The river of life

By Roberto Garcia

FOR so many years, the locals have depended on the resources of rivers crisscrossing Dagupan City and the adjacent Lingayen Gulf for their food supply and livelihood. Old-timers would reminisce then of the abundance of seafood such as shrimps, shellfish, crabs, finfish, and many other species that are collected or caught practically at their doorstep. The river waters then were deep, clean and rich with nutrients and there were very few settlements along the banks.

However, with the boom in human population and the varied activities directly affecting the rivers and the gulf, the resources have been declining or, worse, gone forever. For this reason, there is an urgent need to protect and conserve these bodies of water and the associated resources.

The “open access” policy in entering, collecting and/or catching fish and other aquatic resources (for free) in rivers and seas is practiced almost anywhere in the country by just anybody since these areas are considered as public domain. Unfortunately, this free access given to the public to the aquatic resources more often than not does not come with the responsibility to protect and conserve the resources.

Obviously those who have little in life benefit a lot on these aquatic resources in terms of food and livelihood. However, if there is no regulation to control the catch volume, size, and type, there is the risk of depleting the remaining stocks of desired species. Likewise, waste and pollution emanating from nearby human settlements pollute and destroy fish habitat. Thus, there is the need for imposing mitigating measures to remedy the adverse effects of unregulated fishing and other activities detrimental to the stability of the resources.

Many provinces, municipalities and barangays in the country have adapted the “CRM” or coastal resource management strategy to protect vital fish habitat and conserve life-sustaining marine resources. Lingayen Gulf, a major fishing ground, has been the beneficiary of several comprehensive CRM programs for many years and in which many coastal municipalities have adapted CRM in their ordinances. The question of whether these measures have been effective remains to be seen. No matter what, the protection, conservation, and rehabilitation of our rivers and seas should be top priority because our lives depend on them.

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