Marine fauna exploitation. Part IV

[Jaime Baquero]

The fish are not acclimated to the physical and chemical conditions of the 
water, thus increasing the stress that the animals experienced from the 
moment they are harvested. At this point, it was critical to introduce the 
Water Quality Criteria new to the fisherfolk and PMP organizers. Several 
workshops were conducted with PMP organizers and fishermen from three commu- 
nities: San Salvador and Matain in the Province of Zambales and Bolinao in 
the Province of Pangasinan. At the workshops, samples of water from the 
shoreline, and from the bags holding the fish were tested to determine the 
concentrations of ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, specific gravity and tempera- 
ture. 

The results for the shoreline water were as expected for a non polluted area: 

pH     8.1-8.2 
Ammonia    0.0 mg/l 
Nitrates   0.0 mg/l 
Phosphates 0.0 mg/l 
Specific gravity 1.024 
Temperature 74-78 F. 

The samples of water from the bags in the three communities did show alarming 
readings, 12 different samples were tested, the results were all very close. 
Following are the averages: 

pH  lower than 7.0 (6.0-6.5) 
Ammonia Higher than  0.8 mg/l 
Nitrates  15-20 mg/l 
Nitrites  0.0 mg/l 
Phosphates 0.1 mg/l 
Specific gravity >1.027 
Temperature 78 F. 

The holding facilities at the exporters level, some of them are constructed 
with plywood covered with marine epoxy. The filtration systems design is very 
elementary and inefficient. The only filter media used is crushed coral( the 
use of other filtration media "bioballs" is not widespread; I saw two two ex- 
porters using them but the design and efficiency of the filters was considered 
poor). The use of protein skimmers is not widespread, some use them but the 
design is extremely poor if we consider the volumes of water their systems 
handle.  
There was and exporter using a primitive version ammonia towers(inefficient). 
An analisys of water was conducted at the holding facilities of an exporter. 
The results are the following: 

pH  7.9-8.0 
Ammonia  0.2 mg/l 
Nitrates 80-100 mg/l 
Nitrites 0.1-0.2 mg/l 
Phosphates 1.0 mg/l 
Specific Gravity  1.022 


Following.... Conclusion. 

Jaime Baquero.