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LEGAZPI CITY: The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)
imposed the shellfish ban in Sorsogon Bay Friday after water samples
taken at the Bay turned positive for paralytic shellfish poisoning,
reported the Philippine News Agency on Saturday.
The ban has been imposed again after the agency
had lifted the order only a week ago.
Sorsogon Bay which is shaped like a cove facing
Burias Pass, is a favorite fishing ground for thousands of shellfish
farmers from Sorsogon City, Casiguran, Castilla and Juban.
The shellfish ban had been up since typhoon
“Milenyo” devastated Sorsogon in October 2006. Despite this,
some 13 persons were reported to have died, mostly children, and
over a hundred others were hospitalized after eating shellfish
harvested from the bay.
Robert Borbe, chief of the BFAR fisheries
quarantine division, said the lifting of the ban on April 11 came
after three consecutive weeks of sampling the water at the bay
showed negative for paralytic shellfish poisoning.
But subsequent sampling after April 11 showed
the water samples again showed a high level of red tide toxins.
Borbe blamed warm weather, pollutants, garbage
as well as fecal contamination for the upsurge in the red tide
toxins found at Sorsogon Bay.
The ban on the harvesting and eating of
shellfish particularly tahong has caused serious difficulty for some
8,000 marginal fishermen who are dependent on the P100-million
shellfish industry of the province.
Tahong farm operators welcomed the lifting of
the ban but were dismayed after it was again put in place.
BFAR issued its shellfish advisory No. 7 series
of 2008 dated April 11 after three consecutive weeks of sampling for
paralytic shellfish poisoning in 15 designated stations.
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