FISH SUPPLY DEFICIT: 37.5%

BFAR: aquaculture to fill supply

gap, urges Boholanos to adopt

TAGBILARAN CITY Bohol (PIA)— Bohol may have a decent commercial and municipal fisheries, but recent data provided by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) show a supply deficit of 37.5 percent or nearly 20 million tons annually.

Over this, BFAR Provincial Fisheries Officer Candido Samijon said the intervention is aquaculture, which is slowly filling the gap, but then officials urged Boholanos to adopt to consuming aquaculture fish products, as Boholanos traditionally opt for sea fish over fresh water farmed fish.

Samijon bared at the Kapihan sa PIA that average per capital consumption for every Boholano is at 34.8 kilos annually, while production province-wide is only a little over 30 million tons.

With 1.4 million Boholano, excluding tourists who also consume fish when they come in, each consuming 34.8 kilos, Bohol would need somewhere between 48.72 million tons of fish.

With a production of about 30 million which is only about 62.5% of the need, then BFAR sees a shortage which can spell protein deficiency for the people.

To fill in the needs, Samijon said they are pushing to the hilt, aquaculture, especially with the threat of the El Nino constricting food supplies in the next months.

Aquaculture, essentially is farming in the water which involves the cultivation, breeding, rearing fish, shellfish, seaweeds, and other aquatic species in freshwater, brackish water, or marine environments, and harvesting them when they come to the right size for markets.

For centuries, humans have been going out to sea to gamble and catch fish, while the introduction of aquaculture has made fishing a certainty.

In Bohol, aquaculture have been generally into tilapia, bangus, rabbitfish (kitong) Emperor fish (katambak), pompano, seabass and grouper for fish, shrimps, vannamei prawns, blue (lambay) and green crabs (alimango) for crustaceans and oysters, mussels and clams for mollusks.

With these available, BFAR sees their intervention as working to make fish and aquaculture stocks still available, not just in Bohol but also in markets outside Bohol.

According to Samijon, aquaculture is contributing 55 percent of the supply, capture fisheries from commercial nd municipal waters only comprise 45 percent of the supply.

Aquaculture, this is where we fill in the gap in the need, the fisheries official pointed out.

For the most common aquaculture for tilapia and bangus takes four to five months, that despite the beginning signs of the drought, we still have bangus and tilapia, which we seeded in January and February, Samijon said.

In the last months, BFAR has accordingly doubled up in its efforts, making early on the procurement processes to make sure they can deliver packages and stocks to fishermen and farmers.

BFAR hopes that with their dispersal of tilapia and bangus in May and June would be harvestable and of the right size by November to December, when the peak of the El Nino is expected to dry fishponds that do not have reliable water supplies.

While the intense heat which could potentially dry out fish ponds and water impounding sites also used for aquaculture, BFAR still believes the brackish water and marine environment aquaculture may be less affected.

Our upland aquaculture for tilapia may be a concern, in fishponds that rely on rains and rain-fed impounding ponds could be affected, but our aquaculture is not only upland but also large aquaculture areas near shores like fishponds in brackish water and fish cages that deliver a huge supply of fish, he pointed out.

Bangus and other high value fish in Bohol are farmed in fish cages out in the sea, so these are hardly affected, BFA noted.

Let us not be alarmed, there will be supply, he assured, however, he added, but let us also adopt (to eating) freshwater fish, as this is the best way we can fill in the need for fish and proteins, especially during the drought season. (PIAbohol)

FISH SUPPLY DEFICIT. BFAR Bohol said there is nearly 20 million tons of fish needed to feed Boholanos every year, a deficit that the government hopes to fill through aquaculture, says BFAR Bohol PFO Candido Samijon. However, traditionally, until recently, Boholanos tend to shy away from fresh water fish over capture fisheries from the sea. (PIAbohol)