Thailand wages war against alien tilapia fish

It has been described as the most invasive species to ever hit Thailand -one which risks enormous damage to the environment, according to officials.

Attempts to control it have seen crowds wading out into lakes, and genetic modification.

And yet the blackchin tialapia continues to spread through Thailand’s waterways, so far impacting 17 provinces.

An investigation in parliament has aimed to uncover the cause and its proponent, with Bangkok MP Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat declaring We will not pass a devastated ecosystem to the next generation.

So can Thai authorities win the battle – and how exactly did this West African fish end up causing havoc half a world away?

Battling an alien species

Thailand had experienced outbreaks of blackchin tilapia in the past, but none has been as widespread as this most recent episode.

Mr Nattacha estimates that this particular outbreak is going to cost Thai economy at least 10 billion baht ($293m; £223m).

So for months now, the government has encouraged people to catch blackchin tilapia, which have found their way in rivers and swamps. The fish thrive in brackish water, but can also survive in fresh and salt water.

The Thai government has also doubled the amount that it will pay people who catch the fish, to 15 baht ($0.42; £0.33) per kilogram. The result? In Bangkok’s suburbs, crowds have waded in knee-deep waters hoping to catch blackchin tilapia with their plastic basins.

Authorities have also released the blackchin tilapia’s predators – Asian seabass and long-whiskered catfish – to hunt them down.

However, they are battling a species which reproduces at speed: females are able to produce 500 fingerlings at a time.

And so authorities have also gone to the extent of developing genetically-modified blackchin tilapia that would produce sterile offspring, planning to release them as early as the end of this year, in the hopes of stopping their population from exploding further.

But Mr Nattacha told BBC Thai the government needed to do even more. Who will win?" he wondered. We need the people to follow the case closely, otherwise this matter will be quiet, and we will pass on this kind of environment to the next generation.”

So how exactly did this fish – easily identifiable thanks to the black spots on their chins and cheeks – come to be in Thailand? One theory that parliament has looked into is that an experiment by food behemoth Charoen Pokphand Food (CPF) 14 years ago had caused the spread.

The company, which produces animal feed and runs shrimp and livestock farms, imported 2,000 from Ghana in late 2010. It said all the fish died and were buried properly.

Two years later, outbreaks of blackchin tilapia were reported in Thailand,including the area of a CPF laboratory, according to local broadcaster Thai PBS.

But CPF – the agribusiness arm of one of Thailand’s largest conglomerate,Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) – has rejected the allegations. It has also threatened to sue those spreading what it calls “misinformation” on the matter.

It is co-operating with state agencies fighting the spread of the alien species.“Although the company is confident that it is not the cause of the outbreak, it is not indifferent and is ready to cooperate with the government to alleviate the suffering of the people,” said Premsak Wanuchsoontorn, CPF’s aquaculture and research development officer.

However, CPF officials have attended parliament hearings in person only once. They have previously given their explanation to lawmakers in writing.The director-general of Thailand’s Department of Fisheries, Bancha Sukkaew,notes only one private company had sought permission to import blackchin tilapia.

He told the BBC that there was a possibility that some escaped from the laboratory. However, he is also not discounting the possibility that the invasive fish species could have been smuggled into Thailand.

In the end, though, how they came to be in Thai waterways is the past – the problem is the future, and getting the outbreak under control. But is it possible?

Experts told BBC Thai that the battle against the blackchin tilapia could be a losing one.“I don’t see the possibility of eradicating it,” said Dr Suwit Wuthisuthimethavee, an expert in aquatic animal genetics at Walailak University.

“Because we cannot limit its range. When it is in nature, it reproduces continuously, has a fast reproductive cycle,” Dr Suwit added.

Nonn Panitvong, an expert in freshwater ecosystems, agreed. “The problem with alien species is that once they are established, they are very difficult to eradicate,” he said.

Macao casinos rake in revenue as authorities target money changers

Nikkei Asia,

HONG KONG/MACAO — Revenues in Macao’s casino business are climbing back toward pre-pandemic levels, but clouds of uncertainty are gathering as authorities clamp down on unlicensed money changing operations that play a key role in the industry.

The latest interim results of six Hong Kong-listed casino operators demonstrate the sector’s renaissance.

Melco International Development on Friday evening reported 17.76 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.28 billion) in revenue for the first half of 2024, up 36.3% on the year, cutting its net loss to about a third, at HK$253.21 million.

Throughout the first half of 2024, the business improvement momentum continued, said Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, one of the 17 children of the late Macao casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, in a Friday statement. As part of the commitment to delivering unparalleled experiences to esteemed patrons in Macao, significant investments have been made in the workforce and property enhancements,he added.

The remaining loss is due to the interest payment on its total outstanding interest-bearing debt, which was worth HK$61.56 billion as of the end of June.

The revenue rebound at Melco, which also runs casino resorts in the Philippines and Cyprus, is not an exception. SJM Holdings, founded by Stanley Ho, said on Tuesday that its revenue rose 47.4% to HK$13.80 billion,with its net loss shrinking to HK$162 million from HK$1.26 billion a year earlier.

Galaxy Entertainment Group, led by nonagenarian Hong Kong magnate Lui Che Woo, reported 37% top-line growth and a 52% improvement in its bottom line, leading the pack with a net profit of HK$4.38 billion.

Despite mounting U.S.-China tensions, three players with American roots –Sands China, MGM China Holdings and Wynn Macau — all more than tripled their net profits as well, with revenues surging over 20% on the year.

The aggregate revenue of all six competitors jumped by 36% to HK$111.71 billion, while net profit increased by almost four times to HK$12.47 billion.

Across the former Portuguese colony, monthly casino gaming revenue has been surging, with the figure in May reaching 20.18 billion patacas ($153 million). That was the first time the tally cleared the 20 billion-pataca mark since January 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although, gaming revenue has not reached the level before the global health crisis, the accumulated figure for the first seven months of the year was 132.34 billion patacas, equivalent to more than three-quarters of the amount in the same period of 2019.

India has ‘special problem’with China, says Jaishankar

Hindustantimes,

New Delhi : India has a “special China problem” and the four-year military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the state of the bilateral relationship call for precautions such as scrutiny of Chinese investments,external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.

Jaishankar, who has maintained for long that the normalisation of India-China relations can’t be delinked from peace and tranquility on the border, made the remarks while speaking on foreign policy issues at the ET World Leaders Forum in Delhi.

Relations between the two Asian countries have been at a six-decade low since the face-off on the LAC began in April-May 2020. He said India is not the only country debating problems linked to China, since China is among the key economic and national security discussions in European countries and the

“India has a China problem, a special China problem, that’s over and above the world’s general China problem,” he said. While dealing with trade, investments and exchanges of different kinds with China, the “basics start to go off track” if one neglects to consider that “this is a very unique country with a very different way of working”.

India, he said, has had a “very difficult situation on the border for the last four years” and the sensible response is to take precautions. “It’s common sense that investments from China would be scrutinised. I think the border and the state of relations between India and China call for it,” Jaishankar said.

Even countries that don’t have borders with China, such as the US and European states, are scrutinising Chinese investments, he noted.

“Now it has never been the government’s position that we should not be having investments from China or doing business with China… The issue is not whether you have investments from China or not, it’s not a yes or no answer.

It is what should be the appropriate level of scrutiny, how should you handle it,” he said. Jaishankar contended that the concept of national security too has been expanded.

“If we were completely reliant…on pharmaceuticals from China, does it not have national security implications? If your telecom is based on Chinese technology, can you be impervious to it?” he questioned.

This is a complex factor and the separation between economics and security with certain countries is a “very thin line”, he said.