Tarnished fishing wonderland
By Manolo B. Jara
The Manila Times
February 22, 2003
THE Philippines has been known as a fishing wonderland. About one million Filipinos depend directly for their livelihood on the richness and vastness of the country’s fishery resources. The latter consist of: A coastline of at least 17,460 kilometers; 26.6 million hectares of oceanic water; and inland resources composed of 338,000 has. of swampland, 253,000 has. of freshwater and brackish water fishponds as well as 250,000 has. of lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Today, the country retains that wonderland image but to a much lesser degree. Like many other island and archipelagic nations, its image has been tarnished by a combination of factors. These include overfishing, pollution, and the unabated use of illegal fishing methods like chemicals and explosives, mainly dynamite. Besides, poachers from neighboring countries, like China and Taiwan, have been fishing with impunity in its territorial waters, a sad testimony to the Philippines’ lack of money and resources to guard its coastlines.
Even aquaculture, considered the “rising star” in the fishing industry, is getting a close, hard look from concerned sectors. Simply put, aquaculture is fish farming in an artificial environment. In aquaculture, fish are spawned, reared, fattened and then prepared for consumption. Such has been the progress made that the 2001 World Population Report of the UN Population Fund says that since 1995, one in four food fish served on dining tables worldwide comes from aquaculture.
Due to declining catch from the seas, aquaculture has become an attractive option. The Philippines was not to be left behind and started to go into aquaculture in a big way. As a result, the industry has expanded from one synonymous with bangus or milkfish farming to one producing more varied, tempting and financially-rewarding offerings. Aside from bangus, at least seven species — prawns, tilapia, mud crab, grouper, siganid, carp and mudfish — are now being raised in different farming systems.
For the past 15 years, says the Bureau of Agricultural Research, aquaculture has bested the two other sectors — commercial fishing and municipal fishing — in terms of performance. From 1989 to 1998, aquaculture production grew by 4.7 percent annually and contributed 34.2 percent of the country’s total fish catch. In 1998, the Philippines became the world’s biggest aquaculture producer and, in the process, overtook erstwhile leaders like Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Indonesia. By next year, aquaculture is projected to contribute 42 percent of total fishery production in the country.
But the country appears to be paying a high price for aquaculture’s dramatic growth. For instance, in late February 2002, milkfish started floating to the surface by the thousands in the coastal town of Bolinao, Pangasina, one of Metro Manila’s main sources of seafood. “Bolinao,” as one report graphically put it, “was rapidly turning into an economic and environmental disaster area. Scientists blamed the massive concentration of aquaculture in the town as the main culprit.
They discovered that harmful algal blooms, or “red tide” as popularized in media, proliferated due to the heavy presence of fish cages, fish pens and the like in Bolinao. These blooms contain poisonous substances that can concentrate on mussels, clams and other shellfish. In turn, infected shellfish, when consumed by humans, could cause paralytic poisoning which often leads to death from respiratory arrest.
Aquaculture is also known to be the main reason for deadly conflicts between big-time fishpond operators and small fishermen. The Laguna de Bay “war” between fish pen owners and small fishermen from the towns that ring Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake is an example. Until order was restored in the late 1980s, there were reports of killings in which the small fishermen often ended up as victims of armed guards in the employ of big fish pen operators in the bay.
Aquaculture is likewise pinpointed as the culprit in the rapid disappearance of the country’s mangrove resources. In the mad rush to join a proven moneymaker, many enterprising individuals, with the connivance mainly of local officials, have taken over mangroves and converted them into fishponds to raise bangus and shrimps. As a result, the country’s mangrove resources have shrunk from 450,000 has to just 150,000 has today.
Mangroves are deemed vital in preserving the country’s ecosystem. They protect the coastlines from erosion, filter out silt that would have choked coral reefs and provide spawning grounds for fish and nesting areas for birds and animals. But human greed is so overpowering that until now mangroves continue to be destroyed to make way for aquaculture. Just recently, concerned environmentalists and officials said they were shocked to discover that more than 200 has of deforested mangrove in Quezon town in southern Palawan had been destroyed and converted into fishponds.
These and many other examples have raised alarm among concerned sectors and research institutions. They warn that unabated and uncontrolled growth of aquaculture, powered mainly by human greed, could hasten the downfall of the Philippines as a fishing wonderland.
By Manolo B. Jara
The Manila Times
February 22, 2003
THE Philippines has been known as a fishing wonderland. About one million Filipinos depend directly for their livelihood on the richness and vastness of the country’s fishery resources. The latter consist of: A coastline of at least 17,460 kilometers; 26.6 million hectares of oceanic water; and inland resources composed of 338,000 has. of swampland, 253,000 has. of freshwater and brackish water fishponds as well as 250,000 has. of lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Today, the country retains that wonderland image but to a much lesser degree. Like many other island and archipelagic nations, its image has been tarnished by a combination of factors. These include overfishing, pollution, and the unabated use of illegal fishing methods like chemicals and explosives, mainly dynamite. Besides, poachers from neighboring countries, like China and Taiwan, have been fishing with impunity in its territorial waters, a sad testimony to the Philippines’ lack of money and resources to guard its coastlines.
Even aquaculture, considered the “rising star” in the fishing industry, is getting a close, hard look from concerned sectors. Simply put, aquaculture is fish farming in an artificial environment. In aquaculture, fish are spawned, reared, fattened and then prepared for consumption. Such has been the progress made that the 2001 World Population Report of the UN Population Fund says that since 1995, one in four food fish served on dining tables worldwide comes from aquaculture.
Due to declining catch from the seas, aquaculture has become an attractive option. The Philippines was not to be left behind and started to go into aquaculture in a big way. As a result, the industry has expanded from one synonymous with bangus or milkfish farming to one producing more varied, tempting and financially-rewarding offerings. Aside from bangus, at least seven species — prawns, tilapia, mud crab, grouper, siganid, carp and mudfish — are now being raised in different farming systems.
For the past 15 years, says the Bureau of Agricultural Research, aquaculture has bested the two other sectors — commercial fishing and municipal fishing — in terms of performance. From 1989 to 1998, aquaculture production grew by 4.7 percent annually and contributed 34.2 percent of the country’s total fish catch. In 1998, the Philippines became the world’s biggest aquaculture producer and, in the process, overtook erstwhile leaders like Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Indonesia. By next year, aquaculture is projected to contribute 42 percent of total fishery production in the country.
But the country appears to be paying a high price for aquaculture’s dramatic growth. For instance, in late February 2002, milkfish started floating to the surface by the thousands in the coastal town of Bolinao, Pangasina, one of Metro Manila’s main sources of seafood. “Bolinao,” as one report graphically put it, “was rapidly turning into an economic and environmental disaster area. Scientists blamed the massive concentration of aquaculture in the town as the main culprit.
They discovered that harmful algal blooms, or “red tide” as popularized in media, proliferated due to the heavy presence of fish cages, fish pens and the like in Bolinao. These blooms contain poisonous substances that can concentrate on mussels, clams and other shellfish. In turn, infected shellfish, when consumed by humans, could cause paralytic poisoning which often leads to death from respiratory arrest.
Aquaculture is also known to be the main reason for deadly conflicts between big-time fishpond operators and small fishermen. The Laguna de Bay “war” between fish pen owners and small fishermen from the towns that ring Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake is an example. Until order was restored in the late 1980s, there were reports of killings in which the small fishermen often ended up as victims of armed guards in the employ of big fish pen operators in the bay.
Aquaculture is likewise pinpointed as the culprit in the rapid disappearance of the country’s mangrove resources. In the mad rush to join a proven moneymaker, many enterprising individuals, with the connivance mainly of local officials, have taken over mangroves and converted them into fishponds to raise bangus and shrimps. As a result, the country’s mangrove resources have shrunk from 450,000 has to just 150,000 has today.
Mangroves are deemed vital in preserving the country’s ecosystem. They protect the coastlines from erosion, filter out silt that would have choked coral reefs and provide spawning grounds for fish and nesting areas for birds and animals. But human greed is so overpowering that until now mangroves continue to be destroyed to make way for aquaculture. Just recently, concerned environmentalists and officials said they were shocked to discover that more than 200 has of deforested mangrove in Quezon town in southern Palawan had been destroyed and converted into fishponds.
These and many other examples have raised alarm among concerned sectors and research institutions. They warn that unabated and uncontrolled growth of aquaculture, powered mainly by human greed, could hasten the downfall of the Philippines as a fishing wonderland.
