The number of boats going out to harvest tilapia and milkfish have dwindled from 10 to only about two daily since news broke that the remains of some of the missing “sabungeros” were dumped in Taal Lake.
“They can’t go out to fish because orders have dwindled,” Mayor Lyndon Bruce of Laurel, Batangas told ABS-CBN News in an interview.
“Maybe it’s because people saw on social media that the missing ‘sabungeros’ are here,” Bruce added.
Previously, daily harvest was at an average of 40 tons of fish. The mayor said the daily average has since dropped to about eight tons.
ABS-CBN News reported there are about 1,700 fish pen operators in Laurel alone that are feeling the pinch amid the ongoing retrieval operations for the remains of the disappeared “sabungeros.”
Earlier, Batangas governor Vilma Santos-Recto appealed to the public not to link Taal Lake to the case of missing “sabungeros.”
She said the issue has affected fishermen catching “tawilis” (Sardinella tawilis), an endemic species which is found only in the lake.
