Fish pen owners at Laguna de Bay lose P115 million to Rolly

STRAY FISH A woman cleans a carp caught by the lakeside at the village of San Antonio in Bay town, Laguna province, a day after Typhoon “Rolly” crossed provinces in southern Luzon. Every timea strong
typhoon hits, people in communities around Laguna de Bay are blessed with an abundant supply of fish, like carp and “bangus” (milkfish), that escape from damaged fish pens and cages. —KIMMY BARAOIDAN

Fish pens covering 90 hectares of Laguna de Bay were wiped out by strong winds and lake current, unleashing about 2.2 million kilograms of cultured “bangus” (milkfish) at the height of Typhoon “Rolly” (international name: Goni) on Sunday.

While this had allowed for a free-for-all catch in lakeshore communities, the typhoon left about P115 million in losses to fish pen operators in the southern part of the lake in Calamba City and Los Baños town, both in Laguna province.

The amount was just a “conservative estimate” by the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) on Tuesday, with its team set to sail out again Wednesday and inspect damaged cages near Talim Island in Binangonan and Cardona towns in Rizal province, said licensing officer Juan Estoy.

There are about 300 large and 2,000 small fish pens across the 90,000-hectare Laguna de Bay.

Cheap milkfish

The abundant supply of bangus, which escaped after the typhoon damaged the bamboo poles and nets surrounding the fish pens, forced the price to drop to between P40 and P60 a kilo in wet markets and lakeside “talipapa” (community markets) in Calamba and Bay town in Laguna and in Angono, Rizal.

SALE “Bangus” (milkfish) harvested from Laguna de Bay after this week’s typhoon are sold in Bay, Laguna. —KIMMY BARAOIDAN

But Arnel de Mesa, the Department of Agriculture director for Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), said the volume of bangus from damaged pens in the lake was “too small” to consider a glut in supply.

The damaged pens were also seen to have little effect on the overall fish supply since other ponds remained intact and the bangus industry posting supply sufficiency of about 90 percent, he said.

Abundant and cheap bangus popping up in the markets after every storm is common in Laguna, but Estoy said Rolly was “extra strong” that it destroyed three big fish pens (covering 20 ha each) operated by corporations and severely damaging 30 ha of smaller fish pens (1 ha to 5 ha each).

Every hectare of a fish pen contains about 100,000 pieces, or 25,000 kilos of bangus.

“On the western portion [of Laguna Lake] like in Sta. Rosa [and] Biñan [cities in Laguna] all the way to Taguig City [Metro Manila], were [partial] damage [on fishing structures], like its bamboo poles snapped or anahaw leaves blown away,” Estoy said.

The wind direction of Rolly, from west to south of Laguna de Bay, also caused seiches, or strong waves, that pushed swathes, as big as 50 ha, of water hyacinth toward Laguna.Water hyacinth could also damage the underwater structures.

“Debris [from damaged fishing structures] and the water hyacinth are now clogging the waterways and are preventing fishermen from sailing,” Estoy said.