Merit-making for some, dinner for others: Case of finder keeper in Bangkok

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Bangkok Anglers Fishing Up a Storm as Floods Bring Huge Catch

October 31, 2011
By James Hookway and Wilawan WatcharasakwetThe Wall Street Journal

Thailand’s rolling flood crisis is bringing misery to millions. But it’s also a bonanza for some of Bangkok’s amateur fishermen, who now have a chance to get their hands on a prized catch: temple fish.

There are dozens of Buddhist temples lining the banks of the Chao Phraya River, which winds its way down the length of Thailand. At many of them, large shoals of fish congregate, fed by local monks and the Buddhist faithful, who give them food as a way of making merit. Because fishing is banned at these holy sites, some of the fish grow to enormous size.

But now massive floods, the likes of which haven’t been seen in over half a century and which have killed nearly 400 people, are sweeping the fish downstream into the arms of waiting fishermen like Sutha Suentai.

He says the best way to catch the whopping fish is to get together with three or four friends and dangle a large net from one of the bridges spanning the river downstream in Bangkok—and that’s precisely what he and his pals did this weekend.

“If you’re lucky you can catch three or four at the same time,” said Mr. Sutha, 44 years old, as he peered down into the fast-moving current 25 meters below Phra Pokklao bridge near Bangkok’s Chinatown, where fish swirled among the whirlpools and eddies. “The big fish like swim around in the current, and that’s where we try to drop the net.”

Karma-wise, Mr. Sutha thinks he’s in the clear. “It’s not a sin to catch these fish,” he said. “They’ve been swept away from the temples and now they are in the open river.”

Besides, the fish taste pretty good. “You don’t want to boil them, because they are a bit fatty from being fed so much at the temples,” Mr. Sutha said. “But if you dry it in the sun for one day and then fry it, it’s delicious.”

Other amateur anglers also say the floods are bringing downriver masses of fish, up to a meter in length. Fishermen, and they are mostly men, line the length of the river, making long, arcing casts into the raging water as street vendors sell ice cream and other snacks. In other parts of the capital, people are throwing fishing nets into the streets as record high tides turn roads into canals.

In northern Bangkok, though, where many neighborhoods are submerged, fish are causing additional problems for hard-pressed locals. The cause: Many of them are dying, killed off by pollution and dwindling oxygen in the water. Now some fear their rotting corpses add to the growing risk of disease, not to mention the worsening stench in the air.