PH racing to conserve CamSur’s Lake Buhi

MANILA, Philippines  —The government is looking at ways to protect Lake Buhi in Camarines Sur and prevent the extinction of its most famous inhabitant: sinarapan, the smallest commercial fish in the world and found only in the Philippines.

As part of a broader plan to conserve inland fishery resources, the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, is undertaking a research and development project called “Stock Assessment of Inland Lakes: Lake Buhi” to collect and analyze information on sinarapan (scientific name: Mistichthys luzonensis).

With an average length of 12 millimeters, sinarapan belongs to the Goby family and is found only in Lake Buhi.

READ: Saving Lake Buhi’s ‘sinarapan’

NFRDI project proponent Maria Theresa Mutia said the project aims to sustain the population of this indigenous fish and come up with a policy recommendation to repopulate it by the end of this year.

“We want to know if sinarapan is overfished or if there are still many fish left in Lake Buhi to avoid its extinction. We don’t want to lose sinarapan because it’s only seen here and not in other provinces or other countries worldwide,” Mutia said in Filipino.

Protecting the lake and its resources

Mutia had reported the preliminary results of this study to the mayor’s office in Buhi last month, making an inventory of fishers, gear and boat; initial aquaculture assessment; and status report and identification of sinarapan.

Buhi municipal agriculturist Angelito Philip Ignao said the undertaking allows concerned stakeholders to adopt a holistic approach to protect the lake and manage its resources.

For its part, Lake Development Office designate Buster Ibarbia vowed to continue efforts to push the propagation of sinarapan in Barangay Tambo.

The agency has collaborated with the local government of Buhi, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources regional office in Bicol and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Protected Area Management Office of Buhi Wildlife Sanctuary. INQ