Small fishermen buck commercialization of Pacific white shrimp

Small fisherfolk groups are opposing government’s plan to allow the commercialization of the exotic vannamei or Pacific white shrimp specie, saying this would worsen environmental destruction and result in the economic displacement of marginal fisherfolk.

Pablo Rosales, national chairman of the Progresibong Alyansa ng Mangingisda sa Pilipinas (Pangisda), said that commercial production would destroy diminishing mangrove areas, which are the sources of wild fish that small-scale fishers and their families depend on for food and income.

He pointed out that the threat of vannamei is serious, considering that only 117,000 hectares remain out of more than 500,000 hectares of mangroves in the 1990s. Mangrove areas are being depleted at a rate of 1,000 hectares per year despite the ban on mangrove conversions under the Fisheries Code.

"A hectare of mangroves can support up to 600 kilos of fish yearly, the continuing loss of wild-fish production is staggering," said Rosales, adding that "shrimp farm owners would be driven to expand their operations because vannamei is being promoted as the savior of the local shrimp industry and their farms would extend to such an extent that would spill over to mangrove areas."

Rosales said fisherfolk will not benefit from vannamei culture since they cannot afford the cost of shrimp farming. Intensive shrimp farming costs P1 million per hectare per production cycle; extensive shrimp farming costs about P100,000.

Earlier, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said it expects to shortly lift the ban on the importation and commercialization of the controversial vannamei fry, paving the way for the local prawn and shrimp industry to boost export receipts starting in 2006.

Export revenues from fresh, chilled or frozen shrimps and prawns, mostly black tiger prawns, average about P5 billion annually, and is the country’s third largest fishery product exports next to seaweed and tuna.

"If current production trials are successful and there are no major diseases that will occur, we will be recommending for the lifting of the ban on the commercial production of vannamei, possibly by November," said Malcolm Sarmiento, director of the BFAR.

The production trials are jointly being supervised by several agencies such as BFAR and the Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center in Bonoan, Pangasinan.

Sarmiento said that unlike the first production trials earlier this year that were scrapped because of breach of protocols and the occurrence of shrimp diseases like Hepatopancreatic parvovirus, the ongoing trials are being conducted under very rigid conditions and improved protocols.

The results of the second production trials will provide information for risk assessment and will be used to create guidelines in managing the risk associated with the introduction of vannamei for possible commercialization.

Once successful, BFAR will push for the lifting of Administrative Order 207 issued in 2001 which, except for research purposes, prohibited the entry to the Philippines of live shrimps and prawns of all species and life stages from egg to spawner.

In 2003, BFAR issued AO 221 which regulates, but does not ban outright, the entry of all live aquatic organisms into the Philippines, including shrimps and crustaceans. All applications for imports should pass an import risk analysis (IRA) before being allowed entry into the country. Since AO 221 was issued after AO 207, it was contended by some that it supersedes AO 27. The BFAR said however, that AO 207 still holds since AO 221 merely amended the existing AO.

BFAR claimed allowing the commercial production of vannamei will resolve complaints about the illegal production and smuggling of fry into the country by both local and Taiwanese fishpond operators.