Thai MoP Scouts fight Covid-19 with fishes and crabs.

Thai MoP Scouts fight Covid-19 with fishes and crabs.

Fishes has been a staple food of Thai people for centuries. The 700 years stone inscription states that "Sukhothai has fishes in the water and rice in the field". Thailand has many types of fishes and aquatic animals in rivers, ponds and in the sea. Some of the poor or unemployed due to COVID, survived by fishing for their food. Thai Scouts have tried hard to find ways to use fishes as weapons in the COVID war. Recognizing the less of fish and aquatic life due to the modern fishing equipment and pesticides. In 2017, during the royal funeral ceremony of King Bhumibol. Thai Scout Promotion Foundation and the Department of Fisheries released more than a million fishes into the Bhumibol Dam Reservoir for merit to the King. Including Mekong giant catfishes (Pangasianodon gigas), one of the world’s largest fish, which was almost extinct. When the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, Thai Scout Promotion Foundation sent US $ 2,000 to purchase 100,000 nilthilapia broodstock and offspring to release into Lake Azuhai for the food of poor Haitians. The initial plan was sending young Chitralada Tilapia baby fish by plane from Thailand. But there were livestock regulation to import live fish into Haiti, which will take long time to get permission. Therefore, the plan had changed to buy fishes from a local fish farm. Then, Haitian nurses dressed in Thai clothes, attend the fish release ceremony. In 2020, Thai Scouts in Ubon and Prae Provinces used donation money to purchase a variety of fry from provincial fisheries, released them into Sirindhorn Dam reservoir to preserve human food of live fishes within the reservoir. In 2021, a serious COVID outbreak occurred in Samut Sakhon, a province near the Gulf of Thailand. Thais and foreign workers, mostly Myanmar and Cambodian labors suffer from hunger,due to unemployment from factories closures or production cuts. Thai Scout Promotion Foundation brings the experience of releasing fish in Haiti and Bhumibol Dam, studying the type of fishes that should be released to the target area of brackish and salty water. At first, Thai Scouts planned to use gourami fish, but can't, because the gourami must live in still water , since it eats plankton generated from silage, they are suitable for reservoirs behind dams. But not suitable for fast-flowing areas such as Tha Chin River. Subsequently, the Scouts considered Cichlids (Anabas testudineus), which could not be used again , since the cichlid cannot live in salty water. Baby lobsters and fishes formed by artificial insemination are also not suitable, because they cannot find natural foods by themselves and do not know how to avoid enemies such as snakehead fish, catfish or water komodo. One interesting option is a small old fasion Chitlada 1 Tilapia fish, which Emperor Akihito of Japan presented to King Bhumibol of Thailand many years ago. But it is difficult to find the rare species. Because modern tilapia has been developed to be suitable for transgender sterilization, it has a lot of meat, grows quickly. But they cannot live in nature by themself, since they have to wait to eat ready-made factory food. Naturally, tilapia mother fish uses her mouth to hold her eggs and babies to prevent harm. If there is no mother fish to look after, the survival rate of fry will be low. Thai scouts researched until they found an original Chitralada1 fish conservation site at the Chai Pattana Foundation Fishery Center, Nakhon Nayok Province. Thai scouts then purchased 50,000 baby genuine Citlada Tilapai fish of 30 days old, brought them to raise and train them to find natural foods at Samut Sakhon Fisheries College for 4 months until it grew about 10 cm then released into natural water. To mating, lay eggs, hatch eggs, and have the mother fish to take care of the fry from the enemy. Thai Scout in Samutsakorn use donation money of US$ 1,000 to buy 300 live crabs that were tide up with string, ready to steam boiled. Release them at a reserved mangrove forest along the seaside so that each of them can lay more than 1,000 baby crabs for food and income of the needy covid victims. Ideas from Thai Scouts in using fishes and aquatic animals as weapons in the COVID war, was a part of the food shortage prevention program for the needy in crisis. Which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that can be expanded to other countries around the world. Reported by: Artorn Chandavimol , artornc@gmail.com
Started Ended
Number of participants
100
Service hours
200
Topics
Youth Programme
Youth Engagement
Personal safety
Legacy BWF
Good Governance
Partnerships
Communications and Scouting Profile

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