Prawns and pomfrets:
How Malaysia’s looming fish trawling ban could affect your dining options

As the first customers of the day stream into a supermarket in Singapore, the seafood section bustles with activity. A spread of freshly caught fish and shellfish glistens on crushed ice – plump pomfret, gleaming squid and glossy red prawns, delivered just hours earlier from across the Causeway.

The faint scent of the sea mingles with the cool air as shoppers examine the day’s catch and make their picks, which are then cleaned, trimmed and portioned as requested.

But in five years, the daily bounty of ocean-floor catches from nearby waters – pomfret, threadfin and prawns – will dwindle when Malaysia’s ban on trawling kicks in.

Trawlers will no longer be allowed to operate in Zone B, which includes waters five to 12 nautical miles from the shoreline, to reverse the effects of overfishing and give marine habitats and fish populations a fighting chance to regenerate.

The looming ban on bottom trawling is the latest threat to Malaysia’s fishermen, who are also facing declining catch levels, a lack of interest from local youth in joining the trade, piracy in the Malacca Strait and the discontinuation of subsidised diesel.

Initially set to take effect in 2020 due to overfishing and unsustainable catch methods, the trawler ban was postponed until 2030 following a series of appeals and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The regulation has cast a pall over the future of fishermen across Malaysia – particularly in Perak, which is home to nearly 40 per cent of the country’s 1,600 Zone B trawlers. The state logged a fisheries catch of 335,943 tonnes in 2023, making it the largest fish-producing state.

Well before daybreak in Pantai Remis, a quiet coastal town some 80km from Perak’s capital Ipoh, father-and-son duo Tan Kee Choon, 60, and Tan Yii Jia, 29, boarded their trawler at 5am on Feb 28.

They headed out to their favoured stretch in the Strait of Malacca, beginning another nine-hour workday, as they do six times a week.

At the helm, the younger Mr Tan discussed sea conditions on the radio with fishermen in nearby boats. A beeping signal from the trawler’s fish-finding device indicates the depth and location of schools of fish.

About 30 minutes before dawn, he communicated in sign language with his father, who is hearing-impaired and does not speak, before activating the metal boards that spread the trawler’s net over the seabed.

“Based on our fellow fishermen’s information, we have a good chance of catching pomfret, the highly prized fish, today,” Mr Tan told The Straits Times.

There were more than 20 fishing vessels near the Tans’ trawler, which circled the water five nautical miles from the coast – the minimum distance for a Zone B trawler – for five hours to gather fish.

Under the scorching noonday sun, father and son began pulling in their net using hydraulic winches.

It was a typical haul for them. They sorted 80kg of higher-value pomfrets, prawns, crabs and squid into baskets. Another 400kg of the catch comprised the lowest-grade ikan baja, which is sold at 80 Malaysian cents (24 Singapore cents) per kg, to be ground into fish powder for fertilisers or used as aquaculture feed.

The top-grade catch bound for Singapore is transported by refrigerated truck, arriving in Singapore by midnight and appearing in wet markets and supermarkets the next morning.

On average, the Tans make RM8,000 to RM10,000 a month in gross income, depending on the quality of their hauls.

Under the Department of Fisheries Malaysia’s (DOF) rules for the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, fishing zones are classified based on their distance from the shoreline.

Zone A, from the shoreline to five nautical miles beyond the coast, and Zone B, encompassing the area between five and 12 nautical miles from the coast, are both within Malaysia’s territorial waters.

Zone C spans the area between 12 and 30 nautical miles offshore; Zone C2 begins at 30 nautical miles from the coast and extends to the edge of Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone; and Zone C3 refers to the Indian Ocean.

Smaller vessels using traditional fishing gear operate in Zone A, catching shrimp and small fish like anchovy. Trawling is banned in these waters.

Commercial trawlers and boats with purse seines – large nets used to target dense schools of fish like mackerel – typically operate in Zone B and beyond. An average monthly trip in Zone A reels in RM2,118 worth of gross income, while one in Zone B nets RM8,118 and one in Zone C fetches RM20,881, according to a research paper by Universiti Utara Malaysia academics Lee Wen Chiat and K. Kuperan Viswanathan.

The marine catch in Malaysian waters shrunk by 10 per cent to 1.42 million tonnes in 2024, compared with in 2016. In 2024, Zone B produced 22 per cent of the catch, with 34 per cent coming from Zone A, 30 per cent from Zone C and 13 per cent from deep-sea fishing.

Apart from overfishing, the destruction of fish habitats due to development and pollution, and climate change leading to higher sea temperatures and ocean acidity have contributed to the decline in fish stocks, DOF director-general Adnan Hussain told ST.

He said the trawling ban in Zone B is necessary due to unsustainable and unselective fishing methods using trawler nets, which lead to the destruction of fish habitats at or near the seabed.

Trawler nets plough through the seabed, destroying life at the bottom of the sea “that is crucial to the food chain, disrupting the balance of the marine ecosystem”, he said.

Datuk Adnan said sharks, stingrays, humphead wrasse and dugongs are all considered endangered or threatened species in Malaysia due to overfishing and habitat destruction, among other factors.

The ban on trawling in Zone B is expected to alleviate pressure on coastal marine ecosystems and help restore fish populations, according to Mr Azrul Faizal Mohamed, a research officer at the Malaysian environmental non-governmental organisation Sahabat Alam Malaysia.

“Trawling activities kill numerous fish fry and juvenile fish that have commercial value, often referred to as ‘trash fish’. These juvenile fish are typically used as feed in aquaculture. Our field survey found that over 60 per cent of trawl landings consist of trash fish,” he said.

Ms Chitra Devi G, marine programme leader at World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia, applauded the government’s move to ban trawler fishing in Zone B.

“We are looking forward to supporting the DOF for a more comprehensive and integrated policy reform,” she said, noting the need for broader measures to ensure the sustainability of the nation’s fishing industry, as fish stocks in Malaysian waters have declined by more than 88 per cent since the 1960s.

A total ban on Zone B trawlers will hit prawn production by 80 per cent and fish production by 30 per cent, warned the Malaysia Fish Industries General Association’s chairman Chia Tian Hee.

“The muddy seabed from the coastal line of Sekinchan, Selangor, to Pantai Remis, Perak, is a natural breeding ground for prawns and shrimp. Banning prawn trawlers, which use nets finer than those for fish, will result in the loss of 80 per cent of prawn production,” said Mr Chia, who is based in Sekinchan, a major fishing village north-west of Selangor.

For Singaporeans who enjoy their crustaceans, pomfret, threadfin and other fruits of the sea from Zone B, this would mean turning to other existing suppliers or finding new ones. The Republic’s top three main sources of seafood are Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The effect on seafood prices in five years and beyond remains to be seen, given the vagaries of fishing populations and shifting market conditions.

To protect Malaysia’s seas from overfishing, the DOF has since 2014 implemented an exit plan for trawlers in Zone B, ahead of the total ban in 2030.

Mr Adnan said: “To make fishery stocks more sustainable, the DOF has worked to gradually reduce trawler activity in Zone B before 2030.”

The number of Zone B-licensed trawlers has been reduced from 4,800 in 2021 to 1,604 in 2023. The DOF will begin to study the impact of trawler reduction on fish stock preservation on the west coast of Malaysia in 2025.

To persuade Zone B trawler owners to give up their boats, the government has agreed to pay them a one-off ex gratia payment to exit the trade, transition to purse seine fishing, or continue using trawler nets, but with larger vessels in Zone C’s deeper waters.

The DOF did not reply to queries on the compensation amount, but Mr Chia estimated that the price of a trawler can range between hundreds of thousands and a million ringgit, depending on gross tonnage and age.

He suggested that, instead of offering ex gratia payment, the government could rent land to Zone B trawler owners, which would allow them to switch to aquaculture in order to maintain seafood production levels.

“The ban on Zone B trawling could lead to a reduced supply of large Ming prawns, which are a major export to Singapore. Other sea-caught prawns of various sizes are supplied primarily to the local Malaysian market,” Mr Chia said, adding that imports or aquaculture might be the only ways to maintain the prawn supply.

Singapore was overtaken by China as the top export destination for Malaysian seafood after 2018

Pantai Remis assemblywoman Wong May Ing also highlighted the administrative hurdles preventing people from transferring vessel licences, which has caused Zone B trawler owners significant stress.

“Since 2016, incumbent vessel licensees have not been allowed to transfer ownership to new buyers, even after settling all dues. As a result, licensees are required to renew the annual vessel permit on behalf of the new owner,” she said.

“I had a case where an incumbent licensee disappeared, and the new owner could not renew the permit at the DOF despite filing a police report. Now, the vessel is docked and unable to fish.”

Mr Ang Lien Song, who owns a Zone B prawn trawler but plans to retire soon, expressed anger over this issue. “I’m 63 and getting older. I can’t even sell my vessel to cover the cost of my coffin,” he told ST.

At its peak in the 1990s, Pantai Remis had some 1,000 fishing vessels lined up along the riverbank of Sungai Beruas, an estuary in Perak leading to the Strait of Malacca. Today, there are just 300.

“You could literally walk across the trawlers lined up from the river mouth stretching 3km towards the inner riverbank,” said local councillor Lim Cheong Eng, 62, reminiscing about the abundant catches at that time.

But a decline in fish stock since 2016 and tough conditions at sea have driven many young fishermen away.

Fisherman Chua Tiong Shyean, 34, said more than 80 per cent of his 30 classmates emigrated after graduating from high school.

“Most of them work in Singapore as factory workers, lorry drivers and salesmen,” said Mr Chua, who inherited his mother-in-law’s fishing pier in 2020.

Some Malaysians who venture overseas for work end up returning to the family fishery business. Three out of the six fishermen under 40 years old whom ST spoke to had returned to take over their parents’ businesses after working in Singapore.

To address a labour shortage, workers from other South-east Asian countries – mainly Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia – were brought in to support daily operations. In 2023, nearly 26 per cent of Malaysia’s 70,405 fishermen working on licensed vessels in the country were foreigners.

In Perak’s Manjung district, where Pantai Remis is a major fishing port, the number is even higher – 43 per cent of the 3,610 registered fishermen are foreigners.

Under the law, these foreign fishermen are allowed to work only on larger vessels in Zone C and beyond. Typically, a Zone C vessel, together with two accompanying light boats, remains at sea for more than a week.

While it is illegal to hire foreign labour on Zone B trawlers, it is an open secret that this is happening due to the difficulty in hiring locals.

In November 2024, the local authorities detained 76 illegal migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. A similar operation was launched on Feb 28 during ST’s visit.

Twin Win Frozen Seafood manager Tan Wei Ping estimated that more than 2,500 foreigners, illegal and legal, are working in the Pantai Remis fisheries, compared with 1,000 locals.

“We are suffering brain drain. So who’s going to replace the fisherman? Foreign labour. I foresee Pantai Remis will be a foreign workers’ town in the near future.”

Besides being a dirty and difficult profession that involves long hours working under the sun and rain on isolated seas, fishing is also dangerous.

Perak faces the long shoreline of Sumatra, which is notorious for piracy. A vital waterway, the Malacca Strait separates Indonesia to the south-west and Malaysia to the north-east.

Pantai Remis fisherman Isaac Lim recalled a phone call he received one early morning in January 2024.

One of his two Thai crew members on a light boat was shot dead while attempting to escape pirates 130km from the coastal border between Perak and Penang.

“My crew told me that the Thai crew member tried to cut the rope attached by a group of nine armed men, who spoke in an Indonesian dialect. The act was seen as an act of resistance,” said Mr Lim, who owns three purse seine fishing vessels and operates in Zone C.

The sole survivor of the incident was traumatised and returned to Southern Thailand, never to return to Pantai Remis.

Since then, Mr Lim’s fishing fleet has stayed away from the Indonesia-Malaysia middle line in the Strait of Malacca, but this has come at a cost. His catch has dropped by 20 per cent, particularly for sardines, Indian mackerel and hardtail mackerel – affordable staple seafood known as ikan rakyat, or commoners’ fish.

Pantai Remis fishermen have reported at least six piracy incidents from December 2024 to February 2025, which have unsettled the local community.

There is a paucity of piracy data collated for just the Strait of Malacca. According to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCaap), there have been 35 incidents reported to date in 2025 in the area around the Malacca and Singapore straits, versus 11 in the whole of 2024. Among the 11 reported in 2024, only one occurred in the vicinity of the Malacca Strait.

ReCaap noted that these are usually lower-level incidents of boarding and petty theft, where most of the individuals involved are rarely armed or have only knives. They board ships mid-voyage and attempt to reach the stores and engine room to steal loose parts and tools. When detected, they frequently flee.

Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi on March 5 told fishermen he was aware that some Malaysian fishing vessels had been “taken into the neighbouring country, and all the fishing equipment was stripped”.

He promised to meet his Indonesian counterpart to address these security concerns.

“I will go to Indonesia with (Agriculture Minister) Mohamad Sabu to resolve these issues,” he said during a town hall session with fishermen in his Perak constituency of Bagan Datuk, one of Malaysia’s major fishing settlements, 76km south of Pantai Remis.

On the other side of Peninsular Malaysia, fishermen facing the South China Sea have to deal with encroachment from Vietnamese fishing vessels.

From 2006 to May 2023, the Malaysian authorities seized 1,655 Vietnamese vessels and detained 14,174 Vietnamese crew members for illegal fishing in Malaysia’s territorial waters in the South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry told Parliament on March 7.

The government estimated a loss of nearly RM824 million from 2020 to 2023 due to illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels.

One of the affected areas is Endau in north-eastern Johor, which is home to more than 600 fishing vessels.

Local Zone C trawler owner Heng Chun Kiat said he had a near-capsize experience in June 2018 when he encountered two Vietnamese fishing vessels near Pulau Tioman.

“It was midnight and totally dark. Suddenly, my vessel came to a halt,” the 45-year-old said, recalling that this was due to the vessels’ nets getting entangled.

“I pulled in my net, and the Vietnamese vessel did the same.” This put his smaller boat at dangerous risk of tilting over.

“As they pulled their net in faster than I did, my net was cut by theirs. I lost RM20,000,” he added.

Both Vietnamese vessels were larger than his, and had a catch that was “10 times larger”, Mr Heng recalled. He later lodged a complaint with the local authorities.

He credits government intervention for the drop in incidents reported since then.

Mr Bob Chia, executive director of QL Endau Marine Products, agreed that encroachment by Vietnamese vessels has been declining, thanks to better cooperation between the fishing community and Malaysia Coast Guard.

One issue Mr Chia is grappling with is rising fuel costs.

He owns more than 30 sets of purse seiners - each consisting of a purse seiner and two light boats - operating in Zone C2 deep-sea areas. C2 vessels typically have a capacity of 18,000 litres to 22,000 litres to allow them to be out at sea for extended periods.

The government abolished diesel subsidies for C2 vessels in 2015 due to abuse of the subsidy programme.

Then in June 2024, subsidies for diesel in Peninsular Malaysia were removed as part of a broader reform to reduce government expenditure.

Mr Chia said that when the subsidies were in effect in the 2010s, he saw Malaysian fishermen selling subsidised diesel at a mark-up to Vietnamese vessels.

He called for the government to reinstate subsidised diesel for C2 vessels to support the country’s food security.

“C2 vessels should receive reasonable support, as we contribute to food supply and generate foreign earnings for Malaysia,” he said.

Fishing vessels licensed for Zones A, B and C continue to enjoy subsidised diesel, currently priced at RM1.65 per litre, subject to a cap.

Lamenting the reduced quota, Ah Chuan Fishery Trading owner Chia Chuan Huat said subsidised diesel helps sustain operations. He owns eight Zone C trawlers in Endau.

In 2018, he was able to receive 24,000 litres a month to support five trips over two months for each vessel, each trip typically lasting 10 days.

Since January 2025, his quota has been limited to 18,000 litres of subsidised diesel, forcing him to cut down to just three trips.

“It’s expensive to use market-price diesel, especially when the catch isn’t always abundant.”

Back in Pantai Remis, the younger Mr Tan said the trawling ban feels like a distant concern, and it is business as usual for now.

But he hopes that in the coming five years, the government will seriously consider alternatives to the ban on trawling.

Mr Tan cited China’s annual summer fishing ban as an example, when all fishing is halted from May 1 to Sept 16 in various territorial seas to preserve fish stock.

“A moratorium would help the fish and prawn to recover. It would be a waste of marine resources if a total ban occurs.”