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WATER samples from affected barangays in Bantayan town , Cebu will be taken back to Cebu City for laboratory analysis.
Joy Dano, a technician from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said inspectors who went to barangay Balidbid, Sta. Fe advised the owner of the 11-hectare fishpond not to release the water from the pen till test results are in.
Barangay officials suspect an unidentified chemical was dumped in the fishpens operated by Ricaredo Villa last week. The disturbance caused a a massive fishkill of bangus and shellfish.
Since Friday, Jan. 25 Villa said he found milkfish which was due for harvest in time for the Holy Week floating in one of his fishpens. The contamination spread when water from the pen seeped through other sections. Dano, who was part of the BFAR group, said the team also went to the river where dead seashells were earlier found.
She said the team did not see any dead fish but saw small fish swimming in the river.
“Mortality at the nearby bodies of water is no longer evident,” she said.
She said she was told that the last batch of dead fish was noted on Friday.
BFAR earlier asked the public officials to remind the public not to eat fish or shellfish from barangays Balibid and Baigad of Bantayan town.
Part of the fishpens under the jurisdiction of Bantayan was partly affected after Villa drained the waters in the fish pen where he saw dead fish floating on the water.
Balidbid officials want their barangay placed under a state of calamity to help the 2,000 residents affected by the fishkill. Barangay captain Jumero Anciano estimated the damage of marine resources at P2 million.
Officials earlier feared the problem would spread to seawaters of Sta. Fe town.
The fishpond emergency was discovered last week. The fishpond is near the mouth of the river in Balidbid. Seaside residents reported soon after that dead shellfish were found at the mouth of the river While operators of fish pens suspect a chemical to be behind the deaths of fish in the river, authorities have yet to identify what that chemical is. Fish pen operators said the chemical gave the river a green color.
Villa suspected that somebody who targets the operation of the fishpond was out to sabotage his sale by poisoning his cultured fish.
Villa drained the water in the hope of saving whatever is left in that section of the pond but in the process water spilled over to other fish pens. Chief of Reporters Suzzane Salva-Alueta
