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Nationwide shellfish study underway
by Joeven C. Calasagsag - Thursday, 5 January 2012, 04:09 PM
 
balita.ph; January 4, 2012 12:32 pm

DAGUPAN CITY, Jan. 4 — The Dagupan-based National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) will focus on the study of shellfishes this year in a bid to discover the appropriate technology in raising this commodity.

This will also ensure more food in the Filipino dining table and make this another export product of the country.
Dr. Westly Rosario, NIFTDC chief, revealed that shellfishes have a big potential to become one of the export commodities in the Philippines because these are regarded in some countries as medicinal.

But sadly, the Philippines is still using the crude method in raising the commodity yet.

Thus, he said, the need to find the proper technology in growing oysters, mussels, clams and scallops as farmers, who are raising the commodity only as a backyard industry, sadly lack the proper know-how in growing shellfishes in commercial scale.

Rosario said he submitted to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in late 2011 a proposal for the conduct of a comprehensive study on shellfishes focusing on the development of these species in order to develop a culture method patterned from those in other countries now exporting the commodity.

“Hopefully with this study, we can develop a high-impact project that could be introduced to the farmers throughout the country, to make it easier for them to raise seashells in bigger quantities for export abroad,” Rosario added.

Noting that shellfish culture in the country is undertaken by mostly marginal farmers, Rosario expressed optimism that the country has a potential to become a top exporter of this commodity considering its long coastline where oysters, mussels, clams and scallops are now growing but only on limited scale.

He said NIFTDC will first conduct profiling of all areas where shellfishes are growing abundantly and with the help of its laboratory, will also pinpoint areas where there is big concentration of heavy metals where fish farmers should avoid.

Rosario said this is necessary to ensure that shellfishes would be grown only in areas where there is cleaner water so that the product can pass the strict standard imposed by importing countries.

Philippines does not export any shellfish yet, owing to the fact that the data on this product demanded by exporters are incomplete and still scattered, he said. Rosario added in this project, they want to put all things in their proper order.

At the same time, he admitted that Dagupan is being eyed as one of the areas where shellfishes may be grown in commercial scale.

It is for this reason it is included among the places to be profiled to ensure that the shellfishes that it will produce will really pass the standard of importing countries.

A national project, this research will first start in Luzon before it will expand to the Visayas and Mindanao.

Stressing the importance of the project, Rosario hinted the possibility that NIFTDC may seek a foreign grant to finance the comprehensive research on shellfishes to enlist the cooperation of fishery experts and scientists from other countries.

Seashells, he said, are more expensive than cucumber, another specie put on study by NIFTDC since two years ago. When completed, this could make it easier for fish farmers to raise this crop in the coastal areas.

As to the problem of red tide which is seasonally prevalent in some areas of the Philippines, Rosario is not a bit worried because its effect can be avoided by not harvesting when the marine phenomenon is in full bloom. [By Leonardo V. Micua (PNA) LDV/LVM/rma]

Source: Nationwide shellfish study underway
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