Read Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala’s lips: Contrary to public fears, there is no danger in eating fish in the aftermath of the fishkill late last month in Taal Lake in Batangas.
“It’s safe to eat fish,” Alcala said at a roundtable discussion on Thursday night at the Inquirer. “It has been some weeks since the fishkill [on May 27]. There’s no way that fish caught at around that time could still be selling.”
Alcala lamented that while less than one percent of the fish produced in the country was affected by the fishkill, the whole industry was suffering because consumers’ fears had driven prices down.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, who was present during the discussion, said: “Perhaps we should keep repeating our message and have more photos [published] of officials eating fish.”
Alcala pointed out that fish gone bad during the fishkill would not keep even if stored in ice or in a freezer.
“You can’t store spoiled fish. There are ways of telling if the fish is fresh,” he said, adding that fish consumers should look for firm flesh, bright red gills and clear eyes.
Alcala also said that illegal fish cages were being dismantled and that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was studying the feeds that could be used by fisherfolk to prevent a recurrence of the fishkill that struck several towns bordering Taal Lake.
Stabilizing the lake water
Some sections of Taal Lake are showing signs of improved water quality, but the BFAR has instructed fish cage operators to wait until the entire lake had stabilized before restocking.
Esmeralda Paz Manalang, acting director of BFAR-Calabarzon, said these conditions must be met for the lake’s water to stabilize:
Favorable weather conditions.
No “overturn” (mixing of cold and hot water in the lake, causing sediments at the bottom to rise and drown the fish).
No deterioration of the water quality.
On Tuesday, Task Force Taal Lake started dismantling 77 of the 1,300 illegal fish cages in the towns of Talisay, Laurel, Agoncillo and San Nicolas.
Lack of monitoring
Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto had earlier admitted that the “excesses” of fish cage operators were largely to blame for the fishkill.
She had also issued a reminder to mayors of coastal municipalities to closely monitor fish cage operations.
At the roundtable discussion, Pangilinan rued the lack of monitoring of fish cages at the local government unit (LGU) level.
He described the BFAR as “more of an advisory body,” and said the task of monitoring fell on the LGUs, “especially at the municipal level.”
Pangilinan noted a finding of a Senate inquiry that it was illegal fish cages and overstocking that led to crowding, lack of oxygen, and eventually, the fishkill in Taal Lake.
In a report on June 10, the Inquirer conveyed data from the Batangas provincial government stating that only two cities and six of the nine towns surrounding Taal Lake were allowed to put up fish pens.
Pangilinan said that according to the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, bangus (milkfish) could feed every other day. “But we found that the fish cage operators that had fishkills were feeding their stock twice a day!” he said.
“It was really greed that killed the fish,” Alcala said. He noted that the fish cages of foreign operators using Filipino partners as “fronts” or “dummies” were found to be especially overstocked.
But Alcala stressed that Laguna Lake had not been marred by fishkills and that fish from anywhere in the country was safe to eat.
6M fingerlings
In Pangasinan, BFAR Director Asis Perez said the bureau had prepared six million bangus fingerlings for distribution to fish cage operators in Taal Lake.
“We are consistently monitoring the water quality but we cannot say when it will be best to restock the cages,” Perez said in Alaminos City on Monday.
Perez said a moratorium on stocking was in effect in Taal Lake as well as in Bolinao and Anda, the western Pangasinan towns that were hit by a fishkill on May 29.
He said the recent fishkills had no significant impact on the country’s annual fish production because the losses represented less than one percent.
BFAR is supporting the aquaculture industry because it produces 40 percent of the country’s yearly fish production, Perez added.
BFAR-Calabarzon’s Manalang said the latest tests showed that the dissolved oxygen (DO) level was 6.1 parts per million (ppm) in Barangay (village) Quiling in Talisay town, 6.14 ppm in Agoncillo town, and 8.25 ppm in San Nicolas town.
All these are above the normal DO level of 6 ppm, she said.
On Wednesday, she said, the DO level in Barangays Aya, Sampaloc and Tumaway, all in Talisay, was 2.73 ppm, and in Laurel town, 5.14 ppm and below. With reports from Marrah Erika Lesaba, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon