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SORSOGON
CITY—Local
authorities here have sought the help of village
officials in spreading information on the growing threat
from the red tide now affecting Sorsogon
Bay.
There is
an urgent need for a massive distribution of information
about red tide to make people aware in every barangay
along Sorsogon Bay where hundreds of victims come from,
Serafin Lacdang, chief of the fisheries division of the
Provincial Agricultural Office (PAO) said
Wednesday.
Lacdang
said barangay officials should now get themselves
involved in the information dissemination campaign to
prevent further casualties through the ignorance of
villagers about the prevailing red tide
situation.
Two more
deaths from food poisoning believed to be caused by the
red tide toxin were reported in the province on
Christmas Day, bringing to 10 the death toll since the
phenomenon was detected early October. About a hundred
others have been hospitalized.
“The
situation is getting worse as the effect of the
poisonous substance is no longer confined [to] shellfish
alone. This time plankton-feeder fishes are already
carrier[s] of the deadly substance,” Lacdang
said.
The
latest three deaths were reportedly caused by eating a
plankton- feeder fish known as tambagoy, an edible
noncommercial shallow-water species being consumed by
coastal dwellers.
Alamang
and blue crabs that are abundant at the Sorsogon Bay
were earlier listed as possible red tide toxin carriers,
Lacdang said.
The ban
on gathering, transporting, selling and eating of
shellfish, particularly mussels from
Sorsogon Bay,
is on, he said.
On
tambagoy, alamang and blue crabs, Lacdang
said “what we have are only advisories for consumers and
coastal villagers here to refrain from eating these
species.”
The
breakout of red tide on
Sorsogon
Bay
could dislocate thousands of fishermen and their
families because the marine species affected by red tide
are their main source of income. There is nothing that
could be done for now except heed the warnings to
prevent more casualties, Lacdang added. |
