ILOILO CITY – The province of Iloilo is eyeing to revive its once thriving blue crab or “kasag” industry.
The provincial government opened its crab hatchery facility in Concepcion town on Thursday, August 31.
Dr. Ildefonso Toledo, chief of the Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office, said that the P8-million facility at the campus of the Northern Iloilo State University (NISU) aims to boost the production of blue crab.
ILOILO Gov. Arthur Defensor 'Toto' Defensor Jr. (right) inspects the blue crab hatchery facility in Concepcion, Iloilo with Iloilo Provincial Administrator Raul Banias and Chief Agriculturist Dr. Ildefonso Toledo. (Tara Yap)
Toledo said blue crab is supposed to be Iloilo’s most popular seafood product but unregulated fishing has drastically declined its production beginning in 2004.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Iloilo’s production of blue crab plunged to 4,808.98 metric tons in 2021 from 5,282.79 MT in 2020.
Toledo credited the late Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. for pushing Iloilo to replicate a blue crab revival project implemented by World Wildlife Fund-Philippines.
The construction of the crab hatchery facility started in 2018 during the administration of Gov. Arthur “Art” Defensor Jr.
It was finished during the term of Gov. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. who vowed to continue the former partnerships brokered during the previous administration in the revival of the vast Visayan Sea, which is one of the country’s richest fishing grounds.
“In the Iloilo provincial government, we see crab as a commodity. For us, fundamentally, it is a source of protein. And together with other products of the sea, we want to develop our capability to practically add (of the conservation of the Visayan Sea),” said the governor.
Felina Grace Basco, fisheries division chief of the Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office, is overseeing the operations of the hatchery.