Weather disturbances sink fisheries output in Q2

MANILA, Philippines —  The country’s fisheries output contracted by six percent in the second quarter as fishermen were not spared from the ill effects of extreme weather disturbances such as El Niño that persisted during the period.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said fisheries production from April to June decreased by 6.2 percent year-on-year to 1.02 million metric tons from 1.084 million MT.

The PSA noted that it recorded a drop in output from most of the industry’s subsectors such as marine municipal fisheries, inland municipal fisheries and even aquaculture. Only commercial fisheries posted growth during the quarter, according to the PSA.

“We can possibly attribute this to factors like El Niño and other weather disturbances,” Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources spokesman Nazario Briguera told The STAR.

PSA data showed commercial fisheries production expanded by nearly 22 percent to 286,600 MT from 235,170 MT. The subsector contributed 28.2 percent of the total fisheries output during the reference period.

Municipal fisheries output declined by six percent to 259,465 MT from 276,354 MT as catch from both marine municipalities and inland municipal areas fell during the quarter.

Catch by fisherfolk in marine municipal areas slipped by 3.7 percent to 229,370 MT from 238,130 MT while inland municipal fisheries production shrank by 21.3 percent on annual basis to 30,100 MT.

“Aquaculture production was registered at 471,700 MT in the second quarter of 2024. This was lower by 17.7 percent from the previous year’s same period output of 573,060 MT,” the PSA said.

“Aquaculture subsector constituted the highest share of 46.3 percent to the total fisheries production during the quarter,” the PSA added.

The PSA said output reductions were noted in the following major species: seaweed (-25.8 percent), roundscad or galunggong (-13.6 percent), big-eyed scad or matangbaka (-22.3 percent), tilapia (-6 percent) and milkfish or bangus (-4.6 percent).

Meanwhile, increments were registered iin skipjack/gulyasan (141.2 percent), yellowfin tuna/tambakol/bariles (43.2 percent), frigate tuna/tulingan, 33.7 percent), P.Vannamei/putian (33.6 percent) and bigeye tuna/tambakol/bariles (94.1 percent).