PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan – Municipal agriculturists in Palawan are asking the fisheries bureau for additional chemists in its cyanide detection test (CDT) laboratory here to speed up the examination of fish samples.
Roxas municipal agriculturist Edgar Padul said Friday this was among the issues they raised with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) during a meeting last month.
“Ito yung sentiment ng ating mga live fish traders, kaya tayo rin ay nag-request na magkaroon sila ng additional chemist kasi iisa lang ang meron BFAR. Kung sakaling wala ang chemist o mag-leave ay walang substitute. Di talo ang live fish industry (It’s the sentiment of our live fish traders, that’s why we are requesting for additional chemist since they only have one in the BFAR. If the chemist is absent or is on leave, there is no substitute. The live fish industry will suffer),” he said.
Padul said there had been instances when the chemist was on official business, and no other employee can substitute. This often frustrates live fish traders, who take samples to the CDT lab from far-flung areas of Palawan.
The BFAR prohibits the transportation of live fish stocks that have not passed through cyanide detection testing.
“Dapat ay dagdagan ang chemist at ang sabi ng BFAR ay susubukan nila na e-request sa kanilang regional office (BFAR should add additional chemists, and it said it will try to request from their regional office),” Padul said.
The multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary body Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) has a CDT machine that could help, but Padul explained only the BFAR is authorized to issue transport permits to live fish traders.
He explained that without the CDT, local authorities will not issue an auxiliary invoice for live fish transport to any trader.
The CDT is a response to the need for a reliable enforcement mechanism against the use of poisonous cyanide in the live and aquarium fish industries.
It enables the government, through BFAR, to detect cyanide presence in fish tissues and utilize the result as basis for the issuance or denial of transportation permits.
In an interview Friday, Robert Abrera, the assistant regional director of BFAR Mimaropa, said this would no longer be a problem soon for live fish traders in some municipalities in northern Palawan.
This is because a CDT laboratory will be included in the construction of their agency’s provincial office in Coron.
The future laboratory will provide CDT services to live fish traders in Coron, Busuanga, Culion, Linapacan, Agutaya, and other nearby towns.
“Yan ang tinignan natin na dapat din na mailagay sa provincial office na ito para iyong mga nagbu-buhay-buhay ay di na dadalhin ang mga samples nila sa Puerto Princesa na napakalayo (That is what we are considering to also have in the provincial office for those who are in the live fish industry so they won’t bring their samples to Puerto Princesa that is quite far from them),” he added. (PNA)
