CITY of Malolos—The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) and the Provincial Agriculture Office of Bulacan pegged the value of milkfish wiped out by a fish kill in Obando town at P17 million.
Based on the initial findings of personnel from the Bfar and the Provincial Agriculture Office, who conducted site visits, the fish kill affected 150 hectares of fishponds in Obando.
As of 7 p.m. on Monday, the fish health inspection team reported that the fish kill has affected fishponds in seven of the 11 barangays in Obando—Pag-asa, Paliwas, Hulo, Lawa, Paco, Tawiran and Salambao, affecting at least 40 fishpond operators, according to provincial agriculturist Maria Gloria Carillo.
Carillo said the inspection team is still validating if fishponds in other villages were affected by the fish kill. Affected fishpond areas rose to 150 hectares as of Monday night, compared to the 100 hectares initially declared by Wilfredo Cruz, the Bfar regional director for Central Luzon.
Before the fish kill occurred, Carillo said that the town of Obando was struck by a 3-magnitude earthquake at 2:15 p.m. last Saturday.
By Sunday morning residents in the area noticed foul odors emanating from the fishpond areas. Carillo said that by lunchtime, scores of milkfish had died.
She added that the initials findings of the fish health inspection team showed that the fish mortalities were due to the extremely low dissolved oxygen content of the fishpond water caused by the cloudy skies and abrupt rainfall in the area.
Carillo said the fish health inspection team will return to the area to further validate their initial findings. Raul Agustin of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office of Bulacan said fish kill is a natural occurrence whenever earthquakes occur because the water quality of the fishponds are being altered by the earth’s movement.