Fishers urged to venture farther into sea to ensure sustainability

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on Thursday urged fishermen to venture into the high seas in an effort to ensure sustainability in existing traditional fishing grounds amid the threats of climate change.

"Expansion of fishing areas to non-traditional fishing grounds are being promoted in terms of fishing in the Philippine Rise and distant fishing in the High Seas Pocket 1 for tuna distant-water fisherfolks, as well as to Mati-Matian area which is adjacent to the High Seas Pocket 1," said Lanie Baraocor from BFAR's Fisheries Planning and Economics Division during the Philippine launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere.

The report said that climate change makes the ocean warmer, more acidic, and less productive.

This global problem is also seen to cause more extreme sea level rise, coastal hazards, and severe marine heatwaves.

BFAR Senior Aquaculturist Napoleon Lamarca said that expansion of fishing areas will help ensure the sustainability of existing traditional fishing grounds.

"Our expansion to the high seas is not actually to address 'yung decrease [in production] but to conserve 'yung ating mga juveniles because very high 'yung incidence ng catch ng mga juveniles natin, especially 'yung mga bigeye tuna na maliliit 'yung nakukuha dito sa atin," Lamarca said.

"It's a measure to regulate 'yung catch ng juvenile, to give them the chance to grow," he added.

Recently, the protection of the country's exclusive economic zone and its resources had also been a topic of public discussion amid the presence of Chinese fishing vessels.

Pacific bluefin tunas are abundant in the BFAR-identified potential areas for expansion, according to the BFAR officials.

The high cost of fuel and inclement weather, however, are among the common challenges for the fishing sector in tapping the resources in these waters.

To date, there are 36 active commercial fishing vessels that trawl in the said areas.

Baraocor said the Philippines is allowed to venture there because it is a signatory of a treaty made by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

Those who are interested to fish in these waters must coordinate with the BFAR so that they may notify the counterparts in the region.

"Dapat ipalista sa amin then ire-report namin sa WCPFC," she said. —NB, GMA News