The Philippines Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) is developing breeding techniques to revitalize several freshwater fish species native to the Southeast Asian country.
Indigenous freshwater fish species in the Philippines have been on a decline due to overfishing, worsening water quality, siltation, illegal fishing, competition from non-native species, and climate change, DA-BFAR said in a press release. Through the new program, it hopes to preserve them and augment the country’s fisheries production.
The Philipppines' National Inland Fisheries Technology Center (NIFTC), a division of DA-BFAR, has been appointed to lead the pgoram, with most of the work to take place at NIFTC’s Indigenous Freshwater Fish Hatchery.
“Through the NIFTC, we have already developed breeding methods for some of our indigenous freshwater fish species in partnership with the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute,” DA-BFAR Acting Director Nestor Domenden said. “Reviving the population of these indigenous species by breeding them in captivity, after all, is harnessing the uniqueness of our natural water ecosystems and biodiversity.”
Domenden said the program will focus on modernizing fishing methods and gear, fish-farming processes, and processing equipment and facilities. The program will also research unconventional production systems and determining whether to expand existing programs, including the country's system of mariculture parks and the Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa (BASIL), a program established to increase fish output from lakes and river basins across the Philippines.
As part of the BASIL program, in September 2021, the BFAR department in Central Luzon released 130,000 tilapia fingerlings into a local river.
The Philippines government said it will also seek help from Indonesia to improve its fisheries sector. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who was sworn in as the Philippines’ 17th president on 30 June, 2022, said the Philippines should not be facing shortages of round scad, forcing the country to import the fish to address a shortage of it in the domestic market. Marcos Jr. has asked for Indonesia's assistance in ensuring a stable domestic supply to help ensure the country's food security since Indonesia has “a strong fisheries sector”, according to a statement issued via the Philippine News Agency.
Photo courtesy of Damian Pankowiec/Shutterstock
