Freshwater fisheries station in ATC Sibu set to reopen, to focus on breeding local species

SIBU (Nov 2): The operation of the freshwater fisheries station of the Agricultural Training Centre (ATC) at Mile 21 of Jalan Oya here will be revived.

According to Sibu Senior Fisheries Assistant Officer, Kairulnieza Waynie, the centre is under the Sibu Agriculture Office and will be specifically used to promote the breeding of freshwater fish brood stock.

“This place will primarily be used to breed various local fish species such as the ‘tengadak’, ‘lajong’ and ‘baung’.

“We hope the demand for freshwater fish fry from interested farmers would be met in the coming years,” he said at the recent ‘Catfish Seed Distribution Ceremony’ and the ‘Sejati Madani Programme’ briefing at Jeofry Umbar’s Residence, at Mile 19 of Jalan Oya here.

Kairulnieza, however, did not provide further details regarding the date for the resumption of operations at the fisheries station.

Nonetheless, he advised farmers and breeders to register with e-Tani.

At the event, some 4,000 African catfish fry were released into 20 blue high-density polyethylene (HDPE) tanks, followed by a briefing on African catfish farming, including care and marketing.

Adding on, Kairulnieza also reminded all that the farmed catfish must not be released into rivers so as to protect the local ecosystem.

“Should the African catfish survive in the river, they can grow up to six feet (2m) and will threaten other fish species in the river.”

In the 1990s, farmers wanting to cultivate freshwater fish in ponds such as catfish, tilapia and ‘lee koh’ could easily obtain fry from the Department of Agriculture.

However, by 2000 the subsidy policies for this assistance had changed and the supply reduced, leading to farmers having to purchase fry from private sources at high prices.

As a result, many farmers could not continue their freshwater fish farming efforts, except for those who had been doing it for a long time and had earned high incomes.

Also present at the event were Sibu Agriculture officers Nabau Saging, David Ikuok and Hilman Zainuddin.