Four New Fishing Ports Should Recover Philippine Tuna Supplyff

Source: The Business Mirror

The Philippines is planning to put up four fishing ports near the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Pacific Ocean after Jakarta decided not to renew an agreement that grants fishing rights to Filipinos in Indonesia.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the move is intended to encourage Filipino fishers to tap the Pacific Ocean EEZ.

“With the recent closure of Indonesian waters to our fishing vessels, we have to look for alternative fishing grounds, and the likely candidate would have to be the Pacific Ocean EEZ,” said BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento. 

The BusinessMirror tried to contact BFAR to find out why Jakarta decided not to renew the fishing agreement, but Sarmiento could not be reached by phone.

The fishing agreement for the 200-mile Indonesian EEZ in the Sulawesi Sea, which expired in 2006, had allowed Filipino fishers to harvest some 80,000 to 100,000 metric tons (MT) more tuna yearly.

The Philippines has been trying to renegotiate the agreement, but Sarmiento said earlier that the conditions laid down by Jakarta are proving to be “difficult” for the government.  

Sarmiento said the Pacific EEZ could be a viable alternative. He noted that it is underutilized for three reasons: tuna and other tuna-like species are seasonal in the area, the design of Philippine fishing vessels are not suitable for operations in the Pacific, and there are no infrastructure facilities in the Eastern seaboard to serve Philippine operators who would decide to operate in the Pacific.

The fishing ports, BFAR said, will be constructed in Casiguran, Aurora; Infanta, Quezon; Tacloban City in Leyte; and Surigao City in Surigao del Norte.

Sarmiento said these chosen sites for the four fishing ports share two common traits: their geographic location facing the Pacific Ocean and their proximity to existing airports.

The fishing ports will be patterned after the fishing port in Davao City which has piers, refrigeration facilities, ice plants and processing plants.

These facilities in Davao City enable fishers to unload their catch, process them and export their products to local and foreign markets because of their nearness to airports.