do not move to cooler water like other marine life, so they are the first to suffer from heatwaves,” she added.
She said the world had experienced the La Nina weather phenomenon for over two years, which usually resulted in wetter and cooler days for Malaysia.
La Nina ended early this year and the El Nino phenomenon is expected to kick in later this year, she added.
“In layman’s terms, the sea is becoming hotter, more sour and breathless. Inshore fishermen will suffer first because bigger, better fish will not want to venture into shallow waters with poor conditions.
“Deepsea trawlers will have to spend more time at sea to catch enough to meet demand. People will only realise they are in trouble when fresh, wild seafood becomes so expensive that they can’t afford it,” she said.
Prof Tan said she expected the seafood supply problem to worsen later this year, adding that as of now, marine organisms suffering the most would be fish and shrimp hatchlings.
“Just a few decimal points’ difference in temperatures or acidity levels will stunt their growth. When they don’t grow as expected in the coming months, fishermen will have problems catching enough seafood to meet demand,” she added.
Instead of expecting fishermen to go farther in search of seafood, Prof Tan said investments in modern technology for open sea aquaculture should have been done years ago.
Floating fish farms at sea, she said, would not compete for land resources.
“But such farms today still rely on techniques and technology used in the 1980s.
“We should have trained aquaculturists to embrace the Internet of Things, sensor and other undersea technology plus the use of modern material to build floating farms at open sea.
“But our floating fish farms today are still made of wooden planks and plastic drums. They can only be placed in a few naturally sheltered bays that are so shallow that the waste matter of the farmed fish builds up in the seabed below,” she added.
Prof Tan urged policy makers to “come down from their ivory towers” to make proactive decisions on expediting open sea aquaculture.
For consumers, she said it was time to manage their finances by practising good consumerism.
“It is time for us to strive to understand market prices and not give in to desires and choose delectable fish without knowing that we are paying unduly higher prices.
“If we keep providing demand, then fishermen will keep looking for seafood to the point that they kill off the wild broodstock,” she warned.
