Government urged to take steps to prevent fishkill

MANILA, Philippines - The government should take concrete steps to prevent future incidents of fishkill, businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.

“There were sufficient warnings which were never heeded,” De Venecia, whose home province Pangasinan was one of two most devastated by last week’s fishkill, said.

Batangas was the other province affected, resulting in millions of pesos lost in businesses.

Local government units and fish cage operators shared the responsibility over the environmental nightmare, De Venecia explained.

“Their failure to follow the recommendations of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to remove the cages which hampered the flow of tidal water in narrow areas was the main reason for the fishkill.”

While little can be done about last week’s disaster except to clean up the waters, much can be done to prevent future occurrences, he stressed.

Among others, the culture areas should be zoned and cages and structures which impede the flow of water should be immediately removed.

In the meantime, the fisherfolk affected by last week’s fishkill should receive subsidies from the government, he said.

The government should also monitor the other areas seen to be at risk.

The three critical areas of Anda, Bolinao and Taal need to be watched carefully, otherwise the bangus and tilapia raising industries would die.

“Stop gap solutions will not work. Nothing less than a massive transfer of the fish cages will work,” De Venecia said.