BFAR PREPARES SAFEGUARDS
FOR CLOSED-FISHING SEASON
By Manny Piñol
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an agency under the Department of Agriculture (DA), has started preparations for this year’s Closed Fishing Season by allowing the importation of Galunggong (Roundscad) and providing support to aquaculture and mariculture programs all over the country.
For Metro Manila, an initial 17,000 metric tons of Galunggong from Vietnam, Taiwan and China are expected to be imported by Fisheries Stakeholders, including fishing boat operators who will hang their nets during the Closed Fishing Season, and organized fish vendors associations.
This is not the first time that the country will allow the entry of imported fish.
An old Fisheries Administrative Order which was amended last week allowed private traders to import Galunggong supposedly for canning and processing.
Most of the imported fish, however, end up in the wet markets at prices almost at par with locally caught Galunggong.
In the amended FAO, only fishing boat operators and organized fish vendors associations will be allowed to import to ensure that prices of fish in the market will not be controlled by the traders.
Other regions may also be issued Certificates of Necessity which would allow the stakeholders to bring in imported fish for their local market.
The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) is also extending loans to fishpond operators and fish cage farmers to increase productivity in the fish farming sector to supply the market with fish during the Closed Fishing Season.
The Closed Fishing Season is strictly implemented in the different fishing grounds of the country to protect food security fish species like Tamban, Galunggong, Mackerel and others to spawn and reproduce.
In the Zamboanga Peninsula experience which was started in 2015, the Closed Fishing Season which ends first week of March of every year has resulted in bigger and increased volume of catch by sardines makers of Tamban.
The presence of Tamban in the fishing grounds has also brought in the big fish species like Tuna and Malasugue which for so many years have disappeared from the area because of overfishing.
Other major fishing grounds which will be closed starting October to February are the Visayan Sea, the Maqueda Bay, the Davao Gulf, the Moro Gulf, the Palawan-Mindoro Fishing Grounds and the municipal waters all over the country.
(Photos of the Galunggong sold in the market and the fish cages of Malalag, Davao del Sur were downloaded from public websites.)
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