By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Laoag
City—Fisher folks in the three Gabu
barangays in this city reported a possible fish kill.
They said the possible fish
kill may have been due to a phenomenon that occurred in the point where the
river and sea meets in their area.
Gabu Sur punong barangay Gil
Ramos said the possible fish kill may be because of the huge waves generated by
the sea at the point where the river and sea meets. They call the area
“sabangan”.
He added that this may also
be due to climate change.
The barangay chief explained
further that he has already confirmed cases wherein fishes were killed while
some are showing weakness. He further stated that reports reaching him
estimates five kilograms of fishes are dying every day.
Mr. Ramos noted that some of
the fisher folks in their area have been forced to harvest their fishes to
avoid possible fish kill.
As a result, he said they are
now all alarmed as fishing is their main source of livelihood.
“Daytoy panagrikep iti sabangan iti rason no apay a matay dagiti lames
wennu ik-ikan kasi agkurang ti oxygen na ken masapul nga adda kuma latta apgad
a sumrek iti karayan”, Mr. Ramos said.
Mr. Ramos disclosed that they
have tried digging the estuary manually; however, he said they could not dig
out the needed space. He said they need a backhoe for that purpose.
Reacting to the situation,
acting city agriculturist Marilyn Martin said she would personally investigate
the matter. She said this could be a natural occurrence or due to overcrowded
fish cages.
“Kasi adda met ngamin instances a
sobraan da ti ikarga da diay fish cages da
ket madi nukwa a talaga aglalon agdakkel dan, umil-ilet met nukwa diay pagyanan
da that would cause lack of oxygen”, Ms. Martin said.
The
Ilocos Times visited the area particularly
at the estuary. Fisher folks said they are manually dredging the area so
seawater will not enter the river.
At that time in the
afternoon, it was a low tide; as such water is flowing out of the river into
the sea. In the early morning, the high tide forces sea water into the river.
One of the fisherman admitted
it is hard to dig up the sand. He added that they are digging so they could use
the estuary as entry and exit points of their fishing boats. He explained that
if they use the La Paz estuary, it would use up two liters of gasoline compared
to the half-liter of gasoline consumption for the Gabu estuary.
He said he is hoping the
Laoag City government would help them by providing the necessary equipment to
open the estuary.
“Isut rason nga ikarkarigatan mi a kutkutkuan ita ta low tide rumwar iti danum aggaput karayan ta
masukatan metla ton ag-high tide ta
bareng makarkaran to ta lumawa daytoy makutkot mi ita”, he said.
Comments
Post a Comment