Saving the rare 'tawilis'

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

(Published in the Business Mirror, March 6, 2016)

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/saving-the-rare-tawilis/

: The crater lake of Taal Volcano. Image credit: Office of the Protected Area Superintendent, Taal Volcano Protected Landscape

Tawilis

‘TAWILIS is scarcely available now,” said Osye Catapang, a resident of Villa Luisa Homes in Dasmariñas City, Cavite.

Catapang, a native of San Nicolas, Batangas, said he went to the Pamilihang Sentral ng Dasmariñas, or the city central market, on February 28 to buy tawilis, but returned home empty-handed.

Tawilis (Sardinella tawilis) is a freshwater sardine found exclusively in Taal Lake in Batangas. It is small—only 15 centimeters in length and less than 30 grams in weight. 

Catapang said he often goes to the market, which is 15 minutes away from his home, to buy the rare fish, his favorite.

“I buy only P30 worth of tawilis. Anyway, it is only myself in the family who eats it. Sometimes, it is available, but sometimes there’s none,” he said in Filipino.

“Tawilis became scarce with the introduction of tilapia in the lake. It no longer tastes good, too, because the lake is now silted,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

He blamed the degradation of the lake’s environment, particularly its waters, to the booming aquaculture industry in Taal Lake. Now, even in his hometown, tawilis has become scarce. Besides being overfished, tawilis is threatened by the more competitive tilapia, he lamented.

Tilapia, an invasive fish species introduced in the Philippines in the 1950s, is now commonly sold in the market. In the 1970s, because of its proliferation in the country’s bodies of water, many native fish species have become extinct.

Aling Jean, a fish vendor at the Pamilihang Bayan ng Dasmariñas, is the only vendor who sells tawilis. 

“I always have tawilis to sell. It is only today that I have none because I wasn’t able to go home” to Talisay, Batangas, where she orders the fish from fishermen in Taal Lake.

Aling Jean sells tawilis at P120 a kilogram. 

Key biodiversity area

Taal Lake, where tawilis is found, is within the Taal Volcano Protected Landscape (TVPL), a protected area, considered as a priority conservation area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act.

Proclamation 923, Series of 1996 signed on November 19, 1996, established the TVPL, under the Nipas under the category of protected landscape or seascape.

Formerly known as Taal Volcano Island National Park (TVINP) under Presidential Proclamation 235 that was signed on July 22, 1967, the park used to cover only an area of 2,475 hectares. With the establishment of the TVPL, the area is now shared by the municipalities of  Talisay, Malvar, Tanauan, Laurel, Agoncillo, Santa Teresita, Cuenca, Alitagtag, Mataas na Kahoy, Lipa City, Balete, San Nicolas, Lemery and Taal, all in Batangas province, and Tagaytay City in Cavite province.

Approximately 95 kilometers south of Manila, TVPL is a booming ecotourism destination in Batangas. Taal Volcano, considered as the world’s smallest volcano, is within the TVPL.

The volcano island, an active volcano which sits in the heart of the Taal Lake, can be reached by boat, via Talisay on the northern shore of Taal Lake or San Nicolas in the southwest. A panoramic view of the lake is a popular tourist attraction in Tagaytay City.

According to the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), TVPL is classified as “extremely high urgent for biodiversity conservation,” based on the results of the National Biodiversity Conservation Priority Setting Project jointly undertaken by the state environment agency, the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, and Conservation International-Philippines. The TVPL, according to BMB Director Theresa Mundita Lim, is a key biodiversity area because of the unique wildlife that thrives within.

Complete life-support system

Formed because of the great volcano-tectonic depressions, the Taal Volcano is itself unique because it has its own lake called “crater lake.”

The Taal Lake has a total surface area of 24,356.4 hectares, the country’s third-largest lake next to Laguna de Bay and Lake Lanao.

The TVPL can be considered a complete life-support system. 

The profile of the TVPL prepared by the DENR-BMB said the area is endowed with abundant water resources, which include the surface water from Taal Lake Basin, Pansipit River, which is the only outflow of Taal Lake draining into Balayan Bay; San Juan River draining into the Laguna de Bay and flowing across the municipalities of Tanauan-Santo Tomas-Malvar area, including some tributaries in Lipa, other numerous small streams that drain to Batangas Bay and groundwater resources.

Lim said the TVPL is home to many species of flora and fauna, a number of which are endemic or can only be found in the Philippines. 

“Losing the biological diversity in the TVPL means losing these endemic species forever,” she said.

A total of 37 small rivers drain into Taal Lake, originating from Tagaytay Ridge, Talisay, Balete, Mataas na Kahoy, Alitagtag, Agoncillo and Laurel. Only one river, Pansipit River, which is about 8.2 kilometers long, drains Taal Lake at San Nicolas into Balayan Bay.

Also known as Lake Bombon to Taaleños, the lake is a large caldera.

Unique wildlife

Wild faunal species found in the area consists of white and brown heron, crow and other common bird species. Monitor lizard, and different species of snakes and frogs also dominantly thrive in the area.

People living around the lake benefit from its bounty.  Besides tawilis, the lake is also rich in fish like maliputo, tilapia, bangus, hito, dalag, biya and ayungin. Tawilis, however, is considered as the most valuable fish in the area that requires intensive care. The supply of tawilis has become scarce due to improper fishing methods, proliferation of fish cages and the introduction of exotic species like tilapia, according to Lim. “The lake is very important. Aside from fish, it is also home to the venomous sea snake [Hydrophis semperi],” she said.

The sea snake is one of the only few snakes that breeds in freshwater, and is the only known freshwater sea snake in the Philippines.

Bird sanctuary

The TVPL is also a bird sanctuary, Lim said.  “During migration, some of the migratory birds find Taal Lake a suitable place to stay to feed and breed,” she said.

Some of the birds found within the TVPL’s forests are the Philippine Turtle dove, locally known as bato bato (Streptophelia bitorqueta), painted quail or pugong parang (Cotimix chinensis), Chestnut mannikin or maya (Lonchura Malacca jagori), large-billed crow, commonly known as uwak (Corvus macrorynchos philippinus), brahminy kite (Haliastus indus intermidus), black naped oriole, or the kiliaoan (Oriolus chinensis linoseous); white-collared kingfisher, or the kasay-kasay (Halcyon chloris collaria), tree sparrow (Passer montanus satucatus), and kingfisher (Ceyx cyanogectus).

The TVPL is also home to the monitor lizard (Varanus salvator) and fruit bat (Etenochirus jagorri peters).

‘Bangus’ and tilapia

Some portions of the lake have been tapped for fish culture. According to the TVPL management, the tilapia and bangus industry is thriving in Taal Lake, and most of the people buy and sell their goods in the town of Talisay.

The bangus and tilapia raised by fish-cage operators also found their way in the market in nearby towns, including Dasmariñas, Cavite; and, to some extent, in Metro Manila.

Aquaculture, however, is one of the major problems affecting the lake. Other problems, such as small rivers and creeks draining into the lake that carry silt, domestic waste, and other effluents from poultry and piggery farms and other industries, are now being addressed by the management of the TVPL. 

Solutions

Jasmin Andaya, protected area superintendent of the TVPL, said that in order to address the problem affecting fishery production within the protected area, the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) has enacted the Unified Rules and Regulation for Fisheries (URRF).

Under the URRF, the PAMB has put under strict regulation various development projects within the TVPL, particularly in aquaculture, such as setting standard measurement for fish cages. It prescribes a 10-by-10-meter standard size for fish cages.

There are currently 5,889 fish cages in Taal Lake that have secured clearance or permit from the PAMB.

“We are also requiring fishermen to register their bancas in compliance with URRF,” Andaya said.

Last week Andaya announced that starting June, fish-cage operators will be required to use floating fish feed to minimize pollution caused by aquaculture. 

The floating fish feed is more environment-friendly than the sinking fish feed, because once the feed sinks, it aggravate siltation in the lake, she said.

Andaya said the PAMB and executive committee (Execom) of the TVPL are very active, and has, in fact, initiated various consultation meetings with the communities to encourage support and cooperation for the protection and conservation of the protected area.

“We have been consulting the people every step of the way,” she said, citing the meeting held early last month to get inputs from the aquaculture industry regarding the plan to use floating fish feed starting June. Next, she said the PAMB and Execom will be tackling plans to declare a periodic ban on fishing the endangered tawilis, to allow breeding and to replenish the fish stock in the lake. 

“Again, we are still conducting consultation because we don’t want fishermen to be affected by the policy,” she added. The policy, prescribed by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), will be implemented by the management of the TVPL, Andaya said. Such policy, she added, will help improve water quality in the lake and will help boost aquaculture production while minimizing its impact to the environment. “The TVPL is very important because many people depend on fishing in the lake,” she said.

The PAMB is also soliciting the help and support of the stakeholders in different towns within the TVPL to adhere to the policy of minimizing wastewater pollution, noting that household and industrial wastes are major contributors to pollution in the lake.

Working together is key

According to Lim, the TVPL has a very active PAMB and Execom that works closely together to address the problems besetting the protected area.

“One thing about the Nipas and protected area system, the parks are comanaged by various stakeholders with no political boundaries,” Lim said.  She added that local government units, community-based groups, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders sit down to sort out problems and identify the best solutions to the problem.

Lim said that by working together, protection and conservation of TVPL’s biodiversity, or simply saving the tasty tawilis, is well within reach.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons