Inside Singapore’s fish port, where experts say traceability gaps risk endangered species

A small group of bleary-eyed seafood enthusiasts gathers for a tour of the port led by Pasar Fish, an increasingly popular education and research group founded in 2024 by Elliott Ong and Kenny Lek, both former staff of conservation group WWF-Singapore. For S$50 (US$39) a tour, the duo share their knowledge of the species traded at the port, how they are caught, cooked, and priced, and how best to shop for them. The freshest fish, Ong explains, will have clear eyes, shiny scales and bright colours.

Ong and Lek also advise on where the fish are sourced from – none are caught in Singaporean waters, except for farmed fish – and their sustainability credentials. The latter is the most problematic topic. Ong is reluctant to label any species traded at the port as “sustainable”, because such claims are difficult to verify. While traders often say they know where their catch comes from, genuine traceability in Singapore’s seafood supply chain is lacking, he says.

Jurong Fishery Port seen from above, where Pasar Fish’s tour of the facility begins. Most of the fish traded at the port come from Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Some are locally farmed. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Though traders claim to know where their catch comes from, genuine traceability in Singapore’s seafood supply chain is lacking, experts say. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

A Pasar Fish tour group is guided through Jurong Fishery Port. Elliott Ong, wearing a blue t-shirt and yellow shorts, identifies fish species for the group and explains which popular dishes they are found in. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Seafood traceability is difficult to navigate in Singapore due to complex transnational supply chains. While traders may know the port from which fish were imported, they will rarely know the precise harvest source, said Clement Ng, a post-doctoral researcher at Nanyang Technological University who is working with Pasar Fish on a paper examining catch trends at Tekka Market, one of Singapore’s largest wet markets supplied by Jurong Fishery Port. 

“When asked about harvest sources, seafood traders at Jurong Fishery Port typically offer vague answers such as “from the ocean” or simply “Indonesia”,” Ng told Eco-Business.

Pasar Fish posters highlight that 1/3 of the fish consumed in Singapore could come from unsustainable sources overfished [click to enlarge]. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

In its guide for Singapore’s market fishes, Pasar Fish advises consumers to choose only locally farmed Malibar snapper, orange-spotted grouper and fourfinger threadfin, to eat longtail tuna and Spanish mackerel only on special occasions, and avoid endangered species such as sharks and rays entirely.

For most species, however, the guide does not provide sustainability labels. “We recommend people reduce consumption and avoid certain species for which we have evidence that stocks are overfished,” Ong said. “For species where we don’t have enough information, we don’t give a green light – but we don’t give a red light either.”

Pasar Fish’s ambition is to help consumers identify fish at the market and gradually build a stronger evidence base, using observations from the port, to improve sustainability information.

“Some people say we should stop eating seafood entirely. But we feel that if we took this stance, the issue wouldn’t get the attention it needs outside the sustainability bubble,” said Ong. “Singapore has a strong food culture, and that’s where we believe the conversation should start.” 

Over the past year, Pasar Fish has reached an estimated 4,000 people through its seafood guide, workshops and port tours, of which it has conducted 10 to date. “I think we’ve managed to change the minds of people who would otherwise have been unreceptive to sustainability,” Ong said.

Ong previously worked on the 2016 edition of the WWF Seafood Guide, which labels species with insufficient data as unsustainable and identifies some species – such as wild-caught white clams from Vietnam, known locally as “la-la” – as sustainable. These assessments are based on certification by the Marine Stewardship Council for wild-caught seafood and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council for farmed species.

WWF’s Singapore Seafood Guide displays species that consumers can and cannot eat, according to their sustainability credentials. Source: WWF 

Marine biologist Naomi Clark-Shen, who was involved in the science behind WWF’s seafood guide, said the lack of transparency and traceability in seafood imports makes it nearly impossible for consumers to assess sustainability.

Since 2017, Clark-Shen and colleague Kathy Xu, founder of shark conservation group The Dorsal Effect, have surveyed sharks and rays traded at Jurong Fishery Port – and previously at Senoko Fishery Port, which closed in March 2024 – twice a month. Over time, they have observed a decline in sharks sold at the port, alongside a sharp increase in rays. Both groups, which have cartilage rather than bone skeletons, are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation due to their slow reproductive cycles.

Kathy Xu measuring blue-spotted stingrays at Jurong Fishery Port. Rays typically give birth to 2-7 pups at a time, a reproductive rate that makes the species vulnerable to overfishing. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Kathy Xu points to an unborn pup she removed from the birth canal of an adult white-spotted whipray. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

While sharks have fallen out of favour on Singapore menus as awareness of the cruelty of shark-finning has grown, rays remain popular – particularly whitespotted whipray (Maculabatis gerrardi) and sharpnose whipray (Maculabatis macrura), which are commonly served as sambal barbecue stingray.

Clark-Shen said stronger protections for sharks under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) may also have contributed to reduced shark trade, as exporting countries are required to issue permits. Rays, however, do not enjoy the same level of protection.

Naomi Clark-Shen (left) records data while Kathy Xu sexes and measures the animals. The researchers have observed the number of stingrays traded at Singapore’s fishery ports rise from 6,984 between 2017 and 2018, to 11,649 between 2024 and 2025. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business 

A basket of Bamboo sharks await trade at Jurong Fishery Port. The number of sharks observed by Xu and Clark-Shen has dropped from 1,470 in the period 2017 to 2018, to 933 from 2024 to 2025. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most important seafood-producing regions, with Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia supplying global markets with tuna, shrimp, crab, squid, and a wide range of reef and coastal fish. But its supply chains are fragmented and layered with intermediaries.

Singapore, meanwhile, consumes about 100,000 tonnes of seafood annually and imports almost all of it from the Coral Triangle – the world’s most biodiverse marine region.

Long, slender Spanish mackerel seen being traded from above. The species has been overfished in the Indian Ocean, with excessive harvesting of juveniles, according to Frontiers in Marine Science. WWF-Singapore’s Seafood Guide recommends that consumers “think twice” before consuming Spanish mackerel, which are “at risk of becoming unsustainable.” Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Clark-Shen said regulations to reduce overall catch volumes are also necessary. “If we reduce pressure on one vulnerable species but shift it onto another, that’s not sustainable,” she said. “The total amount of catch from the ocean needs to be reduced significantly. This is why we believe the amount of catch altogether from the ocean needs to be reduced significantly.”

Though definitions of sustainability vary, to Clark-Shen the only true definition of seafood sustainability is coastal communities using rod and line to catch their own food – the pervasive cultivation method before the advent of industrial fishing, which is linked to fish stock depletion, coral reef damage and US$6 billion in annual economic losses.

A row of Spanish mackerel await sale at Jurong Fishery Port. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Traceability and the future of Singapore’s seafood

Eco-Business contacted the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) about efforts to improve seafood traceability, limit trade in vulnerable species and curb destructive fishing practices. An SFA spokesperson said Singapore “supports sustainable fisheries management practices in accordance with our international obligations and national laws.”

The spokesperson added that while Singapore’s commercial fishing sector is small, the agency oversees fishing activities under the Fisheries Act to safeguard fish stocks. The act includes bans on destructive practices such as trawling, and the use of poisons or explosives. SFA did not comment on efforts to improve practices beyond Singapore waters as it is outside its jurisdiction, although the agency is also responsible for regulating the import of fish and fish products into the country. 

Spanish mackerel being unloaded at Jurong Fishery Port. Trader Jimmy Ho (not pictured) says he has observed a 10-15 per cent decline in fish stocks from Indonesia over the last 10 years. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Climate change eats into fisheries 

At the port, some traders shared their concerns about the future. Jimmy Ho, a 59-year-old trader who has sold coral trout and Spanish mackerel from Indonesia for two decades, said fish volumes traded through Singapore have fallen by 15 to 20 per cent over the past 10 years. Overfishing, warming seas and more frequent El Niño events are to blame, he said. El Niño events are climate phenomena occuring for years at a time, during which sea surface temperatures over the Pacific Ocean experience a spike. 

“Fishing is a cycle – from hatching to adulthood to reproduction,” Ho told Eco-Business. “If you break that cycle, fish don’t have a chance to recover.”

Ho said he plans to retire within the next two years, citing the industry’s bleak outlook. Declining fish stocks and intensifying competition have squeezed profitability, with aggressive price-cutting eroding margins. “It’s become too cut-throat,” he said, joking that he would rather spend his time “watching YouTube” than battling an increasingly depleted and unforgiving industry.

Another fish trader who fielded questions during a tour with Pasar Fish was more optimistic. Without revealing his name, he said he wasn’t worried about declining fish stocks due to the rise of fish farming as a buffer. Yet in Singapore, high costs and competition from imports have limited the sector’s ability to relieve pressure on wild stocks.

Some fishermen believe that the rise of fish farming can compensate for overfishing in the Coral Triangle, where Singapore sources most of its fish. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business

Meanwhile, Clark-Shen reflected on another busy survey in which she and Xu documented well over 500 rays landed at the port.

“The number of stingrays has increased, but it’s nothing compared to where we started [six years ago],” she said.

“Back then, we were seeing hundreds of sharks and wedgefish, and hundreds and hundreds of stingrays. The surveys [then split over two ports, Jurong and Senoko] would take us well over three hours. Now it takes 45 minutes visiting the same number of stalls.”

While trade data cannot fully reflect what is happening at sea, Clark-Shen said broader scientific evidence confirms that shark and ray populations are declining globally due to overfishing – a trend increasingly recognised by policymakers. At the CITES Conference of the Parties in December, new protections were enacted for sharks and rays, including a ban on exports of wild-caught wedgefish and tighter controls on international trade in manta rays and whale sharks.

A ray is loaded into a large tub full of other rays for transportation into the city. Image: Robin Hicks / Eco-Business