Tuna interests have proposed a move to mitigate the impact of the tuna ban in parts of the Pacific Ocean to purse seine fishing, a local fishing industry official said last week.

Bayani B Fredeluces, executive director of the Socsargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc, said a Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) should be applied instead of simply closing two pockets of the high seas in the Pacific Ocean to purse seine fishing.

He said industry leaders hope the proposal is included in the agenda of the August 2010 meeting of the scientific committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Tonga, MindaNews reports.

Officially submitted by the government through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), VDS suggests limiting purse seine fishing days in the area covered by the ban to control catches.

The Socsargen Federation of Fishing Associations and Allied Industries filed an appeal with WCPFC for reconsideration to lift the tuna fishing ban, in part because some 1,600 workers will become unemployed in the next few weeks due to the ban, according to the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE).

Fredeluces said the national tuna industry is conducting a study to substantiate its proposal.

For two years starting on 1 January 2010, the WCPFC banned at least two pockets of the high seas in the Pacific Ocean to purse seine fishing to let yellowfin and bigeye tuna replenish their stocks. The purse seine fishing ban also affects 30 other countries like Japan, Spain and France, Fredeluces said.

The sanction was in line with the Conservation and Management Measure for Bigeye and Yellow Fin Tuna in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, approved during the Fifth Regular Session of the WCPFC in Busan, Republic of Korea in December 2008.

The high seas closure will lead to, “a social dislocation and will derail the country’s sincere efforts to achieve lasting peace” in Mindanao, said Gil Adora, BFAR assistant director for technical services. There are clearly social and security factors in Mindanao in appealing the WCPFC decision, according to Adora.

Already, a local fishing company recently informed the local DOLE of a six-month work stoppage affecting 208 workers.

The commission will review the fishing ban in December.

Related article:

- Fishing federation appeals for ban reconsideration

By Natalia Real
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www.seafood.media