ALERT policemen and guards intercepted on Tuesday dawn a van of decomposing fish weighing 10 tons before it could be brought to the city’s wholesale fish market for sale.

Officials said the decaying fish was loaded in a truck that originated from Masinloc, Zambales but was intercepted here before it could reach the fish market.

The City Agriculture Office said that because of the incident, it placed the fish market under even closer watch round-the clock to thwart any more attempt to unload decaying fish from Zambales or elsewhere.

Had it not been intercepted, the cargo could have been passed on to a still unidentified wholesaler selling to customers in bulk.
The van with its unsaleable cargo was sent back to where it came from, city fisheries officials said.

A laboratory analysis on samples of the fish conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources showed these are not fit for consumption.

The decaying fish was believed to have died from massive fishkill that broke out in Zambales.

The agriculture office was alarmed because had it been passed to a wholesaler, it could have been distributed to various parts of the country.