Source: PacNews
The Philippines should see a higher tuna catch from countries such as PNG starting next month after the country deployed 36 high-seas tuna vessels in the Pacific, a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) official said.
BFAR director Asis G Perez said the 36 vessels were destined for Pocket 1 of the Pacific Ocean for a five-month fishing trip.
“The ships left on Sept 25.â€
“It’s a five-day journey so the vessels were expected to arrive on Oct. 1,†Perez told a press briefing Tuesday.
The ban on tuna fishing in Pocket 1 was lifted last April.
Pocket 1 is open sea flanked by Palau, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia – areas where local tuna fishing firms – mostly Mindanao-based, frequently operate.
Pocket 2, meanwhile, is bounded by the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and parts of Kiribati.
Perez said each boat had 40 fish aggregating devices and are allowed to catch 24 metric tons of tuna a day. Making the total 1440 FADs loaded on the 36 tuna vessels.
The BFAR chief added the expectation is 120 active fishing days over the five months granted to the Philippines by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).â€
“I’m very optimistic that the last quarter will pull us up especially with the tuna production coming in†Perez said.
Fish output had declined by 3.3% in the first semester.
The WCPFC is a 25-member organization that regulates the fishing of migratory fish stocks such as big-eye and yellow-fin tuna.
It imposed a two-year ban to let tuna stocks recover.
Philippine Agriculture Secretary Proceso J Alcala in May said the department was expecting an additional 120,000 MT to 150,000 MT in fish harvest in the third quarter due to the lifting of the ban.
Overall fish production totaled 4,980,260 MT last year, while tuna catch summed up to 941,378.6 MT.