By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof

IT is a mystery that left one 'fish lover' curious.

On Friday afternoon, hundreds of fish, mainly tilapia, went 'belly-up' in the waters of Jurong Lake near Lakeside MRT station.

The rotting fish were still visible near the lake's banks yesterday evening, even after contractors had worked overnight to clear them.

One curious resident stayed to watch the clean-up process on Friday evening.

The resident from Boon Lay estate said he wanted to know what happened as it was unnatural for so many fish to die suddenly.

The retiree, who gave his name only as Mr Kim An, said: 'In all my life, I have never seen so many dead fish in one area. I have been asking the cleaners and some of the 'government' people, who told me it's not the water (that's killing the fish).

'It must be something else, but what? I did notice that the weather was hot lately. Maybe that's why they died.

'It's so 'sayang' (wasted in Malay) to see so many of them dead.'

Mr Kim An, 66, who lives with his children in a HDB flat in Boon Lay, said he watched 10 men pack the dead fish into trash bags.

The workers had used sampans and a machine that looked like a dredger for the clean-up job.

When The New Paper on Sunday arrived at the site yesterday, Mr Kim An was seen talking to a man testing the water with a probe. Later, the retiree approached this reporter to show the damage along the banks.

Mr Kim An said while pointing to the fish: 'None of the fish were spared. Big, small, also dead. That big fish over there would taste good when sliced thinly and cooked with noodles.'

While flies hovered over the pale and bloated fish, there were signs of life in the man-made lake, too.

Other small fishes and terrapins were seen swimming in the murky waters.

However, the stench on one side of the bank was so unbearable that cyclists covered their noses when they cycled past - 12 trash bags filled with dead fish were placed there.

There were residents in the area, like Mr Selvarajoo and his girlfriend, who were unaware of what had happened.

Rotting smell

Mr Selvarajoo, 25, who had been jogging near the lake, said: 'I thought the workers had been clearing leaves from the lake. I didn't know the 'leaves' were actually dead fish.

'All this explains the rotting smell in the air.'

National water agency PUB and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a combined response that small dead fishes were found scattered along certain parts of Sungei Lanchar from Boon Lay Way to Yuan Ching Road late Friday afternoon.

This was the first reported incident there.

Their spokesman said: 'Dissolved oxygen levels at Jurong Lake and Sungei Lanchar were found to be within a normal range to support aquatic life.'

PUB and NEA are conducting more tests to look into the likely causes of the dead fish.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Oct 13, 2008.