BACOLOD City – Around 127 pieces of “endangered” giant clams weighing about 1.5 tons were confiscated from three fisherfolk in Barangay Molocaboc, Sagay City, Negros Occidental.
Nabbed for violation of the act preventing the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing were residents 60-year-old Felix Causapin, 49-year-old Lito Cañete and 54-year-old Adan Atabelo, a police report showed.
Sagay City Marine Reserve Resource Assessment head Jose Togle said the arrested fisherfolk were allegedly dealing with an anonymous buyer who offered them to buy the clams locally known as “manlot” at P1,000 per kilo.
Officers of the Sagay City police station and personnel of the Negros Occidental Protected Area Management Board, Task Force Lawod, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office staged the operation around 11:40 a.m. on Thursday.
Togle said some of the confiscated fossilized manlot were measured about a meter and estimated to be 50 years old.
“The crime against our environment is a crime against our very own survival as vulnerable species like giant clams play a critical role protecting our reefs,” said Sagay City mayor Alfredo Marañon III.
Marañon said the clams will be turned over to the Museo sang Bata sang Negros for educational purposes.
“We commend the efforts of our raiding team against the perpetrators and I hope this will serve a strong message to everyone that we will continue to protect Sagay City’s marine reserve at all cost,” he stressed. /PN
