“If we are to clean up Manila Bay, we cannot begin by finding fault and assigning scapegoats. We should just clean up and teach ourselves how to keep these waters clean.”
by Ducky Paredes
Do fish pens contribute to the degradation of Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay?
The argument that is being used by the owners of these fish pens is that Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza is wrong to blame them for the degradation of Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. They argue that they would not do anything to harm the waters that give them their livelihood and that Atienza should go after the polluters who are the ones actually destroying the ecological system of these waters.
Of course, the polluters, are also to blame just as anyone who would even just throw a candy wrapper or a plastic wrapper into the bay or on the streets or canals of Metro Manila and nearby towns. If we are to clean up Manila Bay, we cannot begin by finding fault and assigning scapegoats. We should just clean up and teach ourselves how to keep these waters clean.
Why is it that even in places where there are no known polluters – as in Bolinao, Dagupan, Lingayen and Binmaley in Pangasinan – there are fish kills.
The fact is that even the sea and specific bays, rivers and lakes have a carrying capacity. It is possible to have too many fish in the sea. When the waters have too much fish – especially when these are kept in cages and are force-fed – it is very likely that there will be excessive feeds in the water.
These excessive feeds will then go to microorganisms in the water – phytoplanktons and zooplanktons — that consume oxygen. This causes oxygen-depletion which then kill the fish.
What is the cause? Excessive fish pens. While waters can take fish pens, there is a limit to what can be supported by the ecosystem. Unfortunately, as in many things, enforcement is our main problem.
Remember that this is only one water and any excess feed anywhere affects the whole bay, lake or river. Also, how can there be too many fish in the sea, if these fish are not kept in cages? Ordinarily, fish will spread out to find food for themselves.
For instance, in Bolinao (which alone of all the local government units within the Lingayen Gulf has a fisheries ordinance and has adopted a coastal development plan anchored on resource management), there were 1,170 fish pens and cages when the municipal ordinance limits these to only 544. And then, again, who write these ordinances if not, all too often, those who are in the fish cage business themselves.
These fish pens and cages are driven by the profit motive. The more fish they can place in these cages, the more money they make until the limit of these waters is reached and, then, they lose their whole crop.
The uneaten feeds together with the caged fishes’ own waster – fecal matter and urine – produce a lot of nitrogen and phosphate when these break down which can lead to a condition known as eutrophication. Eutrophic waters also lead to harmful algae blooming which changes the color of the water and which also destroy coral reefs.
Thus, while – clearly – direct polluters must be stopped from doing their thing, so is having too many fishpens in Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay also as harmful.
Thus, if we must clean up our waters, these fish pens have to go.
Having a farm or a ranch on land is different from having a fishpen or fish cages of several hectares. Land can be fenced. In Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay and other waters, that water is shared. What happens in one part affects the rest of the water. Uneaten feed in one area affects the adjoining area and causes just as much harm in those adjoining areas.
It is the same water for everything that lives in the bay. We have to treat it and regulate it not as pieces that can be parceled off to whoever has the money to exploit it; the waters of our bays, lakes and rivers have to be shared by all and preserved and cared for by all of us.
Fishpens and fish cages are just as harmful as polluting factories and raw sewage that flows out into the sea.
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Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel noted, Monday, that moving Ninoy Aquino Day from August 21 to the nearest Monday diminished the significance of the historic event.
Pimentel said: “I think the President is playing up to the crowd by saying we have an additional holiday. But the net effect is the transfer destroys the meaning and solemnity of the occasion.
“People should be reminded of an event that took place on a particular day.”
Pimentel advised Gloria discontinue her practice of transferring the observance of holidays such as Labor Day, Independence Day and Bonifacio Day to other dates so as not to trivialize the meaning of the events.
In fact, the only holidays that she has not moved are the holy days. While there is supposed to be an arms-length relationship between religion and the State, the fact is that we actually have religious events that are celebrated as national holidays, too – both from the Catholic and Muslim calendars.
These will never be moved.
Fore instance, Christmas Day this year falls on a Thursday, the same as Ninoy Aquino Day, which also should have been celebrated tomorrow, which is a Thursday. What are the chances that Gloria, the calendar girl, will move this to the Monday before that Thursday, the same way that she moved Ninoy Aquino Day?
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The Manila-Bicol Golfers Association will hold its most important tournament of the year on Friday, August 28, 2008 at the Navy Golf Course. The proceeds of this tournament will go towards civic and religious charities in Naga City which hosts the Penafrancia Festival, the grandest religious feast in honor of the Virgin Mother in the Bicol Region.
This golfers’ association is composed mostly of Bicolanos with a smattering of their friends and those who have lived and worked in the Bicol Region. The association holds monthly tournaments usually on the last Sunday of the month.
This is a cause worth supporting. The awards night and raffle of the Manila-Bicol Golfers is always something to look forward to. Anyone is welcome to play in this tournament.
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hvp 08.19.08)
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