Something Fishy! Beware!!!

Put lead pellets in fish belly to charge more?

STOMPer Joanne, 21, said her mother went to Jurong Fishery Port at about 2am yesterday (Jan 20) to get the freshest fish.

"She bought three medium-sized pomfret from a stall. One of them contained nine metal hollow shells stuffed in the belly.
 
"Each weighs about 20 grams," she said in an email last night (Jan 20).

"It was that same morning when she was cleaning the fish and these objects were discovered, leaving her shocked and upset at the same time."

The STOMPer suspects the fishmonger had been dishonest.

"One reason for this could be that the fishmongers wanted to increase the weight of the fish so as to gain higher profits," she said.

What the STOMPer has encountered appears to be a practice among fishmongers and wholesalers in the past.

They inserted lead pellets into the fish belly, making it heavier and, therefore, more expensive. 

Quarantine authorities in some countries have even used metal detectors to inspect seafood imports.

For example, the South Koreans used metal detectors from as early as 2000 to inspect imports of crabs and blowfish from China.  Some checks uncovered hundreds of kilograms of lead pellets.