Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Mariculture park to rise in Lanao del Norte By Mark D. Francisco
ANOTHER mariculture park will rise in Northern Mindanao, this time at Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte.
This, as Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) Northern Mindanao acting director David Ernacio lauded the province's governor Mohammad Khalid Dimaporo for being active in cooperating with Bfar programs in reviving the Panguil Bay Development Council.
Ernacio also noted in Monday's news conference for Fisheries Month celebrations that Dimaporo had rallied all the coastal town mayors in his province to constantly be vigilant against illegal fishing in their respective constituencies.
"Preserving our coastal resources has always been our goal not just in Panguil Bay but the whole region," Ernacio stressed.
Yet Bfar Northern Mindanao programs are expanding westward following the success of the Balingasag mariculture park - the first in the region - and the multispecies fillet processing plant, both located in eastern Misamis Oriental.
Efforts for this year under the acting directorship of Ernacio are concentrated on Lala town in Lanao del Norte where a huge water fishpond cultivating saline tilapia and milkfish (bangus) is in the offing.
This year's month-long fisheries regional director also hails from Lanao del Norte in the person of Francisco Yu Jr., an active leader against illegal fishing in Linamon town.
"In fact, one of our comrades was shot dead by irate illegal fishermen," Yu recounted during the same news conference.
Fishery Month celebration chair Laura Alameda herself admitted: "Political intervention hinders the enforcement of fishery laws."
Despite that, Bfar Northern Mindanao's regional law enforcement coordinating committee was able to grab as the best Bfar RLECC in the whole of Mindanao.
Another experimental project of Bfar is in the pipeline -- this time, the cultivation of lapu-lapu in some of its fishponds.
It was learned the Balingasag mariculture park has a total of two big time investors and 16 medium players with 74 cages all in all.
Even then, Northern Mindanao can only have 73 percent self-sufficient fishing production.
A total of 143,000 metric tons of fish and other freshwater and seawater produce were harvested here in 2007 from aquacultured, municipal and commercial waters.
The rest of the supply here has to come from Davao, General Santos and Zamboanga cities to meet the demand.
