THE taste of milkfish produced in one area does not depend on where the fish fry is coming from.

Consumers, therefore, need not worry that the hatchery-bred bangus fry from Sarangani province in Mindanao, which were dispersed to Dagupan fish farm operators last week, will change the quality of Dagupan bangus, known to be the tastiest in the country, if not in the world.

“The use of Sarangani-produced bangus fry will not diminish the high quality of Dagupan bangus one bit,” assured Mayor Alipio Fernandez, himself a fishpond operator.

Dagupan received 1.8 million bangus fry from Sarangani out of the 10 million fry made available by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Pangasinan as part of the rehabilitation program for the bangus industry following the damage from super Typhoon “Cosme” last May 17.

Apart from the destroyed fish pens, Fernandez said the province also ran out of bangus fry when eight sabalo (mother bangus) of Charlie Ngo, a hatchery operator in Sual, died at the height of typhoon Cosme.

BFAR Regional Director Nestor Domenden said the BFAR bought nine million bangus fry from the Finfish Hatcheries, Inc., based in Sarangani. The other one million was donated by the company.

Domenden said, bangus growers in Dagupan and other parts of Pangasinan today source their fry from Pasuquin in Ilocos Norte, General Santos, Palawan, Sarangani and even Indonesia too.

METHODS

Rene Bocaya, national sales manager of the Alcantara Group of Companies, said the taste of bangus usually depends on the soil of fishponds, feeding method as well as farm and management techniques employed by fish farm operators.

He observed that here in Dagupan, nature helps in producing high quality bangus, unlike in other places.

The convergence of fresh water from the Cordilleras and Sierra Madre and the salty water from the Lingayen Gulf in Dagupan was cited by many agri experts as the main reason why the Dagupan bangus tastes better than others grown in other places.

Finfish produces one billion fry yearly and 80 percent of these go to Bulacan whose fingerling producers supply fish pen operators in Laguna Lake. The ‘alien’ bangus being referred in the province are the produce originating from the Laguna Lake.

The remaining 20 percent of its fry produce are being sold to fishpond and pen owners in Pangasinan, especially Bolinao.—LM

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