OYSTER FARM IN DAGUPAN CITY

'TALABA" FARM IN TOCOK LUCAO – Aside from bangus, Dagupan is also known for its tastiest ‘talaba’ especially the one grown in Barangay Lucao. In photo are Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, Dr Michael Rice, Professor at the Dept. of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and American students while visiting an oyster farm located at Sitio Tocok, Barangay Lucao. Fernandez promised to give permits to owners of oyster farms in order to boost  the ‘talaba’ industry in the area. (CIO photo by Jojo Tamayo)

 Dr Michael Rice said:

“The rivers in Dagupan today are extremely clean and very, very well managed in comparison to just a few years ago. I was here a few years ago and the water itself was brown—almost black— because of excessive fish pens.

What we’re seeing here is an area where there were lots of fish pens in the past, where lots of feed was going into the water and that feed was basically degrading the water quality.

At this point, the program has been to return oysters to this area, and as one could see about all of the water, it is nice and green and the oysters are looking very, very healthy, and we see baby fish among the oysters which is good for all the people with the fish traps—who rely on fishing for a livelihood.

And in fact, I have written– just last month—written about this in international aquaculture journals about how astoundingly effective the program is here in Dagupan.

And I would hold this up as a model from anywhere in the world where there is aquaculture going on. I will be able to provide the mayor with some of the written materials that I’ve put together on this.” We both tried the oyster taste excellent.