Tuna fishermen hit illegal fishing

MANILA, Philippines - Tuna fishermen from General Santos City denounced yesterday the government’s continued failure to curb illegal fishing, which continues to threaten the sustainability of the local tuna fishing industry.

Raul Gonzales, president of the Alliance of Tuna Handliners, issued the statement after the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the proposed amendments to the Fisheries Code to enable the country to meet international fishing standards and avert a possible blacklisting by the European Union (EU).

He said one year after the issuance of Executive Order 154 to seeks to stop illegal fishing, the Department of Agriculture has failed to carry out the order’s key mandate to adopt a national plan of action for the purpose, and to create a multi-agency committee against the environmentally destructive practice.

“This (EO 154) remains to be an order. In terms of its implementation, the only thing that has been done is the mobile registration of vessels with Marina (Maritime Industry Authority) and BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources), which they only started this year,” Gonzales said.

“There are many fishermen who remain unlicensed with BFAR and there are no rules and regulations being laid down to address this,” he said.

He said aside from EO 154, other existing regulations are either largely lacking or ineffective against illegal fishing.

Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 226, which disallows trading of juvenile tuna weighing below 500 grams, remains largely ignored due to its poor enforcement at the local level, Gonzales said.

Similarly, the Handline Fishing Law of 2007 remains toothless due to the absence of implementing rules and regulations (IRR), he said.

The group said the lack of regulation on illegal fishing has allowed the illegal fishing of juvenile tuna by big fishing boats.

Big fishing boats use huge nets that catch tons of fish depleting the catch of local fishermen.

“Handline fishermen are having a difficult time catching adult yellow fins and skipjack tuna due to the massive juvenile tuna fishing in the area done by purse seiners,” Gonzales said.

For his part, Vince Cinches, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines, reiterated his warning that the country stands to lose billions of pesos in revenue if it fails to improve its scorecard and meet international standards on curbing IUU fishing.

“In GenSan, baby tuna fishing and trade continues unabated. This is in violation of FAO 226. This kind of unregulated fishing is the primary reason why we were issued a yellow card by the EU,” Cinches said.