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SORSOGON
CITY—Every
year, the red-tide phenomenon infecting
Sorsogon
Bay
since late last year, feared to stay on for the next 25
years, would be costing this city P100 million in lost
income and other economic benefits.
“We are
being confronted by this kind of dilemma that, as of
now, sees no immediate remedy but divine intervention,”
newly installed city mayor Leovic Dioneda said Monday.
Sorsogon
Bay
is an over-4,000-hectare fishing ground within the
municipal waters of the city and four other
municipalities of the
province of
Sorsogon.
It is the principal source of livelihood for over 6,000
families in 50 coastal barangays.
At least
20 of these barangays with about 4,000 fishing families
belong to the city, “making us the biggest loser
compared with other municipalities around the Bay in
terms of lost income opportunities,” Dioneda said.
A
PORTION of the vast
tahong farm in Sorsogon
Bay is rendered unproductive by red tide. The livelihood
of 6,000 families in 50 coastal barangays is affected.
--DANNY O. CALLEJA
The
red-tide toxic organism contamination of shellfish and
other plankton-feeding seafood in Sorsogon Bay was first
noticed in December, shortly after the onslaught of
super typhoon Reming. Last year and until now, the
toxicity level of the Bay’s water remains high as
reported by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources, he said.
It has
killed at least 11 persons and hospitalized 98 others
due to food poisoning after eating affected tahong
(mussel) and other kinds of seafood from the bay.
In
effect, the harvesting, selling, transporting and eating
of shellfish, particularly tahong, from the area have
been banned.
The
affected areas within the city waters cover about 1,000
hectares of tahong farms that used to generate millions
of pesos for the shellfish industry of the city. This
income has been lost to the red-tide infestation,
Dioneda said.
Worse,
he said, the phenomenon, according to the latest study
made by the city’s agriculture office, may stay on for
the next 25 years considering the characteristic of
Sorsogon
Bay,
which is a wide cove whose water is almost stagnant,
disallowing the flowing out of water to adjacent bodies.
This
way, the toxic organisms of red tide are confined within
the cove, and as long as the seafloor is dirty with
garbage and other impediments, Sorsogon Bay would not be
able to do away with this problem, Dioneda said.
For the
thousands of families economically displaced by the
situation, Dioneda said, his administration is in the
process of identifying alternative source of livelihood
for them.
“We have
also invited experts from different institutions here
and abroad involved in finding remedies to problems like
this, and we hope to find some so that this agony is no
longer prolonged,” he added. |
