Paje orders filing of raps vs illegal fish pen operators

FEASTING ON FISH. Batangas Rep. Nelson Collantes (right) leads fellow lawmakers Linabelle Villarica, Angelo Palmones and Benhur Salimbangon in eating milkfish (“bangus”) at the House of Representatives to prove that the fish caught in Batangas is not toxic and is safe to consume. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje has ordered the filing of criminal charges against operators of illegal fish pens in Taal Lake, site of a massive fishkill that has crippled local livelihood and the country’s milkfish industry over the past two weeks.

Paje on Wednesday said he had directed the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau to file the charges because the 23,040-hectare lake was considered a protected area.

He also questioned the proliferation of foreign-owned fish farms in Taal, which have been found to be overstocking their cages, a practice that led to the depletion of the water’s oxygen levels, suffocating the fish.

Under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act, the Taal Lake and other protected areas should be free from any kind of structure or business enterprise without a permit.

Violations of the Nipas law are punishable with fines of up to half a million pesos and imprisonment of up to six years.

The law defines protected areas as “identified portions of land and water set aside by reason of their unique physical and biological significance, managed to enhance biological diversity and protected against destructive human exploitation.”

‘All about greed’

At the Senate, fisheries officials on Wednesday conceded that overstocking and overcrowding of fish cages, not climate change, mainly caused the fishkills in Taal and also in Kakiputan Channel in Pangasinan.

“Yes, it’s (all about) greed,” Asis Perez, the recently appointed director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said in a Senate inquiry into the ecological disaster that had left some P181 million worth of bangus and tilapia dead.

“Overstocking of fish motivated by the desire to make more money,” Perez said.

In Talisay town in Batangas alone, the fishkill hit 329 illegal, overstocked cages out of the 7,000 fish pens in the area, he told the Senate committee on agriculture and food.

Assistant Agriculture Secretary Salvador Salacup placed the blame on both man-made and natural causes.

Salacup said the Department of Agriculture had received reports that some overstocked cages were found to be 15 meters deep, way past the ideal depth of only 6 meters.

“The ideal stocking rate is 30,000 to 50,000 fingerlings. Some fish cages were containing 100,000 stocks of fingerlings,”’ he explained.

A natural overturn—the mixing of cold and hot water in the lake—caused sediments at the bottom to rise to the surface, which, in turn, “asphyxiated” the fish, Salacup said.

“In a way, the bangus drowned,” he said.

In Anda and Bolinao towns in Pangasinan, the crowded buildup of fish cages in the Kakiputan Channel hindered the water’s natural flow and reduced its oxygen content, Perez said.

“As its name (Kakiputan) suggests, it’s a narrow channel. At a certain period of the year, salt oxygen becomes an issue. We don’t recommend placing too many fish cages. It’s a high-risk area. Unfortunately, the number of cages is more than what the water’s carrying capacity,” he said.

“The major cause of the fishkill is man-made. The issue of temperature was only a contributing factor. I agree it’s greed,” Perez later told reporters.

Dr. Gil Jacinto, deputy director for research at the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute, also agreed that overstocking and not climate change killed the fish in Taal.

A 2006 study on the lake, Jacinto said, noted significant differences in temperature and oxygen level between surface water and subsurface water of the lake.

“Below a certain depth, oxygen is very, very low. If that were the case, if waters from these depths are brought up, then you would have fish in cages that will have to adapt to very low oxygen,” he said.

Jacinto said he was not convinced that the onset of the rainy season alone led to the overturn, recalling no significant volume of rainfall in those days.

“I can’t visualize that happening. I don’t think rains would have done this. More likely we have exceeded the carrying capacity of the lake,” he said. “I shudder at climate change as the reason for what’s happening.”

Just 6,000 cages

BFAR officials said they intended to dismantle some 1,300 cages in the Taal Lake and file charges against its operators.

In Taal, only 6,000 cages are allowed to operate. Over the years, however, the lake became host to up to 14,000 cages.

“By the end of year, we should only have 6,000,” said Nilo Tamoria, executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for Calabarzon.