Philippines To Implement 3 Month Fishing Banff

Source: Business World

Preparations are underway for the full implementation of the three-month closed fishing season for sardines and related species starting Dec. 1.

Ahadulla S. Sajili, regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), told BusinessWorld his office is now fine-tuning this policy measure. “We (are coordinating) with the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the military in establishing measures that will help us implement the fishing ban,” he said.

The ban, which is on its second year of implementation, is aimed at giving stocks of sardines and related species time to recover and spawn, and thus avert overfishing in the areas covered.

The fishing ban, which will end on Feb. 28 next year, will be expanded to include the waters off the Visayas in addition to Zamboanga Peninsula waters that were covered by the fishing ban last year, Agriculture Secretary Proceso G. Alcala said.

In a statement posted on BFAR’s Web site, Mr. Alcala said there was a need to widen the covered area of the ban since studies undertaken by the agency, as well as other research institutions, indicated the three major species of sardines in the waters of Zamboanga and the Visayan Seas belong to a single stock.

“This means that the fish breed and spawn at the same time,” the statement said.

The Visayan seas straddle four regions -- Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas. Zamboanga Peninsula provides 45% of the total catch, the statement said.

The area covered by the ban starts from the mouth of Danao River on the northeastern tip of the Bantayan Island to Madridejos in Cebu, through the light house on Gigantes Island to Clutaya Island; to Culasi Point in Capiz, coastward along the northern coast of Capiz to Bulacaue Point in Carles, Iloilo; southward along the eastern coast of Iloilo to the mouth of Talisay River, westward across Guimaras Strait to Tomonton Point in Negros Occidental, eastward along the northern coast of the island of Negros and back to the mouth of Danao River in Escalante, Negros Occidental.

For Mindanao, sardine fishing will be closed in East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait, and Sibuguey Bay.

Mr. Sajili said they have three patrol boats apart from hundreds of vessels of the Bantay Dagat group in the coastal towns of the region to “do the usual routine operations in the fishing ground.”

With the fishing ban, close to 30,000 fishing and canned workers will be affected in this city, alone.

Mr. Sajili said a technical working group composed of the local government unit, the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as well as the fishing sector and fish processing industry, have drawn up a plan to give alternative livelihood activities to affected workers.

These include training in food production such as fish processing, and a center where labor cooperatives will display their finished products.

“We will give them the technology and provide them seed capital in terms of tools and materials for them to promote a certain product,” he said.

BFAR Director Asis G. Perez had pointed to the positive effect of the fishing ban, citing the increase of sardine stocks.

This was based on the latest data on sardine production in Zamboanga Peninsula, which showed an increase of 13% to 72,446 metric tons in the second quarter from 63,351 metric tons in the second quarter of 2011.

Sardines, which include herring, are a major food fish species constituting close to 20% of the total catch from municipal and commercial fishing sector in 2010. In Zamboanga Peninsula, close to 30,000 direct and indirect workers rely on the sardines industry for their livelihood.

“The management of our fisheries stocks has to be made more comprehensive to ensure sustainability. In the case of sardines stocks, improving its yield is also expected to bring about a significant increase in tuna production because tunas feed primarily on sardines,” Mr. Perez said in a statement.

For its part, the fisheries sector here said it would simply divert its fishing operation to non-sardines species to stay afloat.

“For some fishing companies, (they would) divert their fishing area to non-sardines area and to fish areas that are not included in the fishing ban, meaning we will have to fish even farther,” Stephen L. Kaw, the president of the Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association, Inc., the largest fishing group in this region.

“Another priority is for the Department of Labor and Employment and BFAR to come up with a program for emergency employment for workers that will be affected by the closed fishing season,” he said.

Eugene Yap, who owns YL Fishing, said the period is usually for spent on dry-docking and service repairs for vessels. “By first quarter, we plan to fish but not sardines, just to sustain the cost of operations and to provide livelihood to the fishermen,” he said.