Tuna landing at a Filipino port. (Photo: FB-Archive)

Govt wants to lift purse seine fishing ban

PHILIPPINES
Friday, August 20, 2010, 23:20 (GMT + 9)

The Philippine Government will work toward the lifting of the ban on purse seine fishing currently en force by members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) running from January 2010-December 2011. The petition will be introduced at the commission’s annual meeting next December, a ranking fisheries official announced on Thursday.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Malcolm I Sarmiento, Jr, explained that this effort is meant to help those big local tuna fishers who have run out of stock. The country has thus been negotiating with Papua and New Guinea and Tonga to gain access to their fishing grounds.

"The Philippines will request the lifting of the ban... We will make a formal representation and we are already preparing our argument," Sarmiento notified.

WCPFC adopted the ban on purse seine fishing in the high seas of the western and central areas of the Pacific Ocean, and its members voluntarily applied it in a move to give the severely endangered tuna species yellowfin and bigeye stock a chance to recover, Sarmiento said, BusinessWorld Online reports.

The banned fishing method employs boats with massive nets that ensnare schools of fish and bags juveniles too. The ban does not include small fishers’ line method of fishing, which is more selective and therefore considered sustainable.

Sarmiento elaborated that the Philippines now voluntarily adheres to the ban "as a member of the commission" and a signatory to the agreement adopting the ban. Although WCPFC does not have power over its members, the commission can ask members to restrict the access of fishers of countries that fail to observe the ban in their waters.

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"Right now, all we can do is comply to keep good relations with the other countries as a member of the commission. Another thing is we can move to try to change the existing policy," Sarmiento commented.

Executive Director of Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc, Bayani B Fredeluces stated that "an early lifting of the ban is one of the aspirations of the industry." He informed that the ban has left 600 workers in General Santos City unemployed, and countless other workers in other parts of the country.

"A rough estimate of 600 direct jobs or 600 fisherfolk were affected," Fredeluces said. "Their fish catch definitely decreased and, in turn, this also had an effect on indirect jobs related to tuna fishing, such as canning workers."

Eight Pacific island states -- Papua New Guinea, Palau, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands -- last April said they intended to work toward obtaining an extension of the ban.

The Philippines’ planned move clashes with a proposal by these countries, collectively known as the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), to extend the areas currently covered by the ban

Related articles:

- Tuna industry pushes for more fishing grounds
- Tuna exports take a dive

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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