ONE LAST HAUL

Timothy Ng's kelong off the coast of Pulau Ubin is one of four remaining licensed ones left in the country

- Ng Keng Gene

"Miserable and pitiful," muttered Mr Timothy Ng as he watched a pile of fish thrash about at the bottom of his kelong's net one late afternoon in October.

It was yet another poor catch, a problem that has persisted for years. "All three sections of the net, there's nothing there to talk about," said the 76-year-old.

The 4kg or so of "trash fish" - those unfit for the table - would be given to a nearby fish farm to supplement fish feed, said Mr Ng, who bought the kelong and an adjacent floating fish farm in 2004.

"In the past, several times a year, we would get 1 tonne of trash fish in the net," he said.

"Those were exciting moments. Once, we got nearly 2 tonnes of a black dory and we didn't know what to do with it. Fortunately, somebody took it to Malaysia to be turned into fish food," he said. At other times, several barrels worth of ikan bilis were hauled in, each barrel weighing about 50kg.

The kelong's catches were previously used to supplement feed for cultured fish in Mr Ng's floating fish farm, where he reared sea bass, red snappers and hybrid groupers.