Local tuna industry faces harder times

GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines  – The local tuna industry, in limbo over the last couple of months, is in for harder times following a ban imposed by the Western and Central Pacific Commission (WCPC) on all fishing operations in the high seas, or beyond the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EZZ), beginning January next year, a fishing federation leader said here yesterday.

The unilateral action taken by the WCPC, the world’s governing body on the protection and preservation of tuna and similar species, will further cut local production, trigger mass layoffs and plunge the industry deeper into financial straits, said Ronel Rivera, vice president of the RD Group of Companies here.

“It is lamentable that the ban comes on the heels of the scrapping of the bilateral fishing agreement between Indonesia and the Philippines last Aug. 29, which resulted in the arrest and incarceration of many of our fishermen in Indonesia,” Rivera said.

When the ban takes effect next year, Rivera said, daily tuna catch will drop by 30 percent, from 500 to 150 metric tons, which in turn will force fishing operators and canning factories to cut down on labor cost.

During its heyday, the local tuna industry provided jobs and direct livelihood to  some 50,000 families here and outlying provinces and earned for the country over $200 million in annual revenue. But that figure has since dwindled considerably.

Rivera explained that the WCPC was not singling out the Philippines as the ban would apply to all countries in light of reports that in many parts of Asia, illegal and unregulated fishing companies go about their nefarious activities oblivious to the interest of the industry as a whole.

“They are the ones who are irresponsibly fishing in the high seas and poaching on the EZZ of other countries,” Rivera said.

The WCPC also exercises authority over countries engaged in international fishing operations to ensure that tuna, especially the big-eyed species, as well as skipjack and other similar fishes get unimpeded access to any EZZs and inland rivers with nutrients essential to their growth and survival.

“These big fishes are migratory. If they are caught before they can enter the 200-nautical mile zone, the results would be disastrous,” said Erwin Sarne, vice president of the Ship Management and Engineering Division of the RD Fishing Co.

This is the reason, he said, why the European Union, which is the biggest market of tuna, is compelling exporters to present, as a precondition, a catch certificate of origin for big fishes.

He said the Socksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries would appeal the ban when the next WCPC protocol convenes early next year. – Nonong Baliao