Our blood cockles are dying. Can we stop the killing?

Small harvests : Mohd Fadillah Kahar’s cockle collection for the day being hauled up. — FAIHAN GHANI/ The Star

Selangor fishermen are no longer assured of bountiful cockle harvests. Sea pollution is to blame for the disappearing clams, they say.

In May 2012, fisherman Kahar Buntal had a shock when he hauled up his harvest of blood cockles from the sea – it was mostly empty shells. This happened throughout the entire season which spanned six months. “The yield for that year was low. We estimated that half of the harvest was dead,” recalls the 62-year-old from Bagan Sungai Buloh, a fishing settlement in Jeram, off Kuala Selangor.