By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter
Paoay, Ilocos Norte—Families living in Brgy. Masintoc, whose
income greatly depend on aqua farming in this coastal municipality, are being
threatened with the loss of livelihood as water pollution worsens and further
exacerbated by the rise of temperature.
Masintoc brgy. chairperson
Edward Agdeppa reported the re-occurrence of what is believed to be “fish kill”
on April 24. He explained that this was apparently due to the degradation of
waterways with its natural flow of water connecting to their fish cages have
been blocked.
Agdeppa added that the “fish
kill” affects their livelihood and that this has been one of their main
concerns every time the water becomes polluted and its natural flow blocked.
The Ilocos Norte fishery
office responded to this immediately as it recommended the clearing of the
waterways.
“A fish kill is defined as a
significant and sudden mortality of wild or cultured fish. What happened in
Masintoc is a natural occurrence due to rising temperature and dying of lumot [aquatic plants] resulting to fish
mortality,” Arthur Valente, fishery regulatory officer of the province, said.
He said unseasonal weather
producing rapid changes in temperature may result in fish kills since many
species lack the means of body temperature regulation.
Human (anthropogenic)
activities that adversely affect the health of waterways, such as the discharge
or spillage of potentially toxic chemicals may also cause fish kills.
Anthropogenic impacts also
include the degradation of waterways causing interference to the natural flow
and poor land use practices that result in the build-up of excessive nutrients
and subsequent excessive growth of aquatic plants and algae.
At night (when photosynthesis
ceases), respiration by these plants can deplete the dissolved oxygen
concentration sufficiently to result in fish mortality.
In Ilocos Norte, Valente
clarified no fish kill has ever been recorded in the province but due to
environment degradation and improper land use practices, the fisher folk’s
livelihood is being threatened.
Comments
Post a Comment