Owners and operators of commercial fishing vessels in General Santos City opposed the draft rules and regulations for the implementation of vessel-monitoring measures (VMMs), as mandated by Republic Act (RA) 10654, or the amended Fisheries Code.
Speaking during the public consultation organized by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in General Santos City last Friday, they said the proposed rules and regulation, which will form part of a Fisheries Administrative Order, is flawed and would adversely affect the tuna industry in general.
While they recognized the wisdom of putting in place VMMs to check the movement and exact location of commercial fishing vessels, they raised questions pertaining to the cost of the vessel-monitoring device and monthly subscription to be charged by a BFAR-accredited service provider.
“Some of us were consulted on the general provisions of RA 10654. But we were never consulted in the drafting of this proposed rules and regulations,” said Raul Gonzales, president of the Alliance of Tuna Handliners, which has over 1,000 members based in General Santos City and Saranggani province.
The BFAR, he said, drafted the proposed rules without consulting the industry’s small players, referring to operators engage in small-scale fishing.
Commercial fishing is classified according to gross tonnage or fishing capacity of the vessels used.
Small-scale commercial fishing is fishing with passive or active gear utilizing fishing vessels of 3.1 gross tons (GT) to 20 GT. Medium-scale commercial fishing utilizes active gears and vessels of 20.1 GT to 150 GT. Large-scale commercial fishing employs active gears and vessels of more than 150 GT.
The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean and is a party to various regional fisheries-management organizations (RFMOs), such as the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and other Tuna RFMOs.
As such, the Philippines is compelled to implement measures, such as vessel-monitoring systems (VMS), in accordance with the convention and resolutions of RFMOs.
Section 2 of the amended Fisheries Code states that no commercial vessel shall engage in fishing activity without the vessel-monitoring measures, which apply to licensed Philippine-flagged fishing vessels operating within and outside Philippine waters.
On the other hand, the vessel-monitoring system shall apply to all licensed Philippine-flagged commercial fishing vessels authorized by the BFAR to operate in the high seas and those fishing vessels with access rights to fish in other countries’ exclusive economic zones.
The VMS shall be implemented within one year for 50 GT to 99 GT commercial fishing vessels, and within two years for 30 GT to 49 GT. For vessels weighing 3.1 GT to less than 30 GT, the nonsatellite or satellite VMM shall be implemented upon registration or renewal of license within three years from the effectively of the proposed Fisheries Administrative Order.
All vessels weighing 100 GT and above must have installed a corresponding VMS by the date of affectivity of the Fisheries Administrative Order. Basically, a VMS makes use of satellite-based vessel-monitoring device or transponder, while VMM can either use Internet-based or radio-frequency based transponders.
Both VMS and VMM will allow the BFAR and the operators of commercial fishing vessels to track and pinpoint the location of the vessels.
During the forum, the BFAR representatives led by DA Region 12-Regional Director Usop Pendaliday Jr. and BFAR Fisheries Management Information Center (FMIC) OIC Zaldy P. Perez explained the importance of VMM and VMS.
The installation of a vessel-monitoring device or transponder would enhance monitoring of fishing operations for fisheries management. It will also enhance law enforcement to regulate the output of the fisheries sector and achieve long-term resource sustainability.
It also aims to track fishing behavior for scientific research and data, establish a system that will facilitate law enforcement, and aid in case building and prosecution of fisheries law violations, gather data on fishing effort as basis for fisheries-management measures, aid in the seafood-traceability and catch-documentary requirements of the government, ensure safety for fisheries through a tracking device that would monitor the vessels’ location during accidents and disasters and implement policies embodied in the amended Fisheries Code and its implementing rules.
Gonzales said RA 10654, including the proposed Fisheries Administrative Order presented by BFAR’s technical working group, is anti-poor and would only kill the tuna handliner subsector.
Handline tuna fishers dominate the industry. There are around 3,000 commercial fishing vessels, which are either based in or using the General Santos City Fish Port as tuna-landing site.
It was learned that while a radio frequency-based or telecommunication-based VMM would cost only as low as P800 a month, the installation of satellite-based vessel-monitoring device would cost nearly P100,000 plus a monthly subscription of at least approximately P3,000 a month.
According to Gonzales, even small-scale commercial fishing vessels need to go beyond Philippine waters to fish. Some risks to fish in high seas to be able to catch enough commercially viable tuna like yellow fin, big eye, blue marlin or black marlin, to cover the costs of the operation.
He said many commercial fishing operators, particularly those that make use of handline fishing method, will not be able to comply, given the cost of installation and monthly subscription to be charged against them by BFAR-accredited private companies, particularly for commercial fishing.
“We have been neglected and over-regulated already. Now this?” Gonzales told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
Gonzales lamented that the draft IRR lumps tuna handliners with commercial fishers that use active gear, which catches tuna on a massive scale.
Handline fishing makes use of traditional hook, line and sinker in catching tuna and is considered the most environment-friendly and sustainable tuna-fishing method. Sometimes, it takes handline fishing vessels a month to catch enough tuna before going home with enough tuna to cover cost.
Compared to purse-seine methods used by medium-scale and large-scale commercial fishing vessels, it avoids accidental bycatch, like juvenile tuna or other fish species.
Most medium-scale and large-scale fishing vessels also use fish-aggregating device that draws fish closer for easier catching.