MAGALLANES, Sorsogon—Alarmed by the rapid decrease in the supply of indigenous crabs, locally known as kasag, the municipal council here has approved an ordinance that imposed an indefinite ban on gathering, catching, selling and possession of gravid and juvenile blue crabs (portunus pelagicus) within its municipal waters. 

Councilor Ferdinand Abraham, chairman of the Sangguniang Bayan Committee on Agriculture and author of the ordinance, said banning the gathering and sale of the crab is the only way to protect it so it could regenerate its population. The town is a heavy producer of crabs abundant in Sorsogon waters.       

Abraham noted that crabs being sold in the market and those being plied by hawkers had become steadily small indicating that the resource is now dangerously depleted.

He expressed alarm that the crabs might not be able to regenerate its population if the unabated gathering of juvenile and pregnant crabs continued.        

Magallanes, which prides itself of having the most delicious crab in the Bicol region, has been experiencing a steady decline in the supply of crabs which resulted to an increase in the market price, the councilor said.      

In enacting Municipal Ordinance 03-2011, or the Special Fishery Ordinance on Blue Crabs of 2011, the local council attributed the situation to the overexploitation of the marine species wherein juvenile and pregnant crabs are not spared, thereby effectively blocking its repopulation.

The ordinance also banned the use of drift gill net and fish traps, locally known as pangal, as an effective means of catching crabs within the town’s jurisdiction along Sorsogon Bay.         

Violators will be slapped with a fine ranging from P1,500 to P2,500 plus imprisonment of up to six months. Similar penalties will be imposed to fishing operators, as well as to those who will buy the illegal catch.         

Abraham said that the passage of the ordinance has long been overdue as it had seriously affected the livelihood of local fishermen who relied on such species, noting that fishermen from other municipalities also ply in Magallanes waters.