The decline in tuna catch worldwide for the last three years is attributed to climate change and other environmental factors, a Philippine official said Monday.
Mario Malinao, port manager of the Davao City Fish Port Complex (DCFPC) said the decline of tuna loading and catch is not due to decline of the foreign long line vessels arrival in DCFPC.
“We are not the only country that is experiencing the decline in tuna catch but it has been happening for quite a while worldwide,†Malinao said.
DCFPC records show a decrease in foreign fishing vessel arrival of 357 from January to November last 2010 to only 295 for the same period of 2011.
Local fishing vessel’s arrival also declined from 2,635 from January to November of 2010 to 1,936 for the same period last year.
Domestic fish catch, however, increased to 17 percent from 2010 to 2011, with 436 metric tons from 2010 to 549 metric tons in 2011.
The volume of domestic fish unloading in DCFPC is said to be from the Davao Gulf Area only and this was calculated according to the number fish crew per fishing vessel recorded.
“The increase in domestic volume of fish unloading is also attributed to the catch per unit effort of these domestic vessels,†Malinao said.
According to Malinao, the World Tuna Conference slated this year in Bangkok, Thailand will allow different countries to share measures on how to solve the problem in the decline of tuna catch.
