DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—The provincial disaster risk reduction and management council (PDRRMC) on Tuesday warned beachgoers to stay close to the shore when swimming in the Lingayen Gulf to avoid being stung by jellyfish.
The warning was issued in anticipation of the influx of thousands of tourists heading for the different public beaches in Pangasinan province during the Holy Week.
Avenix Arenas, PDRRMC spokesperson, said jellyfish sting could be fatal if the patient was not given immediate medical attention.
“Medical teams will be deployed starting on Wednesday in the different public beaches from San Fabian town, in the eastern portion of the Lingayen Gulf, to Bolinao in the west,” Arenas said.
She said lifeguards would be closely watching tourists at the Lingayen beach.
Last week, a 13-year-old girl was hurt when she was stung by a jellyfish while swimming in the waters off Tondaligan Beach in Barangay Bonuan Gueset in this city.
“We have no jellyfish-stinging case yet here in Lingayen and I hope we will never have one,” Arenas said.
Fishery officials earlier said jellyfish colonies abounded in the gulf, partly because of overfishing and the abundance of their food in the area.
Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center here, said jellyfish dominated the marine ecosystem, especially during summer, because the population of certain fish species that feed on them had dwindled due to fishing.
“There’s no balance in the ecosystem. Bigger fish are supposed to eat jellyfish and jellyfish eat smaller fish, fry and eggs,” Rosario said.
He said jellyfish swarmed the coastlines, especially in areas where a river meets the sea because they are where small fish spawn and eat nutrients swept by the river current.
“Summer is spawning season for fish, and so it is for jellyfish,” Rosario said.
Fishermen have been complaining that their catch have been only a handful in the past days because of the abundance of jellyfish, many of these caught in their nets.
Rosario said the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was studying the imposition of a fishing moratorium for certain species in the Lingayen Gulf.
“There should be a closed season, like what we have done in the Visayan sea,” Rosario said.
In 2012, he said, the BFAR imposed a four-month closed season on sardine and mackerel fishing in the Visayan sea. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
