by Sarwell Meniano and Lizbeth Ann Abella/PNA
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) launched the Community Alliance for Sustaining our Threatened Seas (COASTS) on Thursday to introduce solutions and tools towards enhanced understanding and pro-active management of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) or red tide.
BFAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director Juan Albaladejo noticed that the quality of green mussels in this town has deteriorated as fishermen rejected new technology introduced by the government in 2010 and 2011.
“We want to re-introduce a technology for people to minimize pollution, produce an improved quality of tahong. We should address congestion since it has limited mussel growth. We just have to teach people again to adopt new methods,” Albaladejo said.
This program and partnership hopes to help address the risks from harmful algal blooms and pollution by providing ways to more rapidly detect the conditions and organisms leading to HABs and eventually develop an early-warning system for shellfish and fish farmers and government agencies.
The initiative is a partnership between BFAR, Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines, and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development.
Tagged as pilot sites are Samar, Capiz, and Bolinao in Pangasinan. These pilot sites were chosen based on their different HAB types and their importance in contributing to seafood production.
In each site, fishermen, other stakeholders and government units will be engaged in discussions to better understand their risks from HABs, training for increased awareness about HABs, and to develop their capacity for monitoring and response, and active participation in monitoring water quality and HABs.
The fisheries bureau spearheaded a massive clean-up in 2010 covering 20 hectares after mass mortality was reported in mussel farms of Jiabong. Mussel kill expanded to farms in Villareal, Catbalogan, Tarangnan.
“Pollution runoff from houses accumulated for years and poor practices in mussel culture also causes red tide bloom. You have to do something to help mitigate the harmful impacts of HABs,” said Aletta Yniguez, COASTS program leader and community organizer.
According to the fisheries bureau, the first HAB associated with Pyrodinium bahamense was first recorded in Samar on June 21, 1983, that killed 21 people and hospitalized nearly 300 people. Since then, HAB recurrence has been episodic, resulting in sudden economic losses, and sometimes leading to unexpected loss of lives.
For green mussel farmer Jaime Godin, 60, red tide bloom in Jiabong town means hunger.
Godin, a father of six, said life is hard every time their town is hit by the toxic red tide with his family losing up to PHP30,000 every harvest season. The last time their town suffered this algal bloom was in August 2017 that lasted for six months.
“This El Niño phenomenon bothers me. After an extended dry season and sudden rain, it will surely fertilize the organisms that cause red tide,” said Godin, who has been engaged in mussel farming for more than two decades.
He shared that if there is a shellfish ban, people don’t buy any type of seafood. “Nobody wants to extend a loan to us because they are aware that we have no money to pay them back.”
Godin is just one of the 1,130 fishermen in this town dependent on green mussel, locally known as tahong. The town is one of the major suppliers of mussels for the country’s markets.
It also serves as a central trading center from where mussels are shipped to Metro Manila, Davao City, Bicol, Cebu City and other parts of the country.
The slow seawater current has made the place an ideal for mussel farming. The town produces about 200 sacks of green mussels daily with each sack traded at PHP1,200 to PHP1,500.
Red tide is a term used to describe a phenomenon, where the water is discolored by high algal biomass or the concentration of algae. The discoloration may not necessarily be red in color, but it may also appear yellow, brown, green, blue or milky, depending on the organisms involved.
If an area is red tide positive, the bureau prohibits the public from eating, harvesting, marketing, and buying bivalve marine products and Acetes sp. (small crustaceans) until such time that the toxicity level has gone down below the regulatory level.
As of this week, red tide alert is still up in San Pedro Bay in Samar and Cancabato Bay in Tacloban City. The coastal waters of Jiabong town are part of Maqueda Bay, an area frequently hit by red tide bloom.