Pili, Camarines Sur – About P13.1 Million in aqua-culture damages to government fishery facilities and privately operated fish ponds was declared by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional office in Bikol, as a result of heavy rains and flooding in this region since October 27, this year.
OIC Bikol director for BFAR, Dennis V. Del Socorro disclosed that several of the BFAR facilities in Camarines Sur like the Regional Fresh Water Fishery Center in Bula town and the Fresh Water Demonstration Fish Farm in Buhi town, sustained structural damages caused by the rains.
Other facilities that sustained fish losses and damages were the Fish Fry Bank in Tiwi, Albay and the Mobo Demonstration Fish Farm in Masbate.
Meanwhile, more than 26 hectares of fish ponds have overflowed with about 200,000 Tilapia stocks; mostly from privately operated fish ponds and cages in Bato, Buhi, Nabua, Iriga City, and Baao in Cam. Sur, the losses were placed at about P 12 Million.
Meanwhile Del Socorro said they could not yet give an official pronouncement on the reported fish kill incident at the coast of Rapu-Rapu Island in Albay last October 28, until results of a sea-sample water analysis is known.
The sea-water samples were reportedly taken from four sites of the island in Barangay Malubago, the coastal area near the poblacion, and two others. The samples were sent to their diagnostic laboratory at the BFAR central office in Quezon City, to be probed for any toxic substance.
BFAR reported that one sack and an aluminum container full of dead fish were gathered at the coast of Rapu-Rapu poblacion, as a result of the reported fish-kill occurring during heavy rains last Oct. 28.
Last year, the DENR has suspended the operation of the Lafayette Gold mines in Rapu-Rapu island, which was linked by environmentalists to the cause of a fish-kill incident in mid-2006. Operations of the mines have resumed early this year despite protests over the irregularity of the DENR Sec. Angelo Reyes’s order.