The City Agriculturist’s Office and City Environment and Natural Resources Office dispersed 10,000 Saline Resistant Tilapia fingerlings and 4,000 crablets or mud crab juveniles along Zone 4 of Iloilo River on Oct. 20.
The Stock Enhancement Program or increase of wild stocks abundance was implemented in the waterway along barangays Navais, Mandurriao and Fundidor, Molo.
City Agriculturist Romulo Pangantihon explained that Zone 4 which stretches from Carpenter’s Bridge upstream to boundary of Oton is declared productive zone for fishing.
Meanwhile, Zone 3 from Diversion Bridge to Carpenter’s Bridge is regulated with allowable fishing gears. Both Zone 2, from Diversion Bridge to Quirino Bridge and Zone 1, from Quirino Bridge to river mouth, are designated for sports fishing.
The tilapia fingerlings and crablets were provided by Dan Baliao, chief of South East Asian Fisheries Development Center- Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC-AQD) based in Tigbauan, Iloilo.
The project is part of Fish Conservation Week Celebration spearheaded by Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Regional Office 6 with the support of the Office of Congressman Jerry P. Trenas.
The initiative was provided under Regulation Ordinance (RO) No. 2009-247 further amending RO No. 2005-228 amending Section 7 of Article III of RO No. 2003-233 known as “the basic fishery ordinance for the regulation, development, protection, conservation and disposition of fisheries and aquatic resources as well as the related activities in the city and for other related purposes.”
The City Government also regularly conducts cleanup of river system to sustain its ecological status for future generation to enjoy. [Iloilo City PIO]
