We’re often told the healthiest form of meat to consume is the white meat of fish. High in antioxidants and nutritious without the worry of saturated fat clogging up your heart, fish seems to be touted the best source of protein for you. And amongst the many kinds of fish, some are given special preference over others such as the cod and the salmon for their higher nutritional value, but there are also other types of fishes that make it to the dinner table as a staple part of the meal due to their availability and affordability (nativity to the region makes the fish less expensive) such as the milkfish in The Philippines.
So why then are the good folks of the Batangas province in The Philippines are now avoiding the plump succulent fishes sold fresh at the wet market? Simple, it’s the instinctive consumer fear that the fishes being sold are the same ones affected by the fishkill. And I suppose it does seem to be a fair concern seeing as how approximately 800 metric tons of mostly the milkfish species in Taal Lake wound up dead on Friday.
Now what caused this massive merciless fish kill? Well experts are saying it’s 3 elements combined and that is :
1. The unfavourable weather conditions (unpredictable green house effect?)
2. Quality of water in the lake (pollution level in the water)
3. Overturn (I assume it is the effect similar to the summer stagnantation we observe in lakes where there are four seasons which deprives the bottom of the lake of oxygen)
And the worse of it isn’t over because oxygen level of the water is still well below the norm of 6 parts per million (ppm). It’s sitting around 3.71 ppm and went as low as 3.42ppm last Friday.
Water quality is still poor as transparency measured at 1.7 meters from the normal level of 3.6 meters and temperature went up to 31.7 degrees Celsius from the “favorable” range of 28 to 29 degrees.
Now if you’re thinking that’s all the way in Asia, well think again because fishkill is a phenomenon that occurs all over the world. The concern is to find out if it occurred as a result of a natural event or pollution and then stay away from consuming the “double dead fish (dead fish from a fishkill)” because it will get you very sick.
