Something Fishy

After eating tuna for breakfast lunch and dinner, it is kind of unsettling to have the Maldives Food and Drug Authority declare that the fish from the local market has high contamination levels of ammonia and other chemicals.

Not too surprising when you realize the fish are dying a slow death on the floor of the fish market, unrefrigerated, in pools of blood.

What you can't see in these pictures is that the fish are still moving.

Worse, the harbor across the street is a cesspool for the fishing boats, called dhonis (pronounced dough-knees). They store the live fish in this filthy water while they are waiting to drag it across the street to the market. Take a look at this picture (left) where the guy is retreiving fish out of a net that is steeped in oil and garbage.

Yuck! The fishermen live on these boats and we could see them brushing their teeth, showering on deck and who knows what else. Anyway, the FDA warns that the fish have high levels of human fecal contamination.

I asked why the FDA doesn't simply shut down the market. They don't have the power and can only warn the public. Male city officials are providing drinking-quality water to wash the fish inside the market, but aren't doing anything about the fish soaking in the harbor waste. There are plans to build a new market where the fish will be displayed on tables on ice and the blood will drain down. Meantime, FDA says it can only warn the public to wash the fish and cook it thoroughly. I was assured that this problem applies to the local market only. The fish for EU export go to a processing plant that has much higher standards of cleanliness.

The woman scientist who did the study further shatters the stereotype of women in the Muslim world. Women hold some of the highest positions in this country, up to attorney general, and they can even run for president under the new constitution.

Once again, a great story by Heena missed its slot and sent the whole show down in flames. Too bad, because it had some great video shot by Zaima. And Waseem turned a great piece on the airport bust of two Sri Lankans with four kilograms of heroin in their suitcase. Now that we are filling the show with great content we need tape editors who will show up for work and engineers who can fix broken equipment in the editing rooms. We could also use a few more editing rooms, or at least access to the programming department's editing rooms when they are not in use.