Bangkok’s abandoned mall is literally swimming with fish

The abandon shopping mall, once an exotic attraction among locals and tourists who came to see fish, is scheduled to be demolished soon. Source: AP

IT LOOKS like something you would see on one of those Discovery Channel shows that use computer animation to depict what the world will look like when humans have departed it.

But this scene is real.

A dank and dilapidated mall in Bangkok has long been abandoned, but just because it has been empty of shoppers for such a long time doesn’t mean the place isn’t teeming with life.

For more than a decade thousands of fish have inhabited the roofless remains of the building, creating an eerily beautiful sight as they swim around what would once have been the ground floor of the shopping plaza.

According to travel blogger Jesse Rockwell who took amazing photos of the site, the mall was burned down in 1999 in a suspected arson attack by a competitor in the area.

The Bangkok Post, however, reported that the building was left without a roof after the upper levels were demolished when they were found to be in breach of building restrictions.

Not long after that in the early 2000s an unknown person introduced a small population of exotic Koi and Catfish species in an effort to address the mosquito problem caused by the water inside the building.

The fish species have thrived ever since.

The fish are mostly made up of mango fish, striped catfish and catfish. Source: AP

However now the estimated 3000 fish are being removed.

Workers from the Fisheries Department and related researches are using fishing nets to collect and transport them to a number of centres in the province.

The fish will be kept there for about three weeks before being released to reservoirs, canals and rivers, said Veera Watcharagoneyotine, director of the centre in Samut Prakan, while supervising the removal earlier in the week.

While the city is seeking demolish costs from the building’s owner, the world just lost one of the coolest tourist sites in the world.

Thai officers wade through to catch fish in the basement of the mall. Source: AP

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