ILOILO CITY, Philippines -- The Iloilo fishing industry lost P400 million to typhoon "Frank" (international codename: Fengshen) and industry players say it will take five to six months to recover from the losses.

Ildefonso Toledo, provincial agriculturist, said on Wednesday the flooding brought “very significant” losses to fish producers, especially fish pond operators who lost dikes and fishponds to floods.

Tons of ready-to-harvest fish stocks were lost after the fishponds overflowed.

According to David Villaluz, secretary of the Iloilo Fish Producers Association, Iloilo has about 10,200 hectares of fishponds.

Villaluz said that on the average, Iloilo has been producing about 8.1 metric tons of bangus or milkfish every year.

However, he said, production this year would likely to fall to two metric tons.

The Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) said the damage incurred by the fishing industry was at least P407 million.

This includes at least P304.2 million of losses in aquaculture and P112.8 million in municipal fishing.

Toledo said fishponds, mostly of milkfish, bore the brunt of the damage because the typhoon struck when stocks were about to be harvested.

Western Visayas is among the country’s top producer of bangus, mainly coming from Iloilo.

The cost of losses in fish stocks alone reached P147 million.

The hardest hit areas were the northern Iloilo towns of Dumangas (4,000 hectares) and Ajuy. Also hit hard were the towns of Barotac Nuevo, Anilao, Estancia, Banate and Leganes.

Toledo said the extent of the damage was the worst he saw in the 27 years that he has been working in the agriculture sector.

Villaluz said in his hometown Banate alone, only 24 of the total 350 hectares of fishponds survived the floods.

“The storm struck at the peak of harvest season. This is the biggest challenge we have faced so far,” he said.

Villaluz said it would take at least six months for the industry to recover even as repairs of damaged dikes and structures have been ongoing.

Toledo said the lack of fries and fingerlings would make recovery even more difficult. Operators have to get these from hatcheries or wait for those bred from the wild starting August and September.

He said the earliest harvest would be in December because it would take three to four months for the fingerlings to mature.

Toledo said he expected an increase in prices of fish, especially milkfish, which sold from P120 and P150 per kilogram.