Bohol town loses seaweed farms

PRES. CARLOS P. GARCIA, BOHOL, Philippines – Millions of pesos worth of seaweed farms of various species in this island town were a “total loss” as a result of the onslaught of typhoon Ruby that also struck here last Sunday.

Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council officer Glenn Allan Boyles bared this to The Freeman on Tuesday in an exclusive interview.  Fishery technician Felisa Boyles confirmed that some 50 hectares of seaweeds were damaged in Barangay Bogo alone, worth P850,000. She said that some 2,500 kilos of harvestable “cottonii” species of seaweeds each Barangays Popoo and Lapinig were not spared by Ruby.

Some members of the people’s organizations in these barangays who managed the farms tried to salvage what was left and planted them anew, she said.

Agricultural crops such as 150 hectares of bananas were damaged, amounting to P131,000, which was considered as “partial loss,” Municipal Agriculturist Gaudencio Lagura said in his report to Mayor Tesalonica Boyboy.

Other crops such as coconut, mangoes, vegetables, and forest trees and bangus and shrimp fishponds have no damage, he said. “Only seaweeds commodity posted significant or total loss,” Lagura said.