Group Files Protest vs. Poaching Of Japanese Tuna Factory Ships In RP ff

From GMA News

A national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest Tuesday at the Japanese Embassy against poaching by Japanese tuna factory ships in waters off Aurora province.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) filed the protest at the office of Ambassador Makoto Katsura in the name of 1.8 million small Filipino fisherfolk.

The group filed the protest following Senator Edgardo Angara's revelation last month that Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese fishing vessels regularly come to Baler Bay in Aurora province between January to July every year to fish for tuna.

According to Aurora provincial fishery officer Victoriano San Pedro, fishermen reported seeing long-line fishing gears being used in the hauling of tuna, blue marlin and other high value fish species.

He said foreign fishing vessels even entered in the 15-kilometer municipal fishing waters from the shoreline.

Pamalakaya said a 3,000-ton tuna factory ship, accompanied by support fishing fleets, can catch as much as 150 metric tons of tuna on a 24-hour operation basis. By industry standard, a single factory ship could harvest 50,000 metric tons of tuna per year.

Pamalakaya noted that if there are eight Japanese tuna fishing vessels that regularly poach in the waters of Aurora province daily from January to July that means a total haul of 27,000 tons of tuna per factory ship during the period or 216,000 metric tons of tuna for all eight fishing vessels.

According to Pamalakaya’s computation, the owners of the eight fishing vessels could have earned as much as US$1.274 billion or US$ 160 million per fishing vessel in just six months from tuna poaching in Aurora and other tuna-rich waters of the Philippine territory.

Jpepa effect

The fishing aspect of Jpepa is meant for the benefit and survival of Japan's commercial tuna fishing at the expense of Filipino tuna producers and small fisherfolk across the archipelago, the group claimed.

With the increase in the supply of tuna produced by Japanese factory ships and their shipment to Japan and other countries, the local tuna producers and small tuna fishermen would be at their mercy by way of depressed prices, or worst when tuna stocks in Philippine EEZ are depleted it could lead to supply constraints and closure of local tuna producers’ of livelihood of 180,000 tuna fishermen and fish workers, both leaders claimed.