By Alladin S. Diega / Correspondent
Second of three parts
THE Philippines has recently rolled out the Amended Fisheries Code, or Republic Act (RA) 10654, which amended RA 8550, that was enacted in 1998. The amended law and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) were aimed at curbing illegal fishing.
A study conducted by the National Stock Assessment Program (NSAP) revealed that 10 out of 13 major fishing grounds in the Philippines are overfished due to destructive fishing practices.
Some of the fishing grounds that are most accessible to commercial fishermen are the West Philippine Sea, South Sulu Sea, Visayan Sea, Moro Gulf, Lamon Bay, Bohol Sea and the East Sulu Sea, which extend all the way to international waters. The Samar Sea, Guimaras Strait, Davao Gulf, and the Balabac Strait, and the bays of Manila, Tayabas and Sibuyan are also accessible to commercial fishermen.
Despite the enactment of RA 8550, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) said illegal fishing has continued. In fact, NGOs said illegal fishing in the Philippines has gone from bad to worse.
For instance, Filipino fishermen used to catch an average of 10 kilograms of fish a day in the 1950s. This declined sharply to a little more than 5 kg in the 1970s and to less than 5 kg in the 1990s, according to Jimely Flores, a senior marine scientist of Oceana Philippines, an international
conservation organization.
For the same effort, fishermen today catch only less than two-thirds, or 62 percent, than those caught by their counterparts in the 1980s, according to Dennis Calvan, executive director of NGOs for Fisheries Reform. Citing data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar), Calvan said the use of cyanide and dynamites remains unhampered, as about 150,000 kg of sodium cyanide are sold yearly, and an average of 10,000 dynamite blasts occur daily.
Every day, Calvan said about 10 dynamite sticks are being thrown to the sea anywhere in the Philippines. Each blast, Bfar data showed, could cost P24,000 in damages.
Dynamite fishing became rampant in the Philippines after the Second World War. US soldiers would sometimes throw grenades into shoals of fish, providing local fishing communities with a new means of catching more fish. Today, blast fishermen use powdered ammonium nitrate (usually from fertilizer), kerosene and small pebbles, which are packed inside a glass bottle covered with a blasting cap.
A single blast produces shockwave, which can travel up to 1,500 meters per second (length of 15 football fields), killing or paralyzing every fish in range, often liquefying internal organs. Coral reefs that have taken hundreds of years to grow, are reduced to debris in a matter of seconds.
Estimates made by NGOs revealed that some 150,000 kg of sodium cyanide is used in coral reefs each year to produce $80 million a year’s worth of illegal-marine profits.
Another cause for concern, Flores noted, is that juvenile yellowfin and big-eye tuna gather around payaos or fish aggregating devices, and are caught along with skipjack tuna—the target species. Because of this, groups have urged the Bfar to amend its regulation issued in 2008 to increase the weight of tuna that is legally caught and traded to 15 kg (average weight of mature tuna species) from the current 500 grams (average weight of juvenile tuna).
Fisheries Administrative Order 226, however, remains in force as the Amended Fisheries Code only prescribed harsher penalties for violators, as well as the delineation between the overlapping fishing grounds for commercial fishermen and municipal or small fishermen.
These destructive fishing practices can cause the country’s economy to lose billions of pesos every year. WWF-Philippines estimated that the mismanagement of fisheries could cost the country $420 million. Indonesia alone, the group said, is losing $3 billion to $5 billion a year due to illegal fishing.
“It is unfortunate that the country’s small and commercial fishermen are fishing themselves out of business, but this trend can be reversed,” lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines, said.
Oceana Philippines and other NGOs are working to help protect Tañon Strait, the country’s biggest protected seascape between Cebu and Negros, from commercial fishing and reclamation projects, and assisting the Bfar, DENR and concerned agencies and host LGUs in strengthening capacity in enforcing laws against all forms of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
In a recent international research on sustainable fishing system, policies along this line could raise profits in the sector by $51 billion a year, boost the numbers of fish in the oceans and provide more food for the world’s people.
Based on data from fisheries representing 77 percent of the world’s fish catch, it showed that fish stocks could grow very quickly if responsible fishing policies are adopted, according to a study available at Oceana Philippines’s web site.
“We found that conservation is a means to an end,” Chris Costello, from the University of California, one of the institutions involved in the research, was quoted as saying.
The findings of the research were released during a World Ocean Summit of business leaders, government officials and conservation groups in Portugal. Researchers said they were based on a very large database of fisheries, 4,373 in total, compared with previous studies which looked at far fewer.
Because of declining fish stocks, the earnings of small-scale fishermen continue to shrink. Calvan disclosed that a small fishing boat is usually shared by two to three fishermen, enough for each individual to earn only P90 to P140 a day. Citing an estimate from the Bfar, he said the daily income per fishing boat in the Philippines is pegged at P272.
(To be continued)
Image credits: Nonie Reyes