The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Luzon (BFAR 3) has released some 13,000 tilapia fingerlings along the Pampanga River.
The release of the fingerlings was done in Barangay San Vicente, Apalit town in Pampanga province, according to a Philippine News Agency report.
The move was under the agency’s Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa (BASIL) program which aims to repopulate the rivers and lakes with fish species, such as carp and tilapia, the report said.
According to BFAR-3 director Wilfredo Cruz, the communal stocking activity is one of BFAR’s interventions to protect and enrich the river and the fish that live there.
“It aims to reinvigorate the Pampanga River and at the same time, to boost fish stocks for our fisherfolk to have a sustainable catch of fish that could help augment their livelihood,” Cruz said in the PNA report.
Pampanga River is among the major bodies of freshwater in the country placed under the BASIL program, which was launched in 2017 to restore the fish population, the report added.
