Bad News for Milkfish

[grahamw48]

As an aquarist I'd say the likely cause IS probably lack of oxygen, but compounded by overcrowding, and pollution of the water by chemicals and organic matter.

Have you seen the state of the average body of water in the Phils ?

The situation was bad enough in THIS country for long enough.

There it is second nature to toss anything and everything either to the side of the road or into the nearest water course

Surely the govt. dept. concerned has done some testing ?

[Terpe]

As an aquarist I'd say the likely cause IS probably lack of oxygen, but compounded by overcrowding, and pollution of the water by chemicals and organic matter.

Have you seen the state of the average body of water in the Phils ?

The situation was bad enough in THIS country for long enough.

There it is second nature to toss anything and everything either to the side of the road or into the nearest water course

Surely the govt. dept. concerned has done some testing ?

Agreed.

Oxygen depletion is the cause.
There has been an dramatic increase of oxygen depleted bottom waters rising to the upper levels.

This is known about and predicted.
Oxygen depletion at the bottom of the water usually happens due to decomposition of organic matter like plants and feeds, and also from man-made pollution.

Don't forget these fish are commercially bred in cages all along the lake. Overcrowding is common.
It's happened before and it will happen again.
In 2001, the biggest fishkill happened in Bolinao when about P400-million worth of bangus was lost.

In 2007, another P100-million worth of bangus was also lost to fishkill.

Several lakeside towns are struggling to cope with mountains of rotting fish.