BY FELIPE CELINO
ROXAS City — Small-time fishermen in this city are in favor of the fishing ban that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is implementing in the Visayan Sea.
Three fishermen from barangays Baybay and Dumolog told Panay News that the temporary fishing ban will lead to an increase in the production of sardines and mackerel.
If any would oppose Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) No. 167, they would be the big-time fishermen and fishing operators, as the prohibition would reduce their catch, said the three who refused to be identified.
Members of the Roxas City Fishing Operators Association want the fishing ban in the Visayan Sea to be suspended until December this year.
The association’s president, Santiago Alatiit Jr., said they will appeal with concerned government agencies defer the ban for a while. “Our fisherfolk will be affected, especially this Christmas season.”
Covered by the fishing ban (FAO 167), which prohibits the catching of mackerel and sardines from November 15, 2012 to March 2013, are the Visayan seas, which straddle the Bicol as well as the Western, Central and Eastern Visayas regions.
The BFAR and the Philippines Coast Guard are enforcing the fishing ban.
In fact, the BFAR has dispatched Wednesday last week several vessels to the Visayan Sea to monitor the prohibition on catching mackerel and sardines.
Reports quoting BFAR National Director Asis Perez said the fishing ban — from November 15, 2012 to March 2013 — will increase the production of mackerel and sardines in the Visayan Sea by 20 percent.
The BFAR expanded the restriction coverage to the Visayan seas based on studies that the three major species of sardines — fimbriated sardines (tunsoy), Indian sardines (tamban) and round herring (tulis) in the waters of Zamboanga and the Visayan seas — belong to a single stock, which meant that the fishes breed and spawn at the same time.
Perez said the Visayan seas have been generating 80,000 metric tons of sardines and mackerel annually, and a hiked production of 20 percent would already be a considerable increase of fish stock.
