DA to put up 2nd mariculture park

Barely six months after opening the first ever mariculture park in Asia on Samal Island, the Department of Agriculture is putting up a second one, this time in Zambales province, closer to the populous market of Metro Manila.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor signed recently with local officials of Zambales, led by (former Executive Secretary) Rep. Ruben Torres, a memorandum of agreement for the establishment of a 100-hectare mariculture park in the province.

The MOA was signed at the DA by Montemayor along with Torres, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr., Dr. Rolando Platon, chief of the Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Masinloc Mayor Jess Edora, Palauig Mayor Milagros Guatlo and was witnessed by nine other mayors of Zambales province.

The MOA was an offshoot of a mariculture planning workshop held in Iba, Zambales last October – organized by Torres – which is envisioned to be put up in the coastal waters of the municipalities of Masinloc and Palauig to be included in the projects to be covered by the BFAR-SEAFDEC MOU of Jan. 25, 2000 or the Joint Mission for Accelerated Nationwide Technology Transfer (JMANTTP). The joint program was funded P5 million each by BFAR and SEAFDEC in the first quarter of 2000.

The proposed site for the mariculture park falls under the multiple use zone of the NIPAS law where all mariculture activities are possible. Even then the DA-BFAR would still request the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue a written declaration of the areas as a multiple use zone under the NIPAS law.

Already, many small fisherfolk have shown interest to locate low-cost projects within the proposed mariculture park.

Sarmiento said the 100-hectare park can easily accommodate 2,000 fishcages (at 20 cages per hectare) costing at least P350,000 per cage. Each cage could directly employ three persons and once productive the employment to be generated would multiply several times for harvesting, processing and marketing.

And just like the 200-hectare Samal Island mariculture park, the expected investors/locators in the Zambales park are those currently involved in fisheries, particularly the commercial fishing operators who are finding it increasingly hard and very expensive to catch fish in deeper fishing grounds.

Apart from generating employment, the park is expected to increase fish supply for Metro Manila and adjoining provinces in Luzon, which is supplied mostly by fishponds and some by deep sea fishing operations.