As population continues to balloon and fish catch in the open seas is dwindling, the Philippines – which has more than 7,000 islands – has to adopt new technologies to solve the problem.
Unfortunately, destructive human activities are wreaking havocs on the country’s fragile coastal ecosystem, where most of the fish and other marine creatures are starting their lives before going to the oceans.
“The past three decades have seen the rapid decline of the Philippine coastal ecosystem,” said Senator Loren Legarda in a recent press statement.
Some 70% and 20% of mangroves and seagrasses are destroyed, respectively. Nearly 90% of coral reefs are under threat. The biomass of coastal fish stocks is only 10%-30% of its state in 1940s.
The sad state of the country’s coastal ecosystem is unthinkable as fish is the main source of protein for the Filipinos.
“An island nation, the Philippines necessarily depends, to a large extent, on its fishery resources for its food,” Legarda said. “Fish, which used to be among the cheapest sources of protein, is now more expensive than pork or chicken.”
A new kind of revolution is needed to catch up with the demand for fish. “New technologies, new breeds and newly domesticated species of fish offer great hope for the future,” The Economist said in a recent report.
That’s where “blue revolution” comes in. If you’re wondering just what is it, just remember the “green revolution” of the past. If you have forgotten, the “green revolution” refers to a set of research and development of technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1930s and the late 1960s that increased agricultural production worldwide
“On land, the green revolution allowed dramatic increases in crop production, with increased mechanization, and improved pest control and soil fertility through the addition of herbicides, pesticides and nitrogen-based fertilizers,” The Economist explained.
So, if the same technique can be adopted in the waters, the sobriquet “blue revolution” (refers to the color of the ocean) came into existence.
“The blue revolution has seen companies breeding fish to improve traits such as their growth rate, conversion of feed into flesh, resistance to disease, tolerance of cold and poor water, and fertility,” said The Economist.
Blue revolution actually refers to aquaculture, the farming of marine animals. Actually, it’s not a new thing. China did it first. No wonder, it leads in farmed fish production and other aquatic resources.
Fish farming is more advantageous than raising livestock. “For every kilogram of dry feed, we get one kilogram of fish meat,” said Dr. Uwe Lohmeyer of the Deutsche Gesselschaft fur Technische Zusammernarbeit (GTZ), a German Technical Cooperation. “This is far more favorable rate than in the case of say, pigs: to produce the same quantity of pork, a farmer – given the same quality of inputs – has to provide three kilograms of feed.”
“Aquaculture must grow faster than the current rate in order to supply up to 48% of the total food fish production,” urges Dr. Mahfuzuddin Ahmed, co-author of the report, Outlook for Fish to 2020: Meeting Global Demand.
In 1985, the Philippines was listed fourth in global fish and aquaculture production. Twenty-three years later, in 2008, its ranking went down to number 6. By 2013, the ranking even dipped to seventh. But still, to be ranked among the top ten in the world is still a good thing.
It was the Malay emigrants who introduced the first fishponds in the Philippines long before the Chinese traders came to the country. “Our fishpond practices in most respects are similar to those of the Indonesians rather than those of fishpond caretakers in the mainland of China,” said a Filipino fishery expert.
Aquaculture species produced in the country today are seaweed, milkfish (bangus), tilapia, brackishwater shrimp, oysters and mussels. According the recent report released by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, aquaculture contributed the biggest share to the total fisheries output at 49.80%. Milkfish, tilapia, tiger prawn and seaweed accounted 90.18% of the total aquaculture production.
But like most technologies, aquaculture has its shares of liabilities. “The inevitable expansion of fish farming in the developing countries could cause increased pollution, greater damage to already vulnerable wild fisheries, and competition for water and land use,” the Kuala Lumpur-based World Fish Center pointed out.
“This poses a potential threat to the environment as well as the livelihoods and food security of poor people in developing countries,” it added.
In the Philippines, for instance, lands usually converted into ponds are waterlogged areas and wetlands (marshes), cultivated ricelands or drylands. Water supply usually comes from irrigation canals or rainfed.
“The conversion of rice areas to ponds are directed by economic use of land,” said an official of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). “Lands converted into tilapia ponds are more profitable than ricelands as reported. But massive conversion of irrigated ricelands into tilapia ponds may affect rice production in the future.”
Erosion, sedimentation and siltation are also traced to the proliferation of fish cages and fishponds in shallow lakes and rivers. “Clearing of land where pens and cages are established results in increased erosion, sedimentation and siltation,” the BFAR official said. “Water quality is also affected. Turbidity increase if fine silt is suspended in water in great amount thereby affecting growth of natural productivity.”
There’s also such phenomenon called fish kill. In January and August of 2012, P3.8 million and P0.65 million of losses, respectively, were reported due to fish kills in Lake Sebu. In 2013, a loss of 20 metric tons of fish was also incurred. In February 2014, a loss of 68 tons with a value of P5.2 million was reported.
“The fish kills in Lake Sebu are caused by overturns in the lake, known locally as kamahong, which takes place naturally in Taal Lake in Batangas,” reported Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, an Academician with the National Academy of Science and Technology. “During a lake overturn, which usually occurs in the cooler months of the year, strong cool winds cause the upper water portion of the lake to become heavier in mass than the water at the lake’s bottom.”
The sinking of the upper water column, he further explained, pushes up the bottom column that is poor in oxygen and in toxic compounds like hydrogen sulfide, and this kills the fish in floating cages.
Escape of domesticated, farmed fish into rivers, lakes and coastal areas have become a growing risk to already decimated stock of wild fish. Yet, such escapes are not uncommon. The small goby in Laguna de Bay and tawilis in Lake Buhi and Bato are on the verge of extinction with the introduction of tilapia in these lakes.
Like most technologies, aquaculture is not perfect. This must be the reason why Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, doesn’t consider aquaculture as the ultimate solution to the problem of fish shortage. “Aquaculture brings its own ecological challenges,” he was quoted as saying by Scientific America.
But he added that there are better aquaculture technologie s which are already evolving rapidly. “Public funds and prizes could promote research to advance them,” he suggested. “With sensible global policies, the blue revolution can indeed become a major force for improved human nutrition, economic well-being and environmental sustainability.”
There are people who believe there’s future for aquaculture, if lessons from the past should be heeded. “The ultimate success of aquaculture may lie in the ability of its developers to leapfrog the mistakes of agriculture – to resist putting chemicals in the water and hormones in the fry, and consuming vast quantities of resources to get their product out,” said Anne Platt McGinn, a researcher with the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.
“The fish farmers’ ticket to the future is to align their business with the growing movement toward integrated, closed-loop production that is already making waves in the agricultural and timber industries,” she added. (To be concluded)
