Did land reclamation affect currents?

Now here’s something that is worth pondering over. Goes to show why we can’t take anything for granted if we mess with Nature.

GEORGE TOWN (Jan 19, 2010) : Inshore fishermen who ply the waters of the Penang Channel where the dragon boat capsize incident occurred on Sunday want the authorities to look into the impact of reclamation on the currents in the channel.

Traditional inshore fisherman Khoo Kay Keat points to this new shallow shoreline along the reclaimed land in Jelutong where the Bandar Sri Penang fishermen’s jetty is built. Penang held its Pesta dragon boat race here last year. The accident that took the lives of six people during a dragon-boat training session on Sunday occurred about a km away from this reclaimed area.

Khoo Kay Keat, 55, a former Penang Inshore Fishermen’s Welfare Association committee member, who now operates in the area, said they had observed currents changing over last 10 years or so.

He said the inshore fishermen had seen certain stretches along the coastline becoming shallower about the same time that reclamation work had taken place, while the middle portions of the channel had remained deep.

Full article in theSun here.