It takes a crisis

Don’t you get the feeling that it takes a crisis to get anything done in this country? It took an Ondoy to get bureaucrats to brush off the dust in volumes of studies on floods and disaster contingency plans. As a result, we have noticed better execution of disaster response in post Ondoy typhoons and floodings.

For P-Noy, it took a less than accurate weather forecast to show he can be decisive. He was irked that PAGASA made them send relief goods to Region 2 but it turned out the weather disturbance was closer to the seat of power in Metro Manila. The Weather Bureau chief was sacked and somehow, we seem to be getting better advice from PAGASA.

The Luneta hostage crisis brought out the fact that our SWAT units are ill-trained and the police officials do not have a good contingency or crisis planning capability. It also exposed a close buddy of P-Noy, one he trusted with dealing with the police, to be nothing more than an influence peddling arms salesman. On this particular kabarkada, P-Noy is probably waiting for another crisis before he totally loses faith in the man.

I am thinking that they are also waiting for a serious accident at NAIA to signal a crisis that will make them address the problems plaguing the airport with a sense of urgency.  Hopefully none of our love ones will end up as victims of their current complacency and/or incompetence.

Over the last two weeks, we have this fishkill crisis at Taal. It is now turning out that the crisis is more man-made than one that can be blamed on climate change. Greed, according to the Agriculture Secretary, is the more likely reason for the catastrophe on the livelihoods of  poverty stricken fisher families along the lake’s shores.

Apparently, the fish didn’t drown or commit hara kiri over the increasing pollution level in  the lake. The fish cages were just overstocked with more fish than can be supported by the lake’s oxygen level. There were also all those illegal fish cages adding to the problem and for which local government officials and the police have a lot of explaining to do.

That was not the first time something like that happened. Remember how we were once upon a time one of the top exporters of tiger prawns? We simply totally lost that industry also due to greed. The prawn cages were similarly overstocked making oxygen a problem and the crowded conditions made the prawns susceptible to diseases. Many people lost a bundle in that debacle of their own making.

So what shall we do? We need to get our scientists involved in getting a good understanding of the problem and help in formulating solutions. We have some of the best marine scientists at UP and they have made studies upon studies of the conditions of our aquatic resources. We ought to see how all their knowledge can be used to help our fish culture industry. But no one is listening to them.

In this regard, I want to share some thoughts of UP scientist Dr. Flor Lacanilao which he e-mailed me on the Taal problem. Dr. Lacanilao says the fish kill in Taal is nothing new but the public is not being given the right information thus far. Here are his thoughts in the hope this time somebody by the Pasig will listen.

“Information we are getting on the present fish kills are largely not educating the public. Further, it is mostly the same information given during the 1970s events in Laguna Lake and later in our coastal waters… hence, their recurrence.

“Most fish kills in our lakes and coastal waters occur where fish farming activities are excessive. A common suspect is pollution build-up—industrial and domestic wastes, agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, and fish feces and excess feeds. These dissolved nutrients can trigger phytoplankton or algal blooms and subsequent decay, using oxygen and releasing toxic compounds. The decaying plants may be blown by the wind in one area or settle at the bottom to join other decomposed material.

“Further movement of the accumulated substance – oxygen-deficient and toxic – may be caused by events like changes in wind, water current, or temperature. Algal blooms in coastal waters may also include poisonous phytoplankton that, in high concentrations, causes red tide. Without proper monitoring of the water’s physical, chemical, and biological conditions, the cause of the mass fish deaths remains unknown.

“What is known is that organisms have a capacity for tolerance to environmental changes, like pollution. The tolerance is limited and varies among organisms and with the kind of change or pollution. The tolerance is widest for survival, less for growth, and least for reproduction. A given level of water pollution, for instance, prevents an organism to reproduce but allows it to grow.

“A higher level may arrest growth but will allow it to live. At the limit of tolerance for survival, any factor of environment, whether man-made (e.g. pollution) or natural (e.g. temperature), can trigger fish kill that affects all species with similar tolerance properties.

“Note that at a given pollution level, certain species stop breeding and others stop growing or die before mass fish deaths; hence, these species-specific effects of pollution is ongoing and reduce the fish stock to lower fish production -- more than the occasional fish kills.

“Let me tell a story about fish pens in Laguna Lake, which in the 1980s was the site of fish diseases and deaths. It shows how unregulated practice of aquaculture gives rise to conflict of interest, causing serious ecological, social, economic, and political problems.

“In 1961-1964, when there were no fishpens at the Lake, the annual fish catch was 80,000-82,000 tons. In 1968, a survey showed that some 10,000 fishers used the Lake as a communal fishing ground. Harvest of shrimps and molluscs was about 240,000 tons; most went in the duck-raising industry.

There were 23 species of fish caught in Laguna Lake, with the goby (biyang puti) and perch (ayungin) as the dominant species. Carp, catfishes (hito and kanduli), snakehead (dalag), and tilapia were also caught in addition to migrating species from Manila Bay, through the once unpolluted Pasig River.

“In 1971, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) introduced fishpen culture with a 38-hectare pilot project. Milkfish (bangus) was chosen because of its market value and because it feeds on phytoplankton, which was abundant in the lake. The project gave encouraging results, producing 3.5 times more fish per hectare over that in open waters. The potential of the Lake fishpen aquaculture was estimated at 20,000 hectares and annual production value of P320 million.

“This prompted businessmen and entrepreneurs into fishpen culture. Development expanded to 4,800 hectares by the end of 1973; gross annual value was P77 million. Data in 1982 showed that fishpens—then 31,000-hectares or one-third of the Lake—produced 62,000 tons. And the small fishers’ harvest from the open waters dropped to only 19,000 tons. They added up to a total Lake harvest of 81,000 tons, same as the yearly catch of the small fishers in 1961-1964 without the fishpens. This result was easily predictable because both the cultured milkfish and the wild fishes depended on the Lake’s natural food.

“As would be expected (because of competition for natural food), the uncontrolled growth of the fishpen industry led to longer rearing time—stretching the four months to eight to 15 months. This led to supplemental feeding, which also allowed increased fish stocking. Note that water would circulate in and out of the fishpens, bringing in natural food and taking out fish feces and excess feed that would then pollute the open-waters or settle at the bottom.

“The conflict was between the community of poor fisherfolk (in the 1980s, more than 15,000 families) and the group of a few hundred rich fishpen operators. In a report published in the newspapers, the LLDA identified an elite group of fishpen operators owning 10 of the largest fishpens that add up to over 4,000 hectares (the law says that no person or corporation can own more than 50 hectares of fishpen concessions). The list showed members of prominent families, including politicians and ranking military officers.

“What the fishpen industry did was rob the small fishers of their traditional rights—by reducing their fishing areas and navigation lanes, by competing over the Lake’s budget of natural food, by polluting the waters, and by reducing their fish catch. Further, they ruined the Lake as a resource, which is important not only for fisheries but also for such other uses as water supply, irrigation.”

Fond thoughts

This one was sent by Marilyn Mana-ay Robles.

Husband throwing darts at his wife’s photo and not a single one is hitting the target.

From another room the wife calls, “Honey, what are you doing?”

Husband replies, “missing you!”

Boo  Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco