Fishermen enjoy good catch despite on-going reclamation project

MALACCA: Land reclamation projects have no effect on fish population along the Malacca shorelines.

State Agriculture and entrepreneur Development committee chairman Datuk Hassan Abd Rahman said instead fishermen are enjoying higher catch despite the ongoing reclamation projects.

“The state cand assure the fishermen that the ongoing project will not affect their livelihood as we have stressed the importance of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before the reclamation projects were given the go ahead,” he said.

Hassan said the claims that these projects had cast a negative outlook for the fishing community in the state were not true.

“We have evidence that the catches have increased despite the claims that the reclamation projects had affected the livelihood of the fishermen,” he said.

Hassan noted that Malacca registered a catch of 1.93 million metric tonnes that generated a revenue of RM24mil from the first 11 months of this year compared to 1.9 million metric tonnes with a revenue of RM17mil for the whole of 2014.

“We have also placed all mechanisms in place to ensure that the fishermen continue getting hefty catches before these projects were approved,” he said.

Hassan said the state government works closely with the Fisheries Department and Drainage and Irrigation Department to ensure that the catch is sufficient for local fishermen at all times.

He said among the initiatives taken include placing artificial reefs and preserving the coral reefs along the shores of Pulau Nangka and Pulau Undan, off the coast here.

Hassan added that the state government had also given out RM2.13mil to local fishermen as monetary aid and an additional RM446,970.80 as diesel subsidies for this year.