SORSOGON CITY -- An eight-year-old girl did not live to see the New Year after being downed by shellfish with red tide toxins in Sorsogon Bay.

        Rose Ann Lagamayo died at noon of December 31, 2007, after suffering from severe stomach pains.

        Lagamayo, a resident of Barangay Sampaloc, this city, ate shellfish gathered from Sorsogon Bay, where authorities had imposed a shellfish ban due to red tide.

        The incident prompted the local Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to strictly enforce the ban on gathering shellfish from Sorsogon Bay.

        BFAR Bicol Regional Director Dennis del Socorro had refused to lift the ban amid calls from local fishermen to do so.

        Del Socorro said they had been conducting laboratory tests on water samples taken from the bay every week, adding that toxin levels had always been “above tolerable levels.” (PIA)