Sunday, February 8, 2009

those fishing days at lower seletar dam

marina barrage


lower seletar dam

kranji dam


there are at least three places in singapore where a dam or a barrage serves as a divide between the sea and a fresh-water reservoir. the latest addition is the marina barrage where the water behind the dam will eventually become salt-free water. the other two that i know of are at kranji and at yishun.







over at yishun - on one side of the lower seletar dam. given a choice, most people will prefer to fish in the sea than in the reservoir.

until last year, there were two make-shift structures in the sea off yishun avenue 1 where some some kind of business was still being conducted. today, these two derelicts are still around but the occupants have all moved out. like the fishing pond at khatib bongsu, these wooden structures near the lower seletar dam will eventually be cleared.

evidence that it was open to the public is the signboard that says "walk do not run". then there was the improvised toilet, where everything was deposited in the sea at high tide. the pail was used for scooping water from the sea, again at high tide. a small altar with some taoist gods has been left behind.

the sea off the lower seletar dam used to yield a lot of fish but ever since the construction of the road bridge linking the mainland to pulau punggol barat, the fish seemed to have moved somewhere else. one angler lamented: before the bridge was constructed, there was at one time as many as eighty regular anglers trying to land a catch at the sea off the lower seletar dam. these days, the number has dwindled to a handful.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i still have not found the reason why when there is human waste, there's plenty of big fish swimming around.

yg said...

peter, it seems in some asian countries, they feed the fish like carp, tilapia, milkfish, catfish and even prawns with human waste.

Anonymous said...

Some people loved to eat Rabbit Fish (Pek Tor), also called ‘prosperity fish’ during its breeding season, which is at this time of the year around Chinese New Year. This is the time when the female fish has plenty of roe and the male fish has ‘bau’ which is the sperm. The fish is eaten by steaming it and dipping it in sweet flour or lemon sauce. Some years ago, I was at a Kelong and saw this elderly lady fishing, at an opening near a toilet with someone inside. She was pulling up almost non-stop many ‘Pek Tor’ there. Whoever witnessed the scene would know what was fed to the fish.

Anonymous said...

Holy shit! I shall avoid eating these types of fish. Freshwater fish that is.

Anonymous said...

Have u heard about the "bigness" of Sri Lankan crabs? Some said dead bodies (victims of Tamil Tigers) or dead pigs are fed to them. true or not?