ILOILO City is currently hosting a four-day East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress which seeks to further strengthen the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia. The goal is the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, seas, and oceans.
The congress is significant most especially to Iloilo province which is battling a problem on illegal fishing. Some quarters may find this concern picayune compared to illegal drugs. They’re missing the bigger picture.
The campaign against illegal fishing is more than just protecting our rich fishing grounds from poachers from other areas. It is being waged to ensure adequate supply of fish for all of us in a sustainable manner. It ensures food sufficiency. Declining fish population and fish catch push hunger deeper most especially in coastal communities.
As an archipelagic nation, the Philippines necessarily depends on its fishery resources for its food. Fish used to be among the cheapest sources of protein for Filipinos but now, some fish products are even more expensive than pork or chicken.
Constituting the country’s territorial waters is a 220-million hectare fishing ground, of which 193.4 million hectares are oceanic waters and 26.6 million hectares are in the Exclusive Economic Zone. Within it are 38,000 hectares of lush mangrove cover and 810,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, home to mangroves, coral reefs, and fish species. The utilization and development of these marine and fishery resources had been constrained by lack of focused attention and worse, the failure to appreciate the value of these resources.
In 1975, all laws and decrees affecting fisheries were revised and consolidated under Presidential Decree No. 704. However, the country’s fishery resources have been degraded, if not completely destroyed, by pollution, illegal fishing, and by the use of fishing methods which irreversibly harm natural marine and fresh water habitats.
Among the major causes of degradation, overfishing and illegal fishing deserve the most attention. The overexploitation of traditional fishing grounds inevitably resulted to a decline in their productivity. We must protect and conserve our fishery and aquatic resources within sustainable limits for the exclusive enjoyment of us all.
