Red tide-infected mussels from Anda seized

By January 11, 2015Business, News

THE “Bantay Ilog”  team of the City Agriculture Office is again on high alert after it intercepted and seized three sacks of mussels, a few kilos of crabs and other aquatic products transported from Anda town.

The shipment may be parts of 22 sacks earlier seized by the police from a passenger bus while they were manning a checkpoint along the highway in Sual town.

The shellfish bulletin from the Bureau of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) released last January 5 confirmed that shellfish samples collected from the waters of Alaminos City, Anda, Bolinao and Wawa Bani were still positive of red tide toxin.

The shellfish ban was imposed shortly after a woman died and 33 other persons from Bolinao were hospitalized after eating mussels gathered from the town’s water.

Agriculture Officer Emma Molina said the seizure was made in the early morning of January 8 when members of the Bantay Ilog team intercepted an Isuzu Elf truck while unloading three sacks of mussels, four kilograms of crabs called “cato” and “babangkalangali” at a mini-bus terminal on Perez Boulevard.

The shipment was made even after the city implemented a strict “no entry” policy for all shellfishes originating from all red-tide affected towns in Pangasinan.

Molina said four persons accompanied the shipment. They are Sonny  Flores, Modesto Camba, Manny O. Caracas and Martin Rebudan, 17.   They will be charged for violation of Section 73 of City Ordinance 1768-2003 for their failure to present auxiliary invoice before transporting their products to Dagupan.

They were caught while in the act of unloading the shellfishes at the bus terminal of Anda-Dagupan located at Perez Boulevard.

Molina suspects the mussels, if not intercepted, would have been sold at the Dagupan Fish Market.

She also urged the public to be alert when purchasing oysters in the city.

“Although the oysters harvested from the city are free of red tide toxin but consumers should make sure that what they are buying are really from the city”, she said.

She explained the oysters from Dagupan are usually with thin shell and are smaller compared to that of from the Western Pangasinan.

She said the city does not produce nor harvest mussels.

Molina advised the public to buy only oysters from vendors they know personally. (Hilda Austria/ PNA)

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