Breeder plans 10 fish farms off Ubin

March 18, 2005
Ubin Swee Chioh Aquaculture's move to yield 500 tonnes of fish annually for local market
By Chang Ai-lien
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

ONE of the biggest fish breeders here has ambitious plans to franchise a high-tech breeding operation that will produce more than 500 tonnes of fish a year for the local market.
Swee Chioh Aquaculture, well-known for its skills in getting notoriously difficult marine fish to multiply, will set up 10 big-cage farms off Pulau Ubin and franchise them to other companies while providing the expertise, equipment and food supply. Each farm is expected to cost about $400,000 to set up.

The company also has its eye on opening farms in Vietnam, which it sees as a gateway to the fish-hungry China market.

It will be its first major foray overseas.

And as a first step to realising its plans, Swee Chioh, which already produces 250,000 baby fish called fingerlings every month which it breeds and exports to fish farms, intends to double production this year.

The farms in its Ubin venture will be deeper and larger than what it has now, it said, and there will be centralised feed mills and management systems.

Managing director Yi Yuan Wah said: 'We're developing an integrated farming system where we have expertise in everything from hatcheries and brood stock management, to cage-farming, research and trading.

'We want to go big, and do it in an industrialised, commercialised manner, rather than like the small players you see in Malaysia and Indonesia who do not enjoy economies of scale.'
It is currently working with local fish specialists to better harvest copepods, tiny aquatic creatures that form an important part of the baby fishes' diet.

In Vietnam, it plans to grow the fingerlings it exports there to full size, producing about 1,000 tonnes of tiger grouper fish a year, on seven farms there.

Explaining the choice of fish, Mr Yi said: 'The grouper is a sought-after fish, and it's hardy but not easy to breed. That's why the fish are expensive.'

Breeding the fish calls for years of experience, particularly in fish behaviour.

The tiger grouper is a voracious eater when small, and a group of 5,000 can be reduced to just 500 within days because the fish eat each other.

'We've learnt to feed them continuously, so they lose the urge to do so,' said Mr Yi.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said that the company's expansion will help Singapore's efforts to be self-sufficient in food production.

The Republic is now leveraging on its edge in aquaculture and hatchery research and development to enhance productivity and efficiency in fish farming.

At the AVA's $33 million Marine Aquaculture Centre on St John's Island, researchers are working on perfecting state-of-the-art techniques for large-scale fish breeding and rearing, in the hope that this work will help produce almost half the fish people eat here.

By working with commercial partners, AVA aims to increase the amount of fish and seafood produced here to 40,000 tonnes a year within the next decade, or 40 per cent of what people eat.

Only 5,000 tonnes is produced locally now.

Peter Chou: Pulau Ubin & Changi Point

Visit Peter Chou's B&W gallery of Changi Point and Pulau Ubin which he has published on PBase - 165 black and white photos based on two years of work he carried out at these places.

"The photos are arranged in such a way that the viewers are brought through the logical sequence of the sights of Changi Point and Pulau Ubin in the form of a virtual tour."

Pedal Ubin! on 20 Feb

On Sunday 20 February 2005, RMBR's Pedal Ubin! led its first group for the year 2005 and it looked like they had a blast!


Copyright Pedal Ubin Guides

The photos are available at:
20 February Photo Gallery

If you have been on one of these rides, or simply wish to be a guide on Pedal Ubin! and share the joys of Ubin with others young and old, Pedal Ubin! is recruiting.

You can find out more here at their recruitment notice.

Training sessions are tentatively set from May to July.

Seems like too much of a commitment? Well, at least go for a ride as a participant. The next ride is also tentatively set in April. Bookmark the Pedal Ubin! site and keep a close tab on when the next ride is announced. Otherwise, sign up on their mailing list and be informed when a new ride is announced. Better not hesitate because places get fully booked way in advance!

Just look at these happy contented faces and you'll know why.


Copyright Pedal Ubin Guides

Nostalgia and Rememberance

The first Pedal Ubin training at Noordin Beach on 12 oct 2003.

We tend to forget how something used to be like after a long period of time has passed. Sometimes people simply got so used to what it is now that after a while and a generation or two, people start forgetting what it used to be like and think they "KNOW" that it has always been this way. They simply never know any different.

I love this photo for it serves it purpose to remind us that there was never always this coastal fence that now separates us from a clear (and well unprotected) coastline.

For our children, singaporeans and visitors alike who never knew how it was or whom will only see this for the first time in the future, this photo is for you.


The same site at Noordin Beach on 05 September 2004.

Ubin On-line Resources: Reviewed

In response to Dr Chua Ee Kiam's feedback about the erroneous link listed on the website (the link reportedly is about Christmas Island rather than Pulau Ubin), I hereby offer the solution.

It appears that the Naturewatch link listed on this site consist of a design that requires visitors to access the Pulau Ubin articles through an index page where a story of Christmas Island is on the immediate first page. It is rather misleading.

To make things easier for people wanting specifically Ubin stories, I am hereby creating an easy index to the Naturewatch articles on Pulau Ubin.

Vol3 No.3 Jul-Sep 95 (Pulau Ubin Special)
The Last Wild Frontier
Pulau Batu Ubin
Spirited Pioneers
Flora and Fauna of Ubin
Nature Lesson
Whither Ubin?

A group of ubin enthusiasts has started a group known as Focus Ubin. According to the focus ubin website (www.focusubin.org), "we hope focus ubin can be a platform for anyone passionate about Ubin. The focus ubin website hopes to be a one-stop location for any aspect of Ubin."



Personally, the most exciting feature of the website is the Ubin Forum where people can "discuss ubin and share stories". For example, already there is a report of sighting of civet cats on the island!