An orthopaedic surgeon has been fined S$2,000 on Tuesday, Oct. 25, after he was charged in court in June this year with using live fish injected with air to bait endangered birds.

Lee Soon Tai committed the offence on two occasions in Bukit Batok Town Park in 2015.

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two out of four charges.

Together with two other people, Sathiananthen Rasalingam and Tran Thuong Chung Linh, they fed an endangered grey-headed fish eagle with live fish injected with air some time between 2pm and 5pm on July 19, 2015.

Lee was initially facing two littering charges, but they were amended to attempting to feed endangered birds. These charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

The 62-year-old runs a clinic at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.

In October 2015, a video of three photographers baiting grey-headed fish eagles in Bukit Batok by using live fish injected with air and Styrofoam bits was submitted to Mothership.sg.

The video drew widespread condemnation from the photography community here and internationally.

This practice of allowing the fish to remain afloat to attract the attention of the bird to help the photographers shoot "action" shots of an animal swooping down on its prey on the water's surface is considered highly unethical.

Related articles:

Bird photographers in S’pore stuffed Styrofoam bits into live fish to bait endangered Grey-headed Fish Eagles

62-year-old surgeon is photographer who allegedly baited endangered eagles with Styrofoam-stuffed fish

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