Panel blames ‘sole importer’ for invasive fish

A House of Representatives sub-committee looking at the spread of invasive blackchin tilapia fish and ways to resolve the problem has pointed the finger at an unnamed company that it said was the sole importer of the fish.
The panel recommended that state agencies pursue legal action against the company for violating Section 97 of the National Environment Quality Promotion and Protection Act 1992, said Wayo Assawarungruang, a People’s Party MP who chairs the sub-committee.
These agencies should include the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and the administrative organisations in provinces affected by the spread of the fish, he said.
The invasive species has now been confirmed in 79 districts of 19 provinces, he said. The fish have been blamed for causing significant damage to shrimp populations and other species.
The root cause, he said, was the sole importer of the species, which brought 2,000 of the fish into the kingdom from Ghana in 2010, citing a record of permits issued by the Department of Fisheries.
The reason the company cited for supporting its blackchin tilapia import request was to improve the species of Nile tilapia at its research centre in Amphawa district of Samut Songkhram, said Dr Wayo.
The company had applied for permits to import the fish earlier, in 2006 and 2008, but it didn’t use either permit, he said.
The sub-committee also found that some individuals had helped spread the species, considering the fact that the fish have spread into several areas that are not connected to a river or the sea.
An examination of the DNA in the blackchin tilapia found in these locations showed they likely originated from the same place, he said.
Most recently, a DNA comparison between samples of blackchin tilapia collected from six provinces between 2017 and 2021 and DNA samples from fish from Ghana and the Ivory Coast stored at the department’s DNA Bank proved a perfect match, the opposition MP said.
CP Foods Plc (CPF), part of the Charoen Pokphand agribusiness conglomerate, has publicly acknowledged that it imported the fish for research in December 2010, with permission from the Department of Fisheries. But it scrapped the project a month later after they grew weak and died.
All the fish were disposed of properly and the process was documented in line with Department of Fisheries regulations, it said. It has sued an activist who has blamed the company for the spread of the fish.