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ILOILO City: Fishermen in Guimaras are still complaining of low fish
catch one year after a big oil spill hit the island province. The
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is assessing the
damage.
The bureau plans to conduct a time-series data
on fisheries stock assessment of the municipal waters of Guimaras
for up-to-date information on the fish supply.
Drusila Esther Ong-Bayate, regional director in
Western Visayas, said her office has been informed of the dwindling
fish catch by several fisher folk associations in the spill-affected
municipalities of Nueva Valencia, San Lorenzo and Sibunag.
Members of the regional disaster coordinating
council and task force Solar 1 oil spill tossed flowers into the
Guimaras Strait to commemorate the first anniversary of the oil
spill—right on the spot where M/T Solar 1 sank on August 11, 2006.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council had
provided BFAR P65 million for the assessment of fishing, sea grass
and coral reefs conditions in Guimaras. The budget is part of the
P863-million rehabilitation fund for province.
“The assessment would verify if the low fish
catch is due to [last year’s] oil spill,” said Ong-Bayate. “We
have a national fishery resource program which will be used for the
assessment in Nueva Valencia, San Lorenzo and Sibunag.” The
aquatic assessment could take time, however.
Originally, the Department of Agriculture was to
receive P100 million with only 25 percent for BFAR, but presidential
assistant Rafael Coscolluela wanted to give priority to fisheries,
she said.
--Panay News
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