Waging a battle againts Janitor fish? - The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) is getting help from a 16-year old student in Marikina City who has won an award in a science fair abroad.

The LLDA has been meeting with Raymond Joseph Amurao, a graduate of the Marikina Science High School, who won in a science fair in Indiana, USA, in May for his work on Janitor Fish.

Amurao, who grew up in a community also facing problems with the fish considered as pests by fishermen, turned oil from janitor fish into biofuel, an alternative fuel for vehicles.

"The LLDA had been coordinating with us to commercialize the project. Some officials said they were willing to help me hold more experiments to improve the project", Amurao told the inquirer.

The LLDA had been implementing programs to control the rapidly growing number of janitor fish on Laguna de Bay - just like the Marikina City government, concerned about the Marikina River.

The Janitor Fish, also called sucker mouth fish, have been multiplying quickly in rivers and lakes, depriving other fishes not only of nutrients but also space to grow.

But Amurao discovered in an experiments that the fish meat could generate substantial volumes of oil which could be  processed into biofuel with the same fuelvalues as that of commercial diesel.

He said LLDA was also helping him look for local investors who could help them get the project going.