Philippine purse seine fishing -composed of large fishing vessels which operate in international waters and which use mile-long nets to capture tuna- has remained static at 300,000 metric tons per year, decreasing slightly in 2004. The lower catches, however, have been offset by higher world prices.
The local purse seine fleet, comprising 54 large fishing vessels and about 250 service boats, operates outside the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The sector captures small skipjack and yellowfin tuna, and sells its catch to both local and foreign canneries in frozen form.
The Philippines’ major foreign competitors -Spain and Taiwan- are now aggressively expanding and modernizing their fleets. For their part, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are increasing their total catch levels, while the United States, China, Taiwan, Korea and Spain have brokered fishing access agreements with other tuna-producing countries in the Western Pacific.
At present, the Philippines has successfully negotiated only one fishing access agreement, with Indonesia.
To address these issues, the Medium Term Strategy has recommended the development of the local tuna industry’s shipbuilding capabilities to make the local purse seine at par with its foreign competitors.