“THE fun of fishing is catching ‘em, not killing ‘em,” says US General Norman Schwarzkopf.
I can add, especially in the eating. Except for the inland towns, the Negrense coastal towns of Ilog and Manapla and the cities of Cadiz and Escalante can produce sumptuous seafood dishes, like shrimp, crabs and fish.
In fact, I cannot imagine Negrense—or Visayan—cuisine for that matter without sea or freshwater foods. Now we need not use our imagination. It is fast becoming a reality.
Late last week, Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino emphasized the importance of developing inland fishery resources in Negros Occidental to allay adverse effects of possible fish supply shortage in the province.
Masculino allayed our fears, however. He said that “there is currently no huge deficiency in the supply of fish products in the province.”
He added that Negros Occidental has the capacity to address the fish deficiency in Metro Manila. He stressed that “galunggong” is seldom eaten. But the province, it has a huge volume of “bangus,” “tilapia,” and “bulao.”
Yet fish vendors blamed Habagat that resulted in the reduction of supply and increase in prices of marot fish or nationally known as “galunggong.”
In fact, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is importing 17,000 metric tons of “galunggong” as a measure to “neutralize” prices of fish in the market and ensure efficient supply.
In fact, Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol signed a Certificate of Necessity allowing accredited traders to import fish.
But it’s not just Habagat or even overfishing. Blame the usual suspect. Climate change is driving a collapse of the marine food chain, a 2018 University of Adelaide study found out.
The study found that rising ocean temperatures was reducing the flow of energy from algae at the bottom of the chain to herbivores or predators, harming commercial fish stocks.
Healthy food webs are important for maintenance of species diversity and provide a source of income and food for millions of people worldwide, said the Australian study.
“Therefore, it is important to understand how climate change is altering marine food webs in the near future.”
“While climate change increased the productivity of plants, this was mainly due to an expansion of cyanobacteria (small blue-green algae),” said the study.
“This increased primary productivity does not support food webs, however, because these cyanobacteria are largely unpalatable and they are not consumed by herbivores.” (bqsanc@yahoo.com)