ILOILO City – The degradation of the Visayan Sea could adversely affect about one million rural folk in the Visayas, warned international ocean conservation and advocacy organization Oceana.
The Visayan Sea is a major fisheries area for sardines, blue swimming crabs and squids but Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ studies showed a steady decline in its seafood supply since the 1980s.
This was due mostly to the prevalence of blast fishing, plus the encroachment of trawls, Danish seines and other destructive gears in municipal waters, said environment lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines.
The Visayan Sea directly benefits 100,000 municipal fisherfolk and about a million rural folk in 33 municipalities in the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Negros Occidental, Cebu, and Masbate.
Oceana called on the government to issue guidelines to protect the country’s major fishing grounds, and the Visayan Sea in particular.
Overfishing and illegal fishing activities in municipal waters must be curbed, too, to ensure the livelihood of small fishers, stressed Ramos.
The Visayan Sea produces around two million kilos of wildish annually, and provides half a million municipal and commercial fishers with livelihood.
“The policy, as among those provided for under the amended Fisheries Code, pertains to the designation of Fisheries Management Areas, or FMAs. It is envisioned that a comprehensive science-based fisheries management plan will be enforced on these areas to ensure sustained productivity and protect them from overfishing, illegal fishing and destructive fishing practices that destroy critical marine habitats,” said Ramos.
The designation of FMAs is needed to rebuild and restore the abundance of the country’s fishing grounds of which two-thirds are considered as overfished, she stressed.
“Our fishing grounds are in dire need of compelling interventions, with the continued encroachment of commercial fishers in municipal waters and the lack of effective management by local authorities – except, of course, for some local champions who are showing the way to effectively manage their municipal waters which has tremendously benefitted their constituents,” said Ramos.
Recently, the Department of Interior and Local Government issued a Memorandum Circular for coastal local government units (LGUs) to regulate and monitor fishery activities in their municipal waters.
It likewise rolled out nationwide a scorecard for LGUs to fill up, as a self-validating transparency and monitoring tool in assessing its compliance with the amended Fisheries Code.
Consultations have been conducted since last year to craft the rules on fisheries management areas for major fishing grounds led by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said Ramos.
“There is already a draft Fisheries Administrative Order on the designation of around 15 FMAs in the country and outlining the management plan for these FMAs. These rules are urgently needed now, especially in the Visayan Sea,” she said./PN
