Cavite fish kill has no impact on fishing industry - BFAR

The recent fish kill incident in Cavite will have no impact on the fishing industry, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said on Thursday.

During a public briefing, BFAR Information and Fisherfolk Coordination Unit Head Nazario Briguera said analysis and testing by the bureau revealed that the fish kill resulted from an algal bloom, which depleted oxygen levels in the water.

An algal bloom is a natural phenomenon often caused by the rapid or continuous change in water temperature, which causes the increase of microalgae in water and depletes the dissolved oxygen for fish.

According to the BFAR official, most of the observed fish kill were Blackchin Tilapia, locally known as Arroyo, which has no commercial value.

“Ang isda naman kasi po may natural coping mechanism, they can swim away from the affected area so marahil yung ibang isda, they have swam away from the affected area at yun lang naman yung mostly tinamaan na Blackchin Tilapia,” Briguera said.

(Fish have a natural coping mechanism, they can swim away from the affected area so it’s possible the other fish swam away from the affected area and it was the Blackchin Tilapia that were mostly affected.)

“Hindi po ito pinapansin ng mangingisda, in fact, so wala po siya talaga halos na commercial value,” he added. The Blackchin tilapia is considered an invasive species and can spread diseases while competing with native fish,

(In fact, the fishermen don’t really pay attention to it, so they have almost no commercial value,)

Briguera explained there were no possible ways to tell if the algal bloom will spread past Cañacao Bay, but assured that BFAR will conduct continuous monitoring.

“Ang algal bloom po ay natural phenomenon po yan. Likas na nangyayari po yan sa ating kalikasan. Di po natin malalalaman kung kalian yan susulpot at kung kailan po mawawala. Ang tangi lang pwede nating gawin ay magkaroon ng continuous monitoring doon sa water quality,” he said.

(The algal bloom is a natural phenomenon. It naturally occurs in nature. We cannot really tell when it will happen and when it will stop. All we can do is to continuously monitor water quality,)

“Kami sa BFAR, we will continue to extend the necessary technical assistance and tuloy-tuloy din naman po yung mga ginagawang paglilinis para po hindi makaapekto sa kalusugan ng tao yung mga lumulutang na isdang may masangsang na amoy,” he added.

(The BFAR will continue to extend the necessary technical assistance and our clean-up drives so the decomposing fish won’t affect people's health.) — RF, GMA Integrated News