Paranoiac view of Ah Hua Kelong
(From Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary).
Kelong (sometimes spelt Kellong)
1. a form of offshore platform built predominantly with wood, which can be found in waters off Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Only a handful remain around Singapore due to rapid urbanisation.
2. (verb) A term used in Singapore / Malaysia to indicate cheating, to achieve an objective by non appropriate means.
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As I read the twin definitions of a Kelong, one things stands out. Only a handful remain around Singapore. People will always kelong (definition 2). But I hope there will always be Kelongs (definition 1) in Singapore!
Recently, I had the awesome chance to visit Ah Hua Kelong. And nope, they certainly do not kelong. Everything they do, is all about the getting the best, the freshest, onto dinning tables, with no compromises.
Life seems idyllic on a Kelong. Lots of hard work, but lots too of sun and fresh air, all the fresh fish you can eat, far from the maddening crowd.
An idyllic life?
But life isn’t idyllic. Its hard, uncertain, and definitely not lucrative. One of the first things that Uncle Ah Tan said to me was “Got money, don’t buy Kelong!” (Not that I can afford one). And so, why do these guys soldier on? Because of passion. And where there is passion, there are good products.
Ah Hua Kelong used to be called Pasir Ris Fish Farm, and is owned by Mr Teh. Traditionally, the fish farm focused on B2B sales, selling to restaurants and other F&B establishments. When Mr Teh partnered Bryan and Kai, the farm was renamed Ah Hua Kelong as form of respect to the pioneers of the farm. They leveraged on social media and information technology to offer direct sales to home consumers. The mission was to provide local seafood, harvested fresh and delivered to homes within the same day. All the consumer needed to do was order from their website, and specify a delivery location. Customers can choose from seabass, pearl grouper, golden pomfret, mussels and lala, among other products.
Mr Teh (left) cleans some Moonsnails while Bryan (right) checks emails
The promise of freshness takes great commitment. The day started with the team off-loading their freshly harvested seafood from the boat to the waiting delivery van. This was at the new jetty at Pasir Ris.
Transferring the day’s harvest from boat to land. Ah Yong (in the boat) hands over the days orders to Kai
As they insist on harvesting and preparing the orders on the day itself, the mornings are hectic, as the team rushes to meet the delivery times.
Off he goes!
From the jetty, a short ride took us to Ah Hua Kelong. 
My host at Ah Hua Kelong was Bryan, who took pains to explain to me the workings of the farm.
Bryan explaining to me the workings of a Kelong
Nothing fishy about fish food
Ah Hua Kelong is primarily a fish farm, that raises fish. But they do need to catch fish in order to bring the best fish onto you table. Bryan explained the process to me.
Net used to catch bait fish
The Kelong has a large, fine-mesh net. When night falls, the net is lowered and the lights over the nets switched on. This attracts small fish, which are caught later when the net is raised.
Lights used to attract fish
The small fish are in turn, used as feed for the sea bass and grouper which the farm raises.
Fish food
The extra effort taken to feed bait fish (instead of just commercial soya pallets) to the fish improves their taste and quality, as it mimics their natural diet. I held a few of these bait fish in my hand, and raised them to my nose. And guess what? The bait fish had no fishy smell at all.
These guys just smelled of the sea
The bait fish themselves, would have been a great treat if gutted and deep fried. So the fish food is itself great seafood. It is this commitment to good feed which influences the quality of the final product.
Cleaning of the nets
One tends to imagine that all you have to do in a kelong is sit back and watch the fish grow up. But the truth is that fish need constant care and attention. The cleaning of the nets is one example.
The farm has over a hundred pens. For the pens that hold smaller fish, nets are suspended over the pens to keep the birds at bay. A crucial job on a kelong is the cleaning of the nets. Left on their own, the nets become encrusted with marine life within weeks. Ever so often, the fish in a pen must be transferred, the nets removed, cleaned and replaced. If this tedious work is not done, the seawater will not flow freely in and out of the nets. The health, and taste of the fish will suffer.
I got to see Ah Yong, one of their trusted workers, installing a freshly cleaned net, securing each corner and weighing the net down so it forms a nice cage. When you consider that that the Kelong has up to a hundred pens, the staff must spend an awful lot of them worrying about the nets. 
A precious cargo arrives
The day of my visit was an important, and particularly busy day at Ah Hua Kelong. It was the day a new batch of fish fingerlings came in. A small mountain of styrofoam boxes arrived, each holding a bag of Grouper fingerlings. These fingerlings represent a huge investment and hope for the Kelong. It is their future, and the care put into the fingerlings show how much it means to the farmers.
The boxes had arrived by air freight, from Taiwan. These were opened, and the bags within carefully removed.
See the fingerlings in the bag?
Each bag held a hundred grouper fingerlings, each about ten centimetres in length.
The bags first go into the pens
Left unopened,the bags were gingerly placed into the holding pens. The bags were left a while floating in the pens, for the temperature inside the bags to equilibrate.
Releasing the fingerlings into the pens
Finally, the fingerlings were inspected before release into the pens. Before their arrival, a small mountain of bait fish had been chopped up, ready to feed the precious fish.
Preparing baby food
As Bryan explained to me, despite all their care, a good fraction of the fish will die. Each fingerling lost is another set back to the business, an added cost to be made up.
So why do they kelong?
I never actually asked this, but the answer is obvious. Passion. The owner and chief farmer, Mr Teh, was a wonderfully hospitable man, and a great cook who really loves seafood. He explained to me how the previous owner had wanted to give up, and he had bought over the Kelong and tried to keep it going. The plankton boom that swept through our waters earlier in the year had been a terrible lost to the fish farms, but there is no choice but to buy new stock, and keep at it.
Mr Teh – fish farmer and a great cook!
For Ah Tan, is simple. He loves his life of catching crabs, out in the sea, doing his stuff.
Ah Tan and his crab traps
Given the challenges of labour cost, and relentless competition from imported seafood, Kelongs in Singapore face very challenging times. At Ah Hua Kelong, their push into B2C has given fresh focus. Their dream is to educate, and introduce Singaporeans to fish raised here in our waters, instead of opting for Salmon raised halfway around the world.
When Bryan and Kai decided to go into this business, they knew they were in for hardwork and uncertainty. Going B2C meant the occasional headache of harsh customers. Still they keep at it, pushing forth new products that would appeal to young urbanites. One example is the ready-to-steam seabass fillet in an aluminium box. When young folks are willing to go into farming, I think its a really good sign!
As the visit ended, the Kelong dog bid us farewell. I hope that Ah Hua will Kelong on!
