‘Botcha’ not haute cuisine for crocs

WARNING: Like humans, animals are also at risk from so-called double-dead fish.

Bangus, or milkfish, that died from the massive fishkill that devastated fish-farming areas in Batangas and Pangasinan are not safe to feed to animals, not even to predators like crocodiles, an expert warned yesterday.

Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the environment department’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), issued this warning amid reports that fish sourced from the fishkill-devastated areas were donated to animal sanctuaries, including her own office, which cares for endangered species.

Lim was reacting in particular to a report that bangus that city authorities had confiscated from public markets in Pasay City believing them to have come from fishkill areas, were donated to the city’s crocodile park and fed to the reptiles there.

Not choosy

At the Crocodile Park, public affairs manager Virgil Pedo Jr. yesterday said that a total of 600 kilograms of bangus had reached the park since Thursday. They even had to reject 200 kg since they had nowhere to store them, he said.

Besides, the park’s Philippine saltwater crocodiles actually prefer meat to fish.

“It’s not that they’re choosy. It’s just not their first choice. When we left the fish for the crocs to eat, some of them didn’t touch it, while others took time to eat it. If it was pork or chicken, it would have been gone the moment we put it there,” Pedo said.

He said that crocodiles don’t mind eating double-dead meat—donations of which the park also receives—because their digestive tracts can handle the bacteria in the decomposing meat.

“Their blood have antimicrobial peptides. It’s their natural defense against the bacteria in the food that they eat,” Pedo said.

There are about 300 crocodiles in the farm, 65 full-grown adults, 100 juveniles and the rest are younglings or year-old baby crocodiles.

The park’s reptiles eat about 5 percent of their total body weight per week. The average adult crocodile weighs 50 kg and would feed on 2.5 kg of meat.

Nervous system disorders

Lim said that like humans, animals are also at risk when they are fed rotten fish, popularly referred to as “double-dead” fish.

“We are issuing an advisory against this and writing a letter to the Crocodile Park to stop feeding the wildlife with dead fish from fishkills,” she told reporters in Zamboanga City where she was investigating the smuggling of corals.

According to Lim, a substance called thiaminate develops in the gut of spoiled fish. Thiaminate destroys Vitamin B, or thiamine, in the body of humans and animals, she said.

“Once an animal ingests fish with thiaminate, it will suffer from nervous system-related problems,” like muscle weakness, seizures and paralysis, she said.

Ingestion of thiaminate could lead to convulsion and possibly death, said Lim.

“We don’t like this to happen to our wildlife,” she said.

But she said fresh fish, or those that were harvested alive but are not being bought by nervous consumers, are considered safe.

However, unless it can be determined that the fish are healthy, it is better to err on the side of caution, she said.

The PAWB received a donation of fish yesterday, but Lim was reluctant to accept it because of concerns about their condition.

PAWB personnel who inspected the fish said some were healthy, but Lim said she would rather not take the chance of feeding it to the animals in their care.

Lim said she understands the good intentions behind the donations, but that “it could cause more deaths.”

It would be better for authorities to properly dispose of the fish from the fishkill areas, she said.

Massive die-off

Fishkill—or a massive die-off of fish populations—last week hit fish farms on Taal Lake in Batangas and Anda and Bolinao towns in Pangasinan, destroying hundreds of metric tons of mostly milkfish, tawilis, maliputo and tilapia.

Depleted oxygen levels brought on by the sudden drop in water temperatures because of the rainy season and overpopulation or crowding of fish cages are thought to have caused the country’s most recent incident of fishkill. Fish apparently become stressed and die when oxygen concentrations fall below optimal levels.

People have steered away from buying fish products, and particularly milkfish, at the public markets for fear that unscrupulous traders were selling fish from the fishkill areas along with uncontaminated ones.

This has brought the multimillion-peso bangus industry to a crisis. Local government reports said Batangas has suffered losses estimated at P57 million, while Pangasinan said it lost more than P80 million from the fishkill. The figures do not include what the industry has lost in unrealized sales.

Confiscations continue

City authorities yesterday were continuing to confiscate so-called double-dead milkfish in public markets in Pasay City and Makati.

City veterinarian Dr. Ronaldo Bernasor reprimanded vendors found selling milkfish that came from fishponds affected by the fishkill in Pangasinan and Taal Lake.

He said authorities had seized 100 kg of contaminated fish from the markets of Pasay City Mall, Malibay and Maricaban on Thursday and 80 kg more yesterday from the public markets of Cartimar, Seaside Road and Sto. Niño.

Buried in cemetery

Bernasor said that vendors found to be selling contaminated fish will be reprimanded on the first offense but if caught a second time will face charges for violations of the Consumer Act and the Sanitation Code.

Makati’s veterinary office yesterday said it confiscated 125.25 kg of double-dead fish at the markets of Pembo-Rizal, Pembo and Comembo, and in Guadalupe Nuevo and Sacramento.

City veterinarian Dr. Ma. Vivien Manalastas said that all the seized fish were buried at the Makati cemetery.