(MY) fishes die in public aquaria

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Wednesday September 26, 2007 - The Star

 

600 fish die at Langkawi Underwater World

 

By SIRA HABIBU

 

LANGKAWI: About 600 fish worth hundreds of thousands of ringgit have

mysteriously died at Langkawi Underwater World.

 

Police believe the fish, which included sharks and stingrays, were

poisoned. They have also not ruled out sabotage as the fish started

dying en masse just before closing time at 6pm on Monday.

 

 

A mystery: A worker removing the dead Travelitunne from the fish tanks

at the Langkawi Underwater World yesterday.

Among the sharks that died were the blacktip, whitetip, leopard and

nurse sharks.

 

Yesterday morning hundreds of fish carcasses were floating in the

hexagonal and tunnel tanks at the old wing of the UWL. Fish in five

smaller tanks were also not spared.

 

UWL workers managed to save about 30 fish in the smaller tanks.

 

Deputy general manager Mohd Hafizuddin Abdullah said the fish died

quite fast, without any obvious sign of distress.

 

" We did not see them wriggling in water before dying.

 

" Samples including water and carcasses have been taken for chemical

analysis, " he said when contacted yesterday.

 

Mohd Hafizuddin said a thorough investigation was being carried out.

 

" Among the oldest fish that has died was a nurse shark that is about

12 years old, " he added.

 

He said the freshwater and marine life section at UWL has been

temporarily closed to visitors to facilitate the investigation.

 

UWL houses 4,000 animals and sea creatures in 100 specially designed tanks.

 

UWL worker Malik Azmin said he felt sad to see the carcasses floating

in the tank.

 

 

 

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Wednesday September 26, 2007

MYT 7:38:25 PM

 

Fishy deaths - police believe it's an inside job

 

By SIRA HABIBU

 

LANGKAWI: In what is believed to be an inside job, Langkawi Underwater

World has offered a RM10,000 reward for information leading to the

arrest of those responsible for poisoning about 600 fish.

 

Langkawi OCPD Supt Mohd Ali Jamaludin urged those with information to

assist the police to bring the culprits to book as soon as possible.

 

" We believe the poisoning was done by insiders. It was well planned.

 

" We suspect two or more people were involved, " he said, adding that

the crime had affected Langkawi's highly-valued tourism product.

 

It was reported that about 600 fish worth hundreds of thousands of

ringgit were found dead in two large tanks and five smaller tanks of

the old wing of UWL on Monday.

 

Among the valuable fish that died were sharks including the white tip,

black tip, leopard and nurse, and variety of stingrays including the

rare cownose ray.

 

" The fish started dying en masse at about 6.40pm just as the lights

were switched off, " he said when contacted on Wednesday.

 

Police have ruled out outsiders' involvement because the inlets to the

tanks were accessible only to UWL staff.

 

Supt Mohd Ali also noted several weaknesses in the security system at

the old wing including absence of CCTV and free accessibility to all

personnel.

 

He said police had taken water and carcass samples for analysis and

the results would be known within a week.

 

" The chemical used could be petroleum, " he said.

 

The case is being investigated under Section 429 of the Penal Code for

treason. If found guilty the offender is liable to a minimum fine of

RM25,000 and or jailed up to five years.