Heavy rains caused the fishkill at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP) in Manila Bay last Oct. 10, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said yesterday. The initial water quality test results showed that the fishkill resulted from low concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said. “Fish, like all other complex life forms, need oxygen to survive. They get theirs in the form of oxygen gas dissolved in water,” Cimatu said. According to Domingo Clemente, who heads the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau-National Capital Region, the low DO levels “may have resulted from the recent heavy rains that caused the flushing of decomposed organic matter from the surface run-offs and inland water tributaries, eventually polluting the open seas.”

Villanueva, R. (2019, October 23). DENR: Heavy rains caused fishkill. The Philippine Star, p. 15.