catching baby shrimps at lim chu kang end

went to lim chu kang to catch the sunset at around 6.45 p.m., ended up watching two groups of people catching baby shrimps for their dinner from the sides of the jetty. the first group - two young malay girls - was there on a fishing trip with their family. the second group - three chinese nationals - was armed with a huge white net and a big blue container.

the transparent shrimps, less than 2cm long, were almost invisible in the water. when asked what they would do with the shrimps, the girls told me that they would make belachan out of them. i wonder if it was cincalok they had in mind, because that is what they do to tiny shrimps in melaka. (in malaysia, the fermented shrimp paste, cincalok, is popular as a sipping sauce; it is usually mixed with lime and shallots.)

did not get a chance to find out from the chinese nationals. there were two young men and a young woman. they were there for about twenty minutes. but in that twenty minutes, with their bigger net and longer reach, they caught many times more than the two girls. i was told that the appearance of these shrimps in thewaters of singapore is a seasonal thing.