Mindoro – Philippines Future New Tuna Capital? ff

Source: Manila Standard Today

Facing the fish-rich West Philippine Sea, this part of the island province holds a candle to General Santos City.

“There’s a great potential for Occidental Mindoro, particularly Mamburao, to be the next tuna capital,” said Assistant Regional Director Rolando Miranda, of the Region IV-B’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

“The new migration of the yellow fins, whose weight ranges from 80 to 100 kilos, is caught in the waters of Mindoro Strait, using handline by local fishermen.”



Fresh and frozen tuna was the top export of Mindanao with a freight-on-board value of $311 billion 2010, employing about 100,000 people for fishing, canning, processing and auxiliary services, according to agency records.

Major buyers are the United States, European Union and Japan.

Miranda said the bureau was tracing the “new tuna highway” on ecosystem updates in the region that includes Marinduque, Masbate, Romblon and Palawan.

He said further investigation is needed to determine the change of temperature in the species’ habitat and the disruption of the food chain with the net effect of depleting tuna stocks in traditional fishing grounds in the south.

“I got wind of this phenomenon as early as 2009 when I visited Mamburao to inspect our projects,” Miranda said, noting the catch as Class A export quality. “We are studying this new development in our marine resource.”

He said the tuna migration appeared to skirt Occidental Mindoro’s coastal towns of Palauan, Calintaan and Sta. Cruz.

Mamburao townsfolk won the top prize in the recent “Tone-Toneladang Tuna Festival” last March for catching the biggest and heaviest tuna that tipped the scales at 200 kilos and stretched five feet long.

Drowned in the seaboard merrymaking is the big one that can get away when giants firms in GenSan start rocking the boat.