Saving the ‘sinarapan’

LEGAZPI CITY – Hopes now run high that sinarapan, considered the world’s smallest commercial fish species, can be saved from extinction.

Scientifically named Mystichthys luzonensis and a delicacy among Bicolanos, this tiny carnivorous fish used to abound in its original habitat, Lake Buhi in Buhi, Camarines Sur, from the 1940s to the 1960s.

During the past two decades, however, it almost totally disappeared in the lake owing to overexploitation.

Encouragingly, viable stock of sinarapan had been found in another inland body of water in Buhi – Lake Manapao – during the past one and a half decades.

Things began to brighten when Bicol University (BU) and the local government unit (LGU) of Buhi launched the Sinarapan Repopulation Strategy (SRS) in 1997.

Since then, the fish has been successfully translocated in two other Buhi Lakes – Katugday and Makuwaw.

The SRS was among those featured at an exhibit at the Casablanca Hotel in Legazpi City that formed part of the celebration of National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) last July 21-26. The NSTW celebration was held under the auspices of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in cooperation with various S&T and government and private entities.

A component of BU’s Bicol Fish Biodiversity Program, the SRS is a direct technique used to revive the population of the species in Lakes Manapao, Makuwaw, and Katugday.

With the SRS, the chance of reviving sinarapan in the larger lakes (Buhi and Bato) has been increased. Representing the only strategy for fish survival in lake mountain conditions, it also serves as a vehicle to encourage the people to systematically manage their lake resources. – Rudy A. Fernandez