Diseases and Pest Encountered on Seaweeds Eucheuma-Kappaphycus Production in the Selected Municipalities in the Province of Palawan, Philippines

There is a continuous decrease in seaweed production as reflected in the annual seaweed production of the Province of Palawan which were attributed to the occurrence of diseases and pests in the seaweed farms. To monitor the number of diseases and pest present in seaweed farms in Palawan, a total of 13 selected municipalities in the province of Palawan that engage in seaweeds farming were monitored from any presence of diseases and pest from 2003 to 2018.  Based on the result, a total of six diseases and one problem were identified to be present in the seaweed farms in the selected municipalities in Palawan. The ice-ice disease had highest frequency of occurrence followed by the epiphytes, tip discoloration, sudden whitening of the planted seaweeds, sedimentation, pitting and grazing respectively. Ice-ice disease caused thallus breakage results in the decrease of volume to be harvested by the farmers coupled with the slow growth rate of the plant thus regularly forces seaweed farmers to stop planting for months. Several mitigation strategies were already applied in the seaweed farms by the affected municipalities in Palawan but still, some diseases and pests arise from time to time.

Keywords: Culture, ice-ice, epiphytes, stress, mitigation