From The Business Mirror

A recent move of the Indonesian government to regulate its tuna catch may spell a bright prospect in the usage of the Davao Fishport Complex, the country's only transshipment fish-port complex, its manager said.

“There are two implications that all favor the Davao fish port,” said Mario Malinao, acting manager of the Davao Fishport Complex.

One would be a robust activity in the fish port, which last year sustained a big drop in both the arrival of local and foreign fishing vessels and in the volume of fish catch.

“This will make the use of the Davao fish port healthy because fishing boats using Indonesia ports would likely detour to our port,” he told a regular Monday press conference at the SM City here.

Second, he said, “is that this will make the Davao fish port more attractive than the other fish port complexes [in Koror, Palau and Guam] because of accessible airport.”

“This is the built-in advantage of the Davao Fishport,” he said. Philippine Airlines has seven regular flights to Manila and Cebu Pacific Air has six.

Malinao said Indonesia only recently ordered its fishing of tuna in its waters regulated. The northwestern waters of Indonesia have been acknowledged as one of the richest tuna highways in the world.

This would leave to three the choices of long-line fishing boats to call port as they roam the western Pacific waters for the prized tuna and blue marlin.

Despite the prospects, the fishport complex here suffered a big drop in activity.

Arrivals of foreign long-line fishing boats was recorded at only 504 last year, a decline by 33 percent from 762 arrivals in 2007. Last year’s arrivals would translate to an average of 42 ships monthly, compared with 63.5 ships a year earlier.

Only in the years 1998 and 1999 did the port surpass the 1,000 mark in foreign fishing boat arrivals, posting 1,282 and 1,247, respectively.

Consequently, unloaded fish catch also dropped, from 5,576 metric tons in 2007 to only 3,917 metric tons, or a decline of 29.76 percent.

In General Santos City, where there are about 5,000 deep-sea fishing boats using long-line fishing method, Malinao said only about 1,500 went to sea.

Domestic fishing boats carry an assortment of fish types that include the locally known belong-belong, matambaka, galunggong and pirit.

“This explains the big drop in our fish landing,” he said.

Last year Malinao said climate change and the unabated rise in crude-oil prices in the world market were the main reasons that discouraged both local and foreign fishing boats to go to sea. He said actual revenue for the entire year was already near P5 million, off the target of P39 million but pending final computation.

The sharp decline in arrivals of fishing boats and tuna and other fish landings at the port has already forced the port to resort to cost-saving strategies to make port operations still viable and within budget allocation. He said the fish-port complex posted an operation ratio of 0.78, or spending only 78 centavos of every peso that it was earning. The figure represents already a decline from its ratio of 0.83 during the last three years.

By September last year, Malinao said the austerity program “posted a healthy operation ratio despite a double whammy in drastic climate change and spiralling oil prices.”

“From the point of view of the global slowdown in tuna production, the revenue levels and the reduction in the operation ratio would make the Davao Fishport Complex financially and operationally viable,” Malinao told a business forum last year.

The fish-port complex here is one of the eight operated by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority. Two others are found in General Santos City, which has become a major fishing port, and in Zamboanga City, both in Mindanao.