Alarm Grows Over Black-Chin Tilapia Invasion at Pattaya Beach
A content creator's viral video showing a massive invasion of black-chin tilapia at Pattaya Beach has sparked concerns about threats to the marine ecosystem and local fishing industry.
At 3:00 AM on May 14, 2025, a Facebook content creator known as "Start Channel" with over 20,000 followers posted a video showing large numbers of black-chin tilapia discovered at Pattaya Beach, causing alarm among local fishermen, squid hunters, and tourists who gathered to witness the event.
Start Oon Kayen, 40, the video's creator, revealed that he runs a fishing content channel covering various locations and regularly fishes and squid hunts at Pattaya Beach, attracting tens of thousands of followers. Recently, local fishermen alerted him to a large school of black-chin tilapia in the area, so he attempted to use fish traps to help remove them. The traps successfully caught a significant number of the fish, prompting concerns about the marine ecosystem's health at Pattaya Beach and questions about how these fish could survive in saltwater.
He has urged relevant authorities to urgently investigate and implement preventive measures, warning that if the black-chin tilapia population continues to spread, it could harm local aquatic species including fish and squid larvae, ultimately threatening the marine ecosystem and coastal fishing livelihoods.
