Moratorium on Buhi Fishing Mulled

source: sonny sales | voxbikol.com

Lake Buhi in Camarines, Philippines viewed in Google Earth

BUHI, CAMARINES SUR (16 Nov 2010) —A THREE YEAR Moratorium which will prohibit the operation of commercial fish cages, and confining fish cage operations to only 10% of the lake area are among the drastic measures being proposed by an inter-agency group now conducting studies on the worsening pollution in Lake Buhi.

These measures, together with the dismantling of illegal fish cages and the non-issuance of new fishing licenses, were proposed by concerned agencies during a joint Sangguniang Panlalawigan and Sangguniang Bayan of Buhi session held in this town the other day to probe the fish kill incident that resulted to some P 80-Million in losses to the Tilapia-raising industry in this lake town.

In a report at the joint session, the provincial government’s Environment Disaster Management Response Office (EDMERO) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional office stated that Buhi lake-waters had increasing levels of hydrogen sulphite and ammonia from decaying fish feeds and sediments that have settled in the lake bottom and had resulted to decreased oxygen levels which in turn caused the fish kill.

Experts revealed that acquired soil samples in the lake bottom consist of 70% residue and 30% soil, an alarming condition that is contributing to the warming of temperatures in the lake bottom.

Blame

In his address to the joint session, Buhi Mayor Rey Lacoste lamented that only the local government of Buhi seems to get the blame for the worsening environmental degradation of the lake’s eco-system when major government agencies are benefited from its lake resources.

Lacoste noted that the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has its control structure in the lake which is the source of irrigation for some 18,000 hectares of rice lands in the Rinconada and 3rd districts of Camarines Sur; while the former National Power Corp. (NPC) controls the Baret Hydro-Electric Plant power generation now managed by the People Energy Service Inc.

The Mayor said that these agencies have control over the lake resources but had not contributed to preserve the lake ecology.

He also said that based on President Marcos’ Presidential Proclamation 873 and Executive Order 224, the NPC still has administrative management control over 8,317 hectares of watershed areas of Buhi, including areas of the lake.

He added that even with the advent of the Local Government Code of 1991, the lake resources are not solely owned by the local government.

During the same joint session, Camarines Sur Board member Angel Naval, Chair of the environment committee, had proposed that stakeholders of the lake including some 600-strong commercial fish-cage operators should establish a maintenance fund for the ecological sustainability of the lake.

Trapped sediments

Meanwhile Buhi councilor Edwin Salvamante revealed that millions of tons of residual siltation were trapped at the bottom of the lake unable to freely flow at the NIA’s control structure due to a coffer dam made from armour rocks blocking the flow of sediments from the lake.

Reportedly, the coffer dam that was built as a barrier during the construction of the NIA control structure at the lake in 1986 has not been removed by the NIA until today.

NPC experts claimed about 9,900,000 cubic meters of sediments were trapped in the lake since 2001; present estimates are at 16,200,000 cubic meters or about five meters thick.

Currently, with more than 20,000 fish cages in the lake operated by about 600 fish cages operators, and more than 400 marginal fishermen, the lake area had also shrunk from 1,800 hectares to about 1,618 hectares according to a recent Global  Positioning System (GPS) survey.

In the meantime, Vice-Gov. Fortunato Peña said during the session that Gov. Luis-Raymund Villafuerte has expressed concern on the thousands that may be displaced once a moratorium on the fish cages is imposed as an extreme necessity to save the lake.

Buhi Fish Kill Caused by Highly Polluted Waters –BFAR

source: RA Canabe |voxbikol.com

Lake Buhi in Camarines, Philippines

Legazpi City (12 November) — The massive fish kill that hit Lake Buhi on October 29, 2010 was caused by highly polluted waters according to the water quality monitoring conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Office No. 5.

Water quality survey was conducted with the physical and chemical parameters tests such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide. The first sampling was done in five stations on November 2, 2010 while the second test was conducted in eleven stations two days later.

Based on the results obtained, Lake Buhi has very low dissolved oxygen content and very high ammonia nitrogen concentration as compared to the optimum ranges set by the South East Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC). Moreover, very high traces of hydrogen sulfide was detected in five sampling stations during the water quality monitoring conducted on November 4. This critical water condition of the lake probably led to the massive fish kill in Lake Buhi.

Low dissolved oxygen (or low volumes of oxygen in the water) occurs when water temperature rise and stratification occurs during respiration of plants and fish and during aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Under low dissolved oxygen, fishes will have poor growth, be prone to diseases or even die.

It was also observed that about one-fourth of the lake is covered by water hyacinth which contributed to the depletion of dissolved oxygen by blocking the sources of oxygen such as photosynthetic activity by phytoplankton and wind aeration.

Meanwhile, ammonia (NH3) is the major end product of protein catabolism excreted by fish. Its unionized form called UIA is highly toxic. It is caused by decomposed organic matters like unconsumed feeds and fertilizers, industrial and domestic wastes and decomposition of phytoplankton.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a poisonous gas which arises from a by-product of decaying and decomposed organic matters like unconsumed feeds, plant debris, dead phytoplankton and fish feces. Too much of this will cause mass mortality due to suffocation and hemorrhages in gills of fish.

These results were presented by Irmi Mora, BFAR Regional Fish Health Officer to municipal officials of Buhi on November 6, 2010 during a meeting held at the town’s session hall. Also present in this activity was a team from the Environment Disaster Management and Emergency Response Office of the Province of Camarines Sur headed by Luzena Bermeo; Caridad Roxas, Fishery Division Chief of the Provincial Agriculture Office and Central Bicol State University for Agriculture Environment Science Professor Joyce de la Trinidad.

The 2007 data of the local government of Buhi showed that there were 15,597 registered fish cages that occupy 226 hectares of the 1,707 hectare lake. However, Lake Development Officer Ronilo Leal said that there are more to this figure with the growing number of unregistered fish cages.

Fish cages in the lake produce 9 to 10 tons of tilapia daily. About 100 tons of tilapia and other fish stocks was lost due to the recent fish kill with an economic value of P80 million.

Section 51 of Republic Act 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code limits aquaculture activities such as fish cages and fish pens in lakes to only 10% of the lake’s surface area. Ideally, the allowable percentage specified by law for fish cage culture in Lake Buhi should not exceed 170 hectares. However, the registered fish cages in Buhi Lake alone exceeded the allowable percentage.

Municipal Councilor Zaldy Arcilla commented that the implementation of this national law can have more teeth once the municipal fishery ordinance (which is now on its second reading) is approved. He admitted that up to ninety percent of the lake has been occupied by fish cages contrary to the prescribed ten percent. He added though that the other lake resource users such as the National Power Corporation‘s Hydro Electric Plant and the National Irrigation Administration’s controlled structure in Tabao River complicates the problem of increasing siltation of the lake by blocking the lake’s outlet in washing out sediment and water hyacinth.

Municipal Administrator Beethoven Nachor presided over the meeting representing Mayor Rey Lacoste who was on official travel. He proposed a stakeholders conference to be attended by fish cage operators and marginal fisherfolk with BFAR officials and other researchers as resource speakers.

BFAR-Bicol Regional Director Dennis del Socorro for his part said that regular water quality surveys will be done by his office at least once a week and support remedial measures in coordination with the Local Government Unit such as capacity building trainings, provision of alternative livelihood to displaced fisherfolk and fish stock enhancement in Lake Buhi.

Buhi Declares State of Calamity

source: Sonny Sales | Vox Bikol

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

Lake Buhi

BUHI, Camarines Sur (5 November)-THE SANGGUNIANG BAYAN of this lake town has passed a resolution during its regular session on Thursday (Nov. 4) declaring a “State of Calamity” in this locality after more than 600 Tilapia fish cage operators and marginal fishermen in Lake Buhi reeled from the economic impact of the recent “fish kill” that devastated 80% of the Tilapia stocks in the lake valued at more than Php 80-Million in losses.

The Bicol Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) estimated that about 100 metric tons of ‘Tilapia’ were found floating dead in Lake Buhi in Camarines Sur.

During the municipal council session on Thursday, Buhi Vice-Mayor Omar Mercurio  had tasked the Sangguniang Bayan Committee on Lake Development to identify the marginal Tilapia growers that need assistance, and implement a general plan to cushion the effect of the fish kill on the livelihood of the lake residents.

Meanwhile, Buhi Mayor Rey Lacoste during a conference with the directors of BFAR and the Department of Agriculture (DA), urged the national government to intervene in saving the rich resources of Lake Buhi, a traditional irrigation source and fishing grounds now threatened by silt and pollution that is mainly killing the eco-system of the lake.

DA Bicol Director Jose Dayao and BFAR chief Dennis Socorro had recommended drafting a plan for a clean-up of the lake which will entail incurring huge funds and the implementation of an amended municipal fishery ordinance of the lake that would regulate the growing number of fish cages.

At present, statistics show that fish cages now number some 20, 000 in the entirety of the lake.

In a study made by BFAR Fisheries expert Aida S. Andayog, she  recommended a “skip-feeding system” for Tilapia growers to lessen the heavy pollutants now affecting the lake due to excessive feeds used in more than 5,000  Tilapia fish cages now occupying 70% of some 1,700 hectares of Buhi’s lake area.

In the meantime, BFAR and an environmental team sent by Camarines Sur Provincial Government has gathered water samples at the lake villages where the fish kill started  eight days ago, but local experts are still at the dark on the real cause of the massive fish kill affecting fish cages in the 10 lake villages of Buhi.

Buhi municipal administrator Bethoven Nathor said that test conducted by experts revealed that currently oxygen levels in the lake remains low; it was also traced by experts that the fish kill started in Barangay Iraya and spread to adjacent villages Ibayugan, Tambo and Salvacion carried by strong lake currents due to the heavy rains.

With the recent set-back in Tilapia production in Lake Buhi, BFAR experts in Camarines Sur said that Tilapia supply in public markets in Bikol will dwindle.

Tilapia supplies will have to be sourced on undetermined volume of production coming from Lake Bato and other provinces.

Still, it has been reported that Lake Bato’s Tilapia production was similarly affected by the rising siltation in the lake and lowering water levels.