A RESOLUTION was filed in the Lower House to investigate several fish kill incidents that happened in Laguna de Bay while the country is in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In House Resolution 2531, the House Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources and the Committee on Ecology were asked to conduct a special investigation as to the “natural or man-made causes” of the fish kill.
Laguna de Bay serves as the prime source of livelihood of the more than 22,000 small fisher folk and their families.
However, the fish kill incidents affected their lives and their income while the country is still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resolution cited as an example the report of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) last May 2020 where around 275,000 kilos of tilapia, milkfish (bangus), and other types of aquatic life perished because of fish kill, while no less than P1.1 million in lost income was reported in seven fish pens in Pililia, Rizal.
On Setyembre 2021, on the other hand, the emergence of “lumot” (moss) in Laguna de Bay resulted in the death of 70 kilos of fish, whose foul smell reached the communities.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) mentioned that 50 percent of fish kills were due to natural reasons, but the others were caused by human activities such as “chemical runoff, industrial wastes” and others that also cause water pollution.