STARTING tomorrow, Wednesday, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) will start dismantling illegal fish pens in Laguna de Bay.

The move was prompted by a directive from Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to LLDA to start dismantling the illegal fishpens as part of the government effort to protect the country’s few remaining freshwater resources.

According to Atienza, after careful assessment of the lake’s condition, the only way to save the lake from being biologically dead is to demolish the fish pens and fish cages.

The rampant illegal construction of fishpens and fishcages in Laguna de Bay, one of the country’s most economically important bodies of water, is being blamed for the lake’s deterioration.

Freshwater fishes like tilapia and bangus are grown in Laguna de Bay, effectively contributing to the country’s annual fish production.

However, as more and more fish pens and fish cages were constructed, they have exceeded the lake’s carrying capacity of 10,000 hectares, or equivalent to a little over 10 percent of the lake’s total area.

The lake, which used to be abundant with a variety of freshwater fishes, becomes polluted. The situation was aggravated by the intrusion of the dreaded janitor fish, an invasive specie that feeds on small fishes.

“Demolish the fish pens or allow the lake to perish. These are the only choices left to us to save Laguna de Bay,” Atienza said. “Our choice is clear: We must save the lake. The fish pens must go.”

Atienza said fish pens already occupied more than one-half of the 90,000-hectare water body.

“The fish pens are already choking the lake to death. They obstruct the flow of water and block the passageways of small fishermen.  Worse, the chemical content of the feeds being fed to the fishes being raised there has considerably polluted its waters.”

 LLDA general manager Edgardo Manda said that fish-pen demolition will be carried out on April 23 by a multiagency task force.

 The demolition team, Manda said, will be composed of personnel from the LLDA, the DENR, the Department of Public Works and Highways, and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. Elements from the Philippine National Police will provide security.

In ordering the LLDA to take the lead in demolishing the fish pens, Atienza said the agency played a key role in the proliferation of fish pens in Laguna Lake. As such, he added, the LLDA should assume the principal role in the cleanup.

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STARTING tomorrow, Wednesday, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) will start dismantling illegal fish pens in Laguna de Bay.