BFAR says no major fish kill expected this year

DAGUPAN CITY – Saying the situation is more manageable, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said no major fish kill is anticipated this year.BFAR director Asis Perez told local journalists here he is confident that the situation last year will not be repeated.

The massive fish kill in Taal Lake, Pangasinan and other parts of the country resulted in around P600-million in losses.  

Perez said there is a system to prevent fish kill from having an adverse impact on the industry.

“The lowering of oxygen level is unavoidable. But managing it before the situation sets in, we are prepared for that, we can do that,” he said. 

“Development must be properly managed. The more you manage it, the better is the impact,” he added. 

This, as the BFAR said the fishing industry in the country faces a brighter outlook for the remainder of this year.

BFAR assured the public that it will not let another massive fishkill happen again in the country, adding that fish farmers are now more environmentally-conscious as they adopt proper culture management technology from experts.

In San Fernando City, Pampanga, Dr. Westly Rosario, National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) chief, said that with no fishkill being foreseen, the fishing industry in the country faces a brighter outlook in 2012.

He dismissed the recent death of some tilapia at Laguna Lake as a "fishkill" caused by low dissolved oxygen (DO) but actually due to indigestion.

Meanwhile, BFAR director Asis Perez said that as to the fish scare last year that caused the price of milkfish to plummet to its lowest level of P40 per kilo, there was no such thing as "fish botcha".

What happened before was that for lack of refrigeration and processing facilities, some fishes that were harvested had to rot naturally because many housewives then had stopped buying fish from the market.