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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – A city councilor is pushing for the use of fish aggregating devices locally known as payao.
Payao is a floating raft, serving as an artificial reef, anchored by a weighted line with suspended materials such as palm fronds to attract pelagic and schooling fish species common in deep waters.
Such devices are an “efficient, legal and sustainable” fishing method, according to Councilor BartolomeOrola.
Using fish aggregating devices discourages the use illegal fishing methods, said the chairman of the committee on fisheries and aquatic resources.
Orola is pushing for an ordinance regulating the use of payao.
Conserving and protecting the coastal resource is “overshadowed by utilization through illegal fishing practices, resulting [in] diminishing species of marine aquatic life [and] declining catch,” said the councilor.
Orola cited the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998, which empowers local government units to “protect, conserve, manage, and exploit properly the municipal waters for sustainable development of coastal resources.”
The city shall be “responsible for the management, conservation, development, protection, utilization, and disposition of all fish and fishery/aquatic resources within [its] municipal waters,” he said.
Using fish aggregating devices will enhance not only the recovery of the marine population but also the fishers’ productivity and income, thereby helping reduce poverty among the fisherfolk, said Orola./PN
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