Slight drop in Q1 fisheries output

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s fisheries production  dropped by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of the year to 978,620 metric tons (MT)  mainly due to a reduction in output from the commercial and municipal fisheries sectors.

“Among the subsectors, commercial and marine fisheries exhibited reductions while inland and aquaculture showed production increments,” according to the  Philippine Statistics Authority.

Commercial fisheries production declined by three percent to 195,670 MT from last year’s 201,640 MT.

Similarly, marine municipal fisheries registered a 0.9 percent reduction in production to 220,310 MT from 222,390 MT in the same period last year.

In contrast, the volume of production of inland fisheries slightly rose to 37,310 MT.

Meanwhile, harvests from aquaculture farms reached 525,320 MT,  a 0.02 percent increase from a year ago.

Aquaculture accounted for more than half of the total fisheries production during the period, with a 53.7 percent share.

This was followed by the commercial fisheries sector with a 20 percent contribution to the total.

In addition, marine municipal and inland fisheries subsectors contributed a 22.5 percent and 3.8 percent share, respectively to the total production during the period.

Of the 20 major species, decrements in production were exhibited by 11 species such as fimbriated sardines or tunsoy with a 37.5 percent decline, threadfin bream or bisugo (-18.7 percent), yellowfin tuna or tambako (-17.6), and grouper or lapu-lapu (-13 percent), among others.

In contrast, double-digit improvements were registered by some species --  mudcrab or alimango (20.2 percent increase), skipjack or gulyasan (19 percent) and slipmouth or sapsap (15.8 percent).