BUHI, Camarines Sur – Heavy polluted. Choking.

These now grimly describe Lake Buhi, whose once pristing waters nurtured the fish species that has placed the Philippines on the global fisheries map.

The 1,707-hectare lake is dying due to pollution and proliferatin of fish cages that are now practically choking this inland body if water situated about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila.

In recent years, “fish kills” have occurred in the lake.

More recently, last July 15, or a day after typhoon “Basyang” cut a wide swath of destruction in the Bicol Region down to Metro Manila, people around Lake Buhi woke up to see countless dead fish in the lake’s murky waters.

Lake Buhi is vaunted as home to sinarapan (scientific name: Mistichthys luzonensis), considered the world’s smallest extant commercial fish species.

In recent decades, however, tilapia fish cages sprouted like proverbial mushrooms after a rainy night.

Today, about 15,000 fish cages cover 70 to 80 percent of the lake, according to a study done by researchers of the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College (CSSAC), recently turned into the Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, based in Pili town.

To maintain the fish stocks, the cage operators use 2,840 ton of food per production cycle, said CSSAC researchers Dr. Cely Binoya, Joyce dela Trinidad, Arthur Estrella, Ceferino Llesol, and Gloria Osea.

The unused food adds to the lake’s grave pollution problems.

The CSSAC study was supported by Los Baños-based, government-hosted Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO-SEARCA) through its Seed Fund for Research and Training (SFRT).

SEARCA, headed by Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr., is one of the 19 “centers of excellence” of SEAMEO, an intergovernment treaty body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in education, science, and culture.

The SEARCA-supported CSSAC research team also conducted training needs assessment; information, education, and communication (IEC) activities; focus group discussions; SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis; and environmental awareness advocacy and livelihood training.