Anchovy fishing - to provide new source of income for RMN veteran

The Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) is launching an integrated floating biocomposite anchovy fishery and marine aquaculture platform in Kota Belud next month for Sabah's Royal Malaysian Navy veterans.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba said it would be carried out under the Malaysia Social Innovation project in collaboration with Nuclear Malaysia and Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia to provide opportunities for 100 RMN veterans in Sabah to source for new income.

"This is a start-up project for the development of sustainable floating structures in the area concerned for marine aquaculture farming and aqua tourism sector.

"The spill-over from this development will benefit most people in Sabah," he said in a statement, here today.

He said the development of such an economic model could also be implemented in Peninsular Malaysia, especially in Johor.

Meanwhile, Adham said Nuclear Malaysia would also produce the Samarium 153 radioisotope along with the EDTMP kit for the palliative treatment of cancer patients.

He said the research and development product could help relieve bone pain for patients with chronic cancer and among its advantages was to provide a significant improvement in pain scores to patients.

"This samarium will reduce dependence on the use of narcotic analgesics and for sure, the Samarium 153 is safe to use," he said.

Adham said Nuclear Malaysia, which is an agency under MOSTI, played a big role and gave a new dimension to the country's medical landscape, thus saving costs as the required drugs no longer needed to be imported.

Apart from the medical sector, he said, Nuclear Malaysia also conducted research to produce biocomposite products for use in various sectors, including building structures, school furniture, multi -purpose floating structures such as fish cages for aquaculture and biocomposites as crop support for pepper cultivation in Sabah.

-- BERNAMA