Make way for “Hipon 911,” an ambulance basically for white shrimps called Penaeus vannamei. A first in the country, the Hipon 911 has a licensed veterinarian and four other personnel of the Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). Dr. Westly Rosario, BFAR center chief in Barangay Bonuan Binloc this city and executive director of the National Fisheries Research Development Institute (NFRDI), told The STAR that they launched the project here as part of last week’s opening of the P4-million Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory. The rigid screening of P. vannamei breeders that are imported from Hawaii and Florida in the United States starts at the airport where Rosario and Dr. Leobert de la Peña of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) in Iloilo, one of the experts on shrimp diseases, check them.

Visperas, E. (2008, September 4). Make way for 'Hipon 911' ambulance for white shrimps. The Philippine Star, p. A-20.