IPOH: The livelihood of some 500 fishermen at Lekir, Manjung have been affected following worsening pollution there.
Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) president S. M. Mohamed Idris said the problem has been ongoing for the past 10 years.
"The pollution originates from factory waste and waste from prawn-breeding ponds," he claimed.
Idris said a check by CAP found that fisheries located between one nautical to eight nautical miles were in danger of being extinct due to pollution.
"Besides low supply of fishes and prawns, it is also becoming increasingly difficult to get crab, seashells and clams," he said in a statement here today.
He claimed that the dwindling supply of sea food was due to the deforestation of mangrove forests.
"The mangrove forests have been removed for the prawn-breeding project," he said.
Idris said that in the past, before pollution had set in, fishermen could get between 50kg and 60kg of seafood daily.
"Now, they are lucky to get between 4kg and 5kg daily," he said.
CAP, said Idris, urged Department of Environment and Fisheries Department to take immediate action to arrest the slide in seafood production.
"The state government and Fisheries Department should also carry out a detailed study on seafood produce from Sungai Teluk Tiga to Koyan which had seen thousands of hectares of mangrove forest destroyed for prawn-breeding projects," he added.