Fear of eating seafood sweeps across Asia: Singapore report
Fear of eating seafood sweeps across Asia: Singapore report
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Singapore
Demand for fish and seafood has plunged across Asia - as have
prices - on unfounded fears that species in the Indian Ocean are
feeding off bodies washed out to sea by the Dec. 26 tsunami, The
Sunday Times said. Asians fear the sea creatures will pass
diseases or bacteria on to those eating them.
Marine experts and governments have sought to dismiss the
rumors, which are threatening the livelihoods of fishermen in the
wake of the tsunami onslaught.
The fear of seafood has surfaced from Singapore, Sri Lanka and
Malaysia to Hong Kong, Thailand and India.
"I don't want to eat fish and crabs that might have been
feeding off dead flesh," Singaporean housewife Lee Kim Eng was
quoted as saying, echoing the sentiments of many.
Prices in the city-state have dropped by as much as half and
business is down 30 percent. "Now the first thing my customers
ask is where my fish comes from," said Leong Kong Meng, 65.
Even assurances that supplies are from non-tsunami hit
locations such as Johor in Malaysia, Jakarta and Bangkok failed
to convince two-thirds of the customers surveyed at two markets
here.
Worst-hit are Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu where fish markets,
virtually deserted, are selling seafood at one-tenth of what they
cost prior to the earthquake-triggered Dec. 26 tsunami, according
to the report.
The Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea are vast and deep, noted
Associate professor Peter Ng, a crustacean expert and director of
the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at the National
University of Singapore.
Contaminants would have been diluted by the sea movements, he
said.
Probe teams were dispatched to the tsunami-stricken areas of
Kedah and Penang to test samples of fish in Malaysia.
"We found no indication of contamination," disease control
chief Ramlee Rahmat told the newspaper.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal
urged consumers not to heed the "rumors".
"It will only jeopardize the only source of income for our
fishermen," he warned.
Ng said the churning sea has brought a boom in the amount of
food available for the fish, such as micro-organisms, plankton,
plants and other dead fish.
"So the fish and crabs have plenty of their usual food supply
and don't have to resort to eating dead human flesh," Ng said.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said there are no
health and safety issues if fish, in the unlikely event, feed off
corpses.
Any human tissues would be digested and absorbed to form part
of the animal's own tissue, the AVA added.