“My brother and I have always loved fishing and the sea. When we were in primary school we enjoyed taking care of fighting fish and goldfish,” Lim Chun Yong, 37, tells FMT.
In 2012, he and his brother Chun Sheng visited a fish farm during a family holiday in Langkawi, and the seeds of inspiration were planted.
“Seeing how happy our kids were, as they fed the fish and enjoyed themselves, made us promise that we would one day have a fish farm of our own.”
This dream took five years of planning, which was necessary given that they had no experience in fish farming. After all, Chun Yong dropped out of school at age 15 and became a renovator. Chun Sheng joined him several years later.
Still, the brothers took the plunge. After identifying the location of their new venture, they began building their farm in 2019 with help from their father and friends.
At first, the siblings would visit the surrounding fish farms and learn the ropes from their neighbours, many of whom were generous with their time and advice.
“They taught us the ins and outs, like how to change and clean the nets, what to do when fish get sick, and when to feed them,” Chun Yong shares.
The brothers quickly found that rearing fish would keep them occupied for days on end. With their homes in Air Itam, they decided to spend some nights at Pulau Jerejak to cut back on the long commute time.
“There are 36 fishing holes with about 10,000 fishes swimming in them,” Chun Yong says of the hybrid groupers and golden snappers in their care.
They wake at 7am to feed the fish, and start working on cleaning and caring for the nets at around 10.30am.
Other tasks include washing their scaly friends and giving them showers. Yes, fish have showers, too – “just without the shampoo!” Chun Yong jokes.
He further explains: “We fish them out of their holes and soak them in buckets of clean water for around five minutes, before putting them back into the sea so that harmful microorganisms are washed away.”
Two years have swum by and the brothers are proud that their fish – many of which started at around 7.6 cm – have grown to remarkable sizes of up to 50.8 cm.
Red snappers weigh in at around 2kg, while speckled hybrid groupers range from 4-5kg.
The pandemic has not affected the brothers much as they stay far away from the city. “Arrangements were made to have helpers come down from Kuala Lumpur, but that happened right before lockdown so they haven’t been able to come over,” Chun Yong says.
As for whether it gets lonely by the sea, he shares that the hardest part is being away from their families. Chun Yong has an eight-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son, while his brother has a three-year-old girl.
Still, the pros far outweigh the cons, and most nights Chun Yong and Chun Sheng fall asleep to the sound of waves, blessed by the lights of Penang’s two bridges twinkling in the distance.
383 Fishery Enterprise is accepting orders. To support the Lim brothers in their dream and partake of the freshest fish, WhatsApp them at 013 5665383.