Bangus: The country’s most popular fish
(Second of Two Parts)
Fish, along with rice, are the country’s staple food. Studies show Filipinos eat an average per capita fish consumption of 40 kilograms per year, which is significantly higher than the global average.
The Philippines Fisheries Profile listed the Philippines as the 8th among the top fish producing countries in the world. Unfortunately, those caught in the open seas are becoming scarce.
So much so that the country is expanding the maritime version of agriculture known as aquaculture. “One in four food fish consumed by humans these days come from aquaculture,” the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) points out.
In the Philippines, one of the most-often cultured fishes is milkfish or more popularly known as bangus (Chanos chanos). “Milkfish has always been the most important species cultured in the Philippines in terms of area and production,” reports fishery expert Simeona M. Aypa. “Approximately, there are 176,000 hectares of existing milkfish ponds.”
Widely distributed
Bangus is widely distributed in warm offshore waters. It is also found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan. It has been recorded in the Pacific islands, from Guam to Tuamotu, from Hawaii to Tonga and along eastern Australia.
Bangus is comparable with a herring in large size or a grey mullet. The fish is a plankton eater with metallic-silvery basic coloring and blue-green markings on top and under. Fine small scales dress the streamlined body. It has big eyes and a long fork-shaped final fin.
Bangus being sold in the market are in the sizes of 10 to 15 centimeters in length and weight from 75 to 500 grams. In its natural habitat, bangus can reach a weight of more than 20 kilograms, a length of 180 centimeters, and a maximum-age of 15 years.
At sea, the bangus could only be caught as fry, juvenile and/or as sabalo (adult bangus). The sabalo spends most of its life in marine waters. Young bangus migrate from the sea to coastal areas and may ascend estuaries, rivers, and lakes before migrating back to the sea at maturity.
“Commercial production of milkfish in the Philippines dates back more than a century ago although significant growth of the industry was realized only in the last three decades,” reports the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD).
“Several economic activities stem from bangus farming. These include fry collection, nursery operation, processing, marketing, and other related services such as ice making and fish transport,” says PCAARRD, a line agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
The country’s bangus production is only 80% of that of Indonesia. Interestingly, its production has been fluctuating with a peak of 442,270 metric tons in 2021 and an ebb in 2022 with 387,960 metric tons.
Previously reported production was 414,490 metric tons in 2020, 409,910 metric tons in 2019, 395,130 metric tons in 2018 and 411,100 metric tons in 2017.
Bangus raising in Sta. Cruz
“Bangus can adopt a wide range of salinity,” says Joylen L. Dominice, aquaculturist II of the Municipal Agriculture Office of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. “They can survive in freshwater, brackishwater, and even obscure marine water.”
With its brackishwater, the Tagabuli Bay in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, is an ideal area for growing bangus.
At the Tagabuli Bay fish cages, operators are giving bangus commercial feeds daily. About 70% of the operation goes to commercial feeds, purchase of fingerlings, and salary of those maintaining the fish cages. “The bulk of expenses comes from feeds,” Dominice says.
The stocking density is from 10,000 to 12,000 fingerlings. From this, they harvest 4-5 tons per cropping. The culture period is 5-6 months although in some instances it may go up to seven months. “The culture period becomes higher if they stock the cages with more than what is being recommended,” Dominice says.
Selective harvesting is practiced; only uniformly grown bangus from the cages are harvested using seine or gillnets, retaining the undersize fish and harvesting only the commercial sized stocks, with an average body weight of 250 grams or larger.
Harvesting is done twice daily; one in the morning and another in the afternoon. They harvest only what is needed by the buyers (viajedors, those who travel in various parts of the country and compradors or those who buy in bulk and supply them to retailers). About 5 tons to 15 tons are harvested each day.
The bangus harvested are sold in the local market and nearby provinces. The viajedors, however, bring them to such areas as Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, Surigao, Tacloban, Cebu, Dumaguete and Iloilo.
Sizes of bangus matter. Those weighing 600 grams to 1.2 kilograms per piece are sold for export. If it weighs 599 and below, it is sold for local consumption.
Prices also differ. For export, the farm-gate price is P160 to P170 per kilogram. For locals, the price for 5 pieces for two kilograms is P150 while those for 3 pieces for one kilogram is P145.
Microplastics
Fish like bangus are raised in ponds, rivers, lakes and open seas. These are the areas where plastics end up. Since plastics are non-biodegradable, they remain in the waters and may disintegrate into microplastics.
As bangus aquaculture sites remain unexempted from microplastic contamination, there’s a risk that consuming them is risky, health-wise.
To ensure that the consumers are safe, the PCAARRD funded a project that would develop an optimized protocol for microplastics isolation and detect the level of microplastic contamination in freshwater, marine, and brackishwater milkfish.
The project, “Method Optimization of Digestion and Extraction of Microplastics in Milkfish (Chanos chanos),” investigated the occurrence and spatial distribution of microplastics in milkfish harvested from freshwater, marine, and brackish-based aquafarms.
The project collected randomly individual milkfish samples from marine, brackish, and freshwater fish cages, fish pens, or fish pond aquafarms.
In Mindanao, the researchers 383 extracted microplastics from 30 bangus that were taken from sampling sites in a selected site. They found 235 of the extracted particles to have microplastics.
“While microplastics themselves may not be inherently toxic, their chemical nature allows them to attract and accumulate other toxic substances on their surfaces. When microplastics with attached toxic substances are ingested, they pose a potential threat to human health,” said Marybeth Hope Banda, member of the research team.
According to the press release, microplastics have been shown to induce a sense of fullness in fish, potentially reducing their appetite and hindering their ability to consume sufficient nutrients for normal growth.
Dietary exposure to microplastics, however, cannot be estimated. Because particle toxicity data of microplastics are not yet available, an estimation of the potential risks of microplastic particles in food is not yet possible.
“The impact of ingesting microplastics for humans has yet to be determined,” the press release explained. “Its toxicity depends on how much is consumed, though some particles are small enough to penetrate human tissue.”
Constraints
Meanwhile, the PCAARRD listed several problems that the bangus industry is facing. In its website, it said: “The main issue faced by the milkfish industry is the lack of hatchery tanks and low supply of high-quality fingerlings and feeds. Farmers’ lack of access to infrastructure and technologies (from hatchery to processing), poor market linkages, and high capital requirements are also observed to be the factors that limit the growth of the milkfish industry.”
Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
