Lay your dead fish to rest in Dagupan City
By JING VALLEJOS, ABS-CBN Dagupan | 10/25/2008 11:12 AM
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If fishes have their place in heaven, so do their remains in Dagupan City.
If you happen to have a dead fish in your aquarium, you can give him or her a proper burial in the first ever fish cemetery in Barangay Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan.
Since dead fish usually turn up in garbage cans or tossed to a hungry cat, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) thought of building a fish cemetery.
The death of a 1.2 ton whale named "Moby Dick" in 1999 gave the BFAR in Dagupan the idea of setting up the special cemetery exclusive for fish, particularly rare species.
The BFAR said no other endangered marine life have also been buried at the cemetery. As of this year, a total of 13 different species from Pangasinan, La Union and Metro Manila have been laid to rest in the fish cemetery.
Westly Rosario, executive director of the National Fisheries Research and Development, said the fish cemetery serves as a reminder to people that capturing, selling, and eating rare marine species is a crime, as stated under the The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.
Rosario and BFAR officers have started cleaning the fish cemetery, just like what people do before All Saints' Day on November 1.
