Did BFAR fail to act on fish kill in Bohol town?

ALBURQUERQUE, BOHOL, Philippines — Some residents of this town, belonging to the Nagkahiusang Alburanons, expressed concern over the marine ecosystem condition here by assailing, on the group's Facebook account, the alleged inaction of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on the reported fish kill here recently.

It was not immediately known what was the extent of the fish kill and what were its causes, but the Nagkahiusang Alburanons said they got angry somehow on why there was no immediate action on the part of the BFAR technicians over the incident.

In her FB account, municipal technician Dolores Cagoco, lamented over the alleged failure of the BFAR to check on the fish kill for the reason that the samples were no longer fit for examination to determine its cause.

BFAR-Bohol head Crescencio Pahamutang confirmed that there was a fish kill in this town, which he described as "slight." He however explained to The Freeman, in an interview, that BFAR could no longer conduct laboratory tests on the samples of dead fish because these were given to the office too late already and were in decomposing state.

Pahamutang said that, whenever there is occurrence like this, fish kill samples should immediately be brought to BFAR because these have to be sent to Cebu first for laboratory tests because Bohol has no facilities to do such.

Fishkill is also known as fish population mortality that may also affect aquatic life, according to Wikipedia. "The most common cause is reduced oxygen in the water, which in turn may be due to factors such as drought, algae bloom, overpopulation, or sustained increase in water temperature."

Water pollution from agricultural runoff or biotoxins and oxygen depletion are blamed as the most common natural causes of fish kills. Others include droughts, waste spills and hazardous wastes due to chemicals washed to the sea and native cyanide-producing vines poisonous to aquatic life, it added.  (FREEMAN)