Hundred Islands Fish-yalan opens broodstock area

ALAMINOS CITY , Philippines —This city’s famous Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) is not only for swimming, island hopping, beach frolicking, zipline riding, kayaking and other water sports activities.

It’s also for educating people on raising high-value species through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)’s Regional Mariculture Technology Demonstration Center.

BFAR Region 1 recently opened  to the public its broodstock area for educational tour purpose for tourists.

“We have our Fish-syalan here,” said Martin Allayban, head of BFAR Cariaz Island broodstock development center. 

He said people might be surprised why there are fish cages in the island.

 “Our fish here are not commonly seen by people… like pompano and grouper that weighed up to two kilos each not commonly seen by people in the market,” he said.

These were bought at 250 grams only and were placed in fish cages for up to five to six years to grow, he said.

“He said taking care of their breeders means giving them enriched feeds to boost their gonadal development to make them produce good quality eggs.

Cariaz Island was named after its departed employee, Zacarias Tetuani or Mang Cariaz to his colleagues, who devoted his life taking care of the fish species in the island, BFAR Region 1 Assistant Regional Director Rosario Segundina Gaerlan said.

Gaerlan said they have broodstock of high-value species like malaga, pompano, abalone, grouper, snapper, including seaweeds in their satellite station in the Hundred Islands nursery.

She said they used to have bangus (milkfish) when they started their bangus breeding program until the task was transferred to the  BFAR-National Integrated Fish Technology Development Center in Dagupan City in the 80s, she said.

Gaerlan said they started to operate as research center and later ventured into production.

On Jan. 30, the area of BFAR’s operation in the Hundred Islands was expanded from 3.3 hectares to 12 hectares for five years under the tenurial rights embodied in a memorandum of agreement.