CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — A series of tests on shellfish gathered off the coast of Balanga City and six municipalities in Bataan proved negative for red tide toxins, but the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is not yet lifting the ban on the gathering and eating of shellfish from the province until the town of Samal is finally cleared.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) in Bataan said that of the original seven towns and Balanga City where the ban was imposed about a year ago, only Samal still has to pass all three laboratory tests required by BFAR before shellfish ban in the entire province is lifted.
It noted that under BFAR’s guidelines, the ban on gathering and eating of shellfish could not be lifted until shellfish samples from all the affected areas are cleared of toxic elements in three successive laboratory studies. The ban on shellfish was imposed sometime in November last year in Balanga City and the towns of Mariveles, Limay, Orion, Pilar, Abucay, Samal, and Orani.
While seven of the areas already passed the three successive weeks of tests, Samal still has to pass two more successive tests, the OPA said. OPA disclosed that the first laboratory tests on shellfish from Samal turned out negative last August 5.
“This means that two more consecutive weeks of negative tests and the nightmare of fishermen and the consuming public will be over,” it noted. “I really hope that this ends because we don’t want the fishermen to suffer more,” provincial agriculturist Imelda Inieto said in a phone interview.
Inieto explained that the red tide alert in Bataan cannot be lifted yet even if only one town remains affected as required by guidlines from the BFAR. In its shellfish bulletin no. 20 issued August 7,BFAR still prohibited the consumption of all types of shellfish and alamang due to threat of paralytic shellfish poisoning.
It allows though the consumption of fish, shrimp, squid and crab provided that they are fresh and washed thoroughly, and internal organs such as gills and intestines are removed before cooking. Red tide is a term used to describe coastal phenomenon in which the water is discolored by high algal biomass or concentration of algae.
The discoloration may not be necessarily red in color but it may also appear yellow, brown, green, blue or milky, depending on the organisms involved.
