ANDA—Following an averted fishkill in its border rivers with Bolinao, this town is set to remove its fishpens once and for all within the year.

Mayor Nestor Pulido said his town and adjacent Bolinao are lucky because a threat of fishkill in the Caquiputan Channel last week was averted.

Timely detection of the quality of water of the Caquiputan Channel between Bolinao and Anda last Tuesday saved millions of pesos worth of bangus from another massive fishkill.

He said the municipal government of Anda has given fishpen owners up to the end of the year to get rid of their fishpens which he added are not environmentally friendly.

Fish farmers at Caquiputan Channel were another big fishkill almost broke out were using both fishpens and cages in order to raise bangus captivity. At one point, dissolved oxygen in the water in Bolinao measured less than one part per million, a prelude to the breakout of a fishkill.

At the Anda side, he said, the D.O. level was three part per million, still below the standard of five part per million or the acceptable level of four part per million.

“At three part per million D.O. level, bangus can still survive, but not at a level below that,” he said.

Fish farmers were warned by technicians of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to reduce the feeding of their stock and to transfer their fish cages out of the affected area, which some of them did.

He said it was good that after two days of neap high tide which was due to the influence of the face of the moon, the outflow of water became faster, thus raising the D.O. level of water.

Pulido said he is determined to enforce a municipal ordinance banning the construction of fishpens in Anda’s municipal water so fishkill can be avoided.