DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—For at least a year, no new fish pens would be allowed in the city’s rivers.
Mayor Benjamin Lim ordered a moratorium on the construction of new fish pens after the city agriculture office completed last month the demolition of fish structures, which had mushroomed in the city’s river system since the 1980s.
“One year will give our rivers breathing space. This will also allow us to dredge our rivers without any delay,” the mayor said.
City agriculturist Emma Molina said the dredging will begin next week at the boundary of this city and neighboring Binmaley town along Dagupan River.
“We are now checking the river bed, especially in areas where the fish pens came from. We have to remove the nets, plastic bags and other debris that may have been left there so that these will not clog the dredger’s suction tubes,” she said.
Lim said with the moratorium, this city’s bangus (milkfish) production will decrease. “So be it. But we will now have quality bangus grown in fishponds,” he said.
Without the fish pens, he said, those who will benefit are fishpond owners. “With the fish pens around, they did not want to invest in their ponds because they often lost. The water that came in was polluted,” he said.
Molina said the average annual production of a well-managed fish pen is about a metric ton. She said without the fish pens, fishpond operation can now be maximized because the ponds will be getting cleaner water.
“In fact, together with the dredging operation is the plan to strengthen the fishpond dikes along the rivers,” she said.
“If we can convince all the fishpond owners to adopt this progressive approach, then we can cushion the shortfall by about 50 percent,” she added.
Mayor Lim said when the rivers were cleared of fish pens last month, some fishermen told him that they were able to catch more fish even using only ordinary fishing rods.
“In the past, they only made P150 a day. Now, they make P400 to P500 a day. This is because a lot of fish now come in from the sea,” he said.
