ILOILO CITY— The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) here assured that marine products being sold in markets in Western Visayas are safe for human consumption.
The agency issued the assurance amid fish kill incidents in Luzon area.
Asst. Regional Director Juliet Dimoos of BFAR-6 said there is no threat that this region will have fish kill similar to Batangas and Pangasinan.
“There is no worry. We have regulated fish cages here and these operators have secured permit from their local level,” she said.
Dimoos said that fish kill happens only when there is no change in water flow, congested fish pens and polluted water.
She said last fish kill happened in the region was in 2006 during the oil spill in Guimaras province.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ildefonso Toledo of the Iloilo provincial agriculture said that there is a strong quarantine of marine products and other freshwater fish like “tilapia”, milkfish, mudfish and “hito” (catfish) in the province.
He said several agriculture personnel are guarding fishing ports in Iloilo for possible delivery of dead fish products from outside province, including dried fish product.
“We are doing our best that dead fish from fish kill areas not to reach our place and I know our people are wise enough to scrutinize these fish products in the market”, he said.
Toledo also said they have trained several fish cage operators in local level on how to raise variety of fish with good water condition to preempt fish kill.
He added they also asked fish farmers not to take this opportunity to increase prices of fish products.(PNA)/TE
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