Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the effects of excessive aquaculture structures and stocking density on water quality and aquaculture production given the policies in place in Bolinao, which is one of the major aquaculture producing municipalities in the Philippines. Results of the study showed that the average stocking density of the aquaculture operation fell within the optimal value, but there were operators whose stocking densities were more than double than that of the optimum. The aquaculture production analysis showed that stocking density affects production. Beyond a certain level, further increases in stocks result in decreasing productivity. Excessive number of fish pens and cages with overstocking may lead to fish kills due to deteriorating water quality and other associated damages that are detrimental to the aquaculture industry and to the greater community. The study suggests that several policy implications and better regulation of coastal aquaculture operation are needed.
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Notes
- 1.
Section 9.3 examines fish kills in more detail.
- 2.
Other sources contributing to low water quality are nutrient runoff from agriculture and sewage waste.
- 3.
The key finding from that study is that water quality declines as the stocking intensity of the fish pens increases, supporting the hypothesis that environmental degradation increases with the scale of the aquaculture activity. Sumalde et al. (2003) undertook water quality sampling to measure dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids in the study region. With the help of scientists from the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute, samples of water were taken from the fish pens and fish cages of aquaculture operators surveyed by the authors at stations 200 m away from the structures and in a barangay without aquaculture structures. The water quality data described in this paper comes from those measurements.
- 4.
By way of comparison, average annual family income in Region 1, which includes Bolinao, was just under PHP 120,900 in the study year (NSO 2001).
- 5.
Recall that a more robust model would recognize and address the endogeneity problem between water quality and aquaculture practices (feed and stocking density).
- 6.
Multicolinearity between feed and stocking density is also a possible problem that could be addressed with more data.
- 7.
Results from the water quality monitoring are available in the longer version of this paper. See Sumalde et al. (2003).
- 8.
While total income is predicted to rise with optimal stocking due to the elimination of the overstocking externality, incomes of some of the operators would fall, creating an equity issue.
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Sumalde, Z.M., Francisco, K.L.A., Peñales, M. (2016). Productivity Effects of Water Pollution Due to Excessive Aquaculture Structures and Overstocking. In: Olewiler, N., Francisco, H., Ferrer, A. (eds) Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Valuation, Institutions, and Policy in Southeast Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0141-3_9
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