Fish cage operators in Lake Sebu get aid

OFFICIALS of Lake Sebu town in South Cotabato province had allocated P1.5 million of its calamity fund to aid fish cage operators affected by the fish kill in the area.

Robert Bagong, Lake Sebu Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) chief, said on Thursday the financial assistance is exclusive to the affected tilapia growers.

He said the fund allotment came after the municipal government approved on February 13 the recommendation of the MDRRMO to declare a state of calamity due to the widespread fish kill.

“As of January 28, the fish kill has affected 538 fish cage operators in Lake Sebu,” Bagong said. “The amount that they will be receiving will depend on the result of the damage assessment of the agriculture office.”

Bagong also stressed that the declaration of the state of calamity was based on the earlier fish kill in the hardest-hit villages of Poblacion, Bacdulong and Tacunel.

Mayor Floro Gandam said the fish kill in the municipality of Lake Sebu has so far destroyed over P17 million worth of tilapia across its lake.

Gandam said that for the lake to recover, the local government is considering the implementation of a moratorium on fish cages.

“We might be implementing the moratorium. This is not easy, maybe we will do it gradually because we also have to consider the people of Lake Sebu as 70 percent of our population is dependent on the tilapia industry,” he said.

The local government has attributed the fish kill to the excessive number of fish cages that caused the depletion of dissolved oxygen and submerging of excessive feeds at the bottom of the lake.