LOOK: Phuket beach turns into a bustling fish market

Phuket’s Nai Han Beach turned into a bustling fish market on Sunday night after a bumper harvest of at least 3,000 hardtail scad, a kind of mackerel, were netted just off the shore and put up for sale at Bt100 (P160) for three.

The vast catch was not, despite rumors emerging on social media, a sign of some upcoming natural disaster, fisherman Ponchai Faingam chuckled.

The scad swim close to shore every November to January to feed on smaller fish, he said, though there are more than usual this year at Nai Han, Kata, Karon and Freedom beaches.

Residents and tourists happily joined the food chain, flocking to the shore to buy the fresh-from-the-sea fish, each weighing about six grams, which usually sell at markets for Bt70-Bt80 (P112 – P128) per kilogram.