People often say “there are plenty of fish in the sea”. In the Laguna de Bay, less fish may be seen due to an immense fishkill in May 2012 that affected at least 30 fish pens in the area.
According to Ms. Leny Borja, Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) R&D manager, the fishkill may be attributed to annual river flushing every after summer and at the start of the rainy season. Since the fishkill was reported several days after the incidence, LLDA were not able to assess the actual water quality status of the affected areas.
The fishkill in Taal Lake last year also occurred during the same period. This incident devastated the lake’s grow out production and affected other industries that are part of the tilapia and milkfish aquaculture value chain.
As a response to this disaster, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III directed the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to organize an intensive and multi-disciplinary research to address both natural and man-made disasters such as the fishkill.
Part of the collective effort is the implementation of the project “Development of an Early Warning System for Freshwater Fishkill”. The project is endorsed by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development for DOST-Grants-In-Aid funding.
The project generally aims to use a locally-designed underwater robot called “Roboteknik” in predicting the occurrence of a fishkill in Taal Lake. It will be used to detect the lethal conditions to forecast the fish kills, at best in two weeks before they happen to allow the fisherfolks to harvest their fish in the cages or transfer their cages before the fishkill sets in.
While this information will help reduce potential losses in capital, it will also lead to the development of measures on how to implement fish cage aquaculture in a non-ecologically disruptive way.
Among the agencies that are taking part in the implementation of the project are the University of the Philippines Los Baños and University of the Philippines in the Visayas, Central Luzon State University, POBLETECH INC., and Batangas State University.
The P18-M project, which started in March 2012, is expected to come up in one year with the Taal Lake Fishkill Early Warning System (EWS) and a data warehouse for the benefit of the aquaculture industry of Taal Lake and areas with cage operations.
Among the adopters of the EWS and data warehouse are the Provincial Government of Batangas; municipalities of Talisay, Agoncillo, Laurel, San Nicolas; and the Taal Lake Aquaculture Alliance, Inc.
The success of the project will benefit Taal Lake and other freshwater lakes such as Laguna de Bay, as well as the other lakes in the Philippines.