Commercial fishing using alien fish illegally: Thai Fisheries Dept

[webfact]

Commercial fishing using alien fish illegally: Fisheries Dept

By Chalarntorn Yothasmutra

 

 

Fish of alien species have been found in many localities in Thailand and some of them have been raised in ponds for commercial fishing – which may be in violation of the law, according to Fisheries Department sources.

 

Peacock Bass, a kind of fish of alien species, have been found in Phetchaburi and Rayong provinces.  In Phetchaburi, they are found at the Phuwai reservoir in Tambon Huay Sai Nua in Cha-am district.  In Rayong, fish of this species are found in Klaeng district.

 

Peacock Bass are a large-size flesh-eating freshwater fish of which origin is South Africa.   They are called by local people in Thailand as Pla Kapong Jud.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/commercial-fishing-using-alien-fish-illegally-fisheries-dept/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-10-11

[impulse]

People pay big $$$ to fish for peacock bass in South America.  They may have an accidental tourism bonanza on their hands. (Edit:  If only they'd let them grow a little before they kill them indiscriminately for sale at the market)

 

 

http://www.liveoutdoors.com/fishing/129286-fish-files-peacock-bass/

[Get Real]

First it was resistance against the human farang. Now comes the sequel. Out with the bloody and nasty, no good farang fish.

[wakeupplease]

Now you can see why the EU is a bit upset with the regulators here, What regulators>>>>>

[canuckamuck]

It's a little late to stop the invasion, peacock bass have been available here for at least a decade. I was even tempted to give it a go. The fisheries department did not seem to give any thought to ecosystem disruption before. The Nile Tilapia can be found in every stream and pool in Thailand and probably the entire Mekong system too. There's a bunch more south American fish in the waters too.

[impulse]

11 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

It's a little late to stop the invasion, peacock bass have been available here for at least a decade. I was even tempted to give it a go. The fisheries department did not seem to give any thought to ecosystem disruption before. The Nile Tilapia can be found in every stream and pool in Thailand and probably the entire Mekong system too. There's a bunch more south American fish in the waters too.

 

Google "ball cutter fish" for another S American invader...

 

Still, a great opportunity to make lemonade from lemons.  Sport fishing is a huge tourism draw.  Japanese guys spend big bucks to fish for largemouth bass.  (Edit:  So have I)  Peacock bass and barramundi put them to shame...

 

[Get Real]

33 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

It's a little late to stop the invasion, peacock bass have been available here for at least a decade. I was even tempted to give it a go. The fisheries department did not seem to give any thought to ecosystem disruption before. The Nile Tilapia can be found in every stream and pool in Thailand and probably the entire Mekong system too. There's a bunch more south American fish in the waters too.

Yep! Back with the good old times. It would be much better if we only had this ugly "pla duk" with more bone than meat. That will make people eat more rice to get full, so that we also benefit the overproduction of rice rotting away in the warehouses. Isn´t it a big amount of hell that some pesky farang fishes can do to both the eco-system and the negative effects on business economics?

[Get Real]

30 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Google "ball cutter fish" for another S American invader...

 

Still, a great opportunity to make lemonade from lemons.  Sport fishing is a huge tourism draw.  Japanese guys spend big bucks to fish for largemouth bass.  (Edit:  So have I)  Peacock bass and barramundi put them to shame...

 

Only the namne of that fish makes me shiver to my bones.

[impulse]

Just now, Get Real said:

Only the namne of that fish makes me shiver to my bones.

 

Jeremy Wade gave it that name to sensationalize a River Monsters episode.   Worth a watch if you can download it somewhere.

 

Pacu doesn't sound so bad...  Though it is a member of the piranha family- and a big one.  The teeth look disturbingly similar to little people teeth.  They're a lot of fun on light tackle and especially on a fly rod.  Missed opportunity for tourist $$$ IMO.

 

[BuaBS]

Let's import some Piranha's !

 

Alien fish ? Must have missed that episode on the X-files.

[rickudon]

More sloppy journalism. The photo doesn't show Peacock bass, not sure what that one is. They do not come from South Africa, but South America. And then it talks about introduced freshwater fish destroying the marine environment .... Where do they recruit these people?

 

As also said by another person, many species have been deliberately introduced by the GOVERNMENT, the 2 commonest species found in fresh water in Thailand these days are Tilapia and Java barb, both introduced. The Pla duk you see in markets isn't native either, that is a hybrid between Thai walking catfish and African walking catfish. Many of the native Thai fish are now rare or extinct, introduced fish may have played a part, but the main causes are environmental degradation, pollution, over fishing and dams.

 

Apart from on a few of the less exploited rivers, most of the native fish are now not economically important, imported species are the ones commercially raised. It is true that some, like Peacock bass, because they are predatory, could do greater damage to native (and introduced) fish stocks, but the cat is already out of the bag. Personally i would love to have some to control the small fish in my ponds (the Pla chon don't seem to do that very well).

 

Thailand is well known for it's fishing, and anglers come from all over the world - mainly to catch exotic species. There is still enormous potential to increase that. The larger species actually are not the worst problem - Thai fishermen will soon decimate their numbers if given a chance - it is the smaller fish which are not commercially viable that can rapidly increase in numbers and cause the biggest problems.

 

In our own fish ponds, 90% of the fish are introduced species, available from practically any fish hatchery.