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Man fined S$2,600 for releasing stingrays into reservoir

SINGAPORE — An unemployed man charged last week in Singapore’s first court case involving stingray abandonment was fined S$2,600 on Tuesday (Sept 26).

Larry Tan Chin Guan (right), charged for releasing three Motoro stingrays at Lower Seletar Reservoir, arrives at the State Courts on 26 Sept, 2017. Photo: Jason Quah

Larry Tan Chin Guan (right), charged for releasing three Motoro stingrays at Lower Seletar Reservoir, arrives at the State Courts on 26 Sept, 2017. Photo: Jason Quah

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SINGAPORE — An unemployed man charged last week in Singapore’s first court case involving stingray abandonment was fined S$2,600 on Tuesday (Sept 26).

Larry Tan Chin Guan, 48, was caught after he filmed himself releasing three pet Motoro stingrays into Lower Seletar Reservoir and uploaded the video on Facebook. Two individuals reported the clip, which Tan posted on the SG Tiger Fish and Aquatic Livestock page on Facebook, to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) and national water agency PUB.

Following up on the complaints, PUB called Tan in for an interview to assist with investigations.

He was charged last Wednesday under the Animals and Birds Act for abandoning the stingrays – an alien freshwater species with venomous stings that are native to South America – at about 3pm to 4pm on June 2 without reasonable cause or excuse. On Tuesday, Tan was charged with releasing the stingrays into the reservoir without prior written approval from PUB. He was fined S$2,000 for the first charge and S$600 for the second.

Tan’s decision to release the creatures was irresponsible and unwise, as the reservoir was “certainly not a natural habitat” for stingrays in captivity, said District Judge Kenneth Choo.

Tan had bought four Motoro stingrays about a year ago from an aquarium in Yishun, where he lives.

The species are popular in the aquarium trade and can be sold legally here.

One of the stingrays died several weeks later and in May, Tan decided to give them up to make space for five newly-bought Black Diamond stingrays.

He placed the Motoro stingrays in a bag with a portable air pump and drove five minutes to a carpark near Orchid Country Club, then walked to the reservoir and released the stingrays.

PUB prosecutor Khong Pui Pui told the court that the release of captive stingrays harmed both the animals and the aquatic ecosystem. “These animals may not survive and those few that are able to do so disrupt the ecological balance of the natural habitats by competing with the native species for resources,” she said.

The animals also pose a risk to people who use the water bodies.

After the incident, PUB advised the People’s Association and Sport Singapore to urge those partaking in water activities to don appropriate footwear and avoid standing or walking in the shallow area of the reservoir. Its contractors were also told to immediately report sightings of the stingrays to PUB staff, and to avoid touching the creatures with their hands during the removal of aquatic plants.

The stingrays have yet to be caught, Ms Khong told reporters after the hearing.

Tan, who did not have a lawyer, said he did not know it was a crime to release animals into the reservoir. “If not, I would not have done it in the day time,” he said. “I could have sold them away but I did not want other people to use the stingrays to make a profit. That’s why I chose to release them back into nature.”

Motoro stingrays, likely released by hobbyists, have been spotted in local reservoirs since at least 2006. Between 2007 and 2008, researchers trying to ascertain the species’ status in Upper Seletar Reservoir caught five specimens including two pregnant females. It was the first alien record of a South American freshwater stingray outside the tropical region of Central and South America.

The PUB told TODAY that since 2009, about 30 Motoro stingrays have been sighted and caught at different reservoirs — Lower Seletar, Upper Seletar, Lower Peirce and MacRitchie — during ecological studies by the agency and the National University of Singapore. As they are non-native species, the specimens caught are taken back for further research and are not released back into the reservoirs.

Non-native species may upset the food chain and introduced fish may compete with native species for food and habitat, or become predators of native species, said PUB. They may even spread diseases.

According to research published in 2009 by academics Ng Heok Hee and Tan Heok Hui, however, Singapore’s reservoirs are almost wholly populated by alien species.

Motoro stingrays are also imported. The AVA told TODAY about 550 of them were imported last year, a steep drop from about 1,700 imported in 2015 but more than the 100 imported in 2014. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SIAU MING EN

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