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‘Identifying toxin behind for fish kill improbable’
Updates from the National Wildlife Health Center puts into doubt the possibility of pinpointing exactly what water-based toxin caused the recent fish kill of hiyok or blue-banded surgeonfish, according to Manny Pangelinan, acting secretary of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
“It’s almost like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. “If you don’t have specifics that can lead to give scientists an idea to what to analyze, then it becomes a very challenging task to analyze the specific toxins. The resources, the manpower, and the time can take years before we can even determine what kind of marine toxin this is.”
He said he has been working with the Center’s Thierry Work on the matter to determine the cause of the fish kill that occurred over the last two months.
“Test on fish guts for water-soluble toxins were positive, but we will probably never figure out the identity of the particular toxin,” Pangelinan said, quoting letters from the Center.
He said the Center has told him they do not have sufficient equipment to test for the soluble toxins, but will continue with their efforts.
According to Pangelinan, the most abundant of these fish washed ashore on Tank Beach, where almost a thousand fish were found.
The fish were also found on the beaches of Tinian and at Laolao Beach on Saipan. Small batches were found at Forbidden Island and Obyan Beach, according to Pangelinan.
“We encourage the public to refrain from eating hiyok. But if they want to eat hiyok they have to make sure that they don’t eat the guts and they wash the fish clean, very clean, and ensure that the guts are not open when they are cleaning the fish,” he said.
