Capiz fishing industry also suffers beating

ILOILO CITY—Aside from massive devastation to houses and other infrastructure, Capiz province, including its capital, Roxas City, also suffered a beating to its fishing industry due to Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that the damage to the fishing sector has reached P675.82 million as of Nov. 22. This is on top of the P1-billion damage to crops and P3.8 billion to infrastructure.

The province is among the hardest hit areas by the supertyphoon, with 62 fatalities, 133 injured and one missing. The supertyphoon also destroyed 96,055 houses and damaged 41,768 others.

Roxas City is known as the country’s “seafood capital” due to its abundant fish and other seafood production.

But a decline in production of fish and other marine products was expected due to the extensive damage to fishing boats and gears, fish cages and fishponds, according to provincial agriculturist Sylvia dela Cruz.

Dela Cruz said 90 percent of fishing boats in Roxas City alone were damaged or destroyed by strong winds and huge waves. Twenty two of the city’s 46 barangays are coastal.

City agriculturist Engeline Aguirre said the cost of damage to fisheries reached at least P77 million.

At least 350 fishing boats have been reported destroyed or damaged in Roxas City.

Also severely hit were the coastal towns of Panay, Pontevedra, President Roxas, Pilar, Ivisan and Sapian.

Dela Cruz said more than 90 percent of the province’s 12,937 hectares of fishponds were damaged or destroyed.

“Fishpond operators are seeking assistance from our office because of their huge losses. A fishpond operator reported that nothing was left of his 70-hectare fishpond,” Dela Cruz told the Inquirer.

While the supply of milkfish was still up due to the overflowing or early harvest of fishponds, this was expected to drop in the next months, she said.

The supertyphoon also damaged or destroyed 22,259 ha of rice lands, with the cost of damage reaching P505,868,120 based on the cost of input and farm gate price.

Roxas City’s famed delicacy, the diwal (bivalve) or “angel wings,” could also have been affected by the supertyphoon, according to Belinda Garrido, Roxas City’s coastal resource management coordinator.

Already facing near extinction, the shellfish can suffocate due to strong water currents, drifting sand and silt carried by heavy rain from the uplands.