Jerudong - The usually vibrant atmosphere at the Jerudong fish market is lacking these few days following the red tide announcement on Friday.

Many of the stalls are empty and the absence of the hustle and bustle is uncommon.

Only big sized fish were found while small fish were nowhere to be seen, following the directive made by the Fisheries Department on Friday saying that it had temporarily slapped a ban on the importation of small fish from Sabah.

According to a press release issued by the Department of Fisheries, the public are banned from importing the following fishes from Sabah: Tamban, Aur-Aur, Rumahan Bini, Rumahan Laki, Temanong, Selidai, Sanglar, Geronggong, Basong-Basong, Pusu, Kuasi and Termanong Bersurat. Molluscs, including oysters, cockles and mussels from Sabah are also banned.

The monitoring and laboratory analysis carried out by the Department of Fisheries has shown that the waters of Brunei Darussalam are now affected by red tide. The affected areas are Pelumpong and Pancang Hijau.

On Saturday, the department also said the red tide had spread to the waters of Meragang, Berakas and Jerudong.

As a precautionary measure, members of the public are reminded to remove the guts, gills and other internal organs of fish before cooking.

The public should also refrain from eating small fish of which their gills, guts and internal organs cannot be removed and also Molluscan shellfish as well as fish from any of the affected areas or from unknown origins.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin