Fish Infestation Threatens Largest Marshland In Asia
Josephine Roque - All Headline News Contributor Cagayan de Oro, Philippines (AHN) - The rampant proliferation of the janitor fish threatens the environmental stability of the largest marshland in Asia. The species has already spread to Marikina River and Laguna de Bay, and is now poised to infest the ecosystem of Asia's largest marshland, the Agusan Marsh in Agusan del Sur. Two species of janitor fish currently exist in the country: pterygoplichthys pardalis and pterygoplichthys disjunctivus. The Philippine Star reports Marianne Hubilla, a volunteer fisheries researcher with the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) from the University of Philippines in the Visayas (UPV), and Ferenc Kis, a Hungarian consultant on wetland management, accidentally discovered the spread of the janitor fish in the Agusan Marsh. Hubilla warns that janitor fish "competes for food with the native catfish, carp, mudfish, tarpons, mullets, tilapia and other fish species found in the marsh. They also compete with bivalves and gastropods for food." She stresses that this could change the aquatic and faunal composition of the the Agusan Marsh. Some 42,000 hectares of the marshlands have been declared a "World Heritage Conservation Site" of the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary by MAB Philippines/Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau due to its identification as a center of floral and faunal diversity with seven habitat type |
