Jurgenne Primavera, the Filipina zoologist, whose research on breeding the black tiger prawn became a manual that revolutionised the aquaculture industry. She is now worried as her breeding process destroy fish nurseries. Local conservationists have filed a landmark suit against the owner, a wealthy lawyer accused of killing off mangroves, which is vital as nurseries for the young of open-sea fish species.
Jessie de los Reyes, a local marine ecology advocate, told that the law bans cutting of mangroves, but the fishpond owner skirted that by building dikes that cut off the seawater, until the trees eventually died. He added that the community is now suffering because their ground water has turned salty and their access to fishing areas has been cut. Despite several efforts prawn culture failed to reach its zenith in the Philippines, said Primavera of the Philippines-based Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre.
Norman Duke, a University of Queensland marine biologist, informed that the over the past 50 years aquaculture, or commercial fish farming, has wiped out a third of the world’s mangrove forests. Nico Koedam, a University of Brussels botanist, said that prawn farms subject to volatile market prices and ecosystem degradation and it last only for a few years and abandoned farms are virtual wastelands.
According to Primavera a healthy coastal system needs four hectares of mangroves for every a hectare of fishpond but the sad part is that number of mangrove are threatened with extinction. She said that the Philippines mangrove cover at about 115,000 hectares, compared to 230,000 hectares of fishponds. Tough measure should be needed to save such mangroves, said Primavera.
