Tuna industry pushes fishing pacts

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- With depleting supply of tuna in the country's waters, sustainability of the industry hinges on forging fishing agreements with tuna-resource rich countries, stakeholders said during the 12th National Tuna Congress over the weekend.

Owing to this, industry players urged the National Government to adopt a comprehensive approach towards building better relations with Indonesia and Pacific Island countries by strengthening the National Tuna Industry Council (NTIC).

"The sustainability of the Philippine tuna industry is highly dependent upon the good and harmonious relations and cooperation with other global tuna industry players, particular Indonesia and Pacific Island nations," local fishing tycoon Marfenio Y. Tan, also the congress chair, said.

The strengthening of the NTIC is essential to reaching such goal by directly putting it directly under the office of the President, Tan said.

The council was created in 2000 through Department of Agriculture Special Order 659 to act as the overall coordinating body that shall oversee the development of the Philippine tuna industry.

Its current membership is composed of the Agriculture department's Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, and representatives from the tuna industry.

Tan said building a better relationship with other tuna-fishing nations requires the participation of other government agencies, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Trade and Industry, and National Economic and Development Authority, among others.

Under the current setup, the agriculture secretary may only call upon other government agencies to assist in the formulation of strategic action plan, review of policies and implementation of projects or programs, he added.

President Benigno Aquino III gave assurances that MalacaƱang will work to help the tuna industry, according to former senator Manuel A. Roxas II, who represented the President during the congress, which carried the theme "Be Counted: Face the Challenges and Make a Difference."

There are moves in the national level to strike deals with other tuna fishing nations, the defeated vice presidential bet said.

"There are negotiations for Palau and Indonesia," Roxas said, noting the government is working to have Jakarta liberalize its fishing laws.

A five-year bilateral fishing agreement between the country and Indonesia ended in December 2005, but was extended until the end of 2006. Under the scheme, Philippine tuna fleets are allowed to "catch tuna and tuna-like species within the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone."

It provided licenses to the Philippines for 75 catcher vessels, 150 fish carriers, 20 long liners, 300 light boats, and 10 single purse seiners, and allowed access to the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas of the Indonesian EEZ. It also provides offloading and resupply access to 10 Indonesian ports.

John Heitz, an American expatriate and export manager of GenSan Aqua Traders, last week warned the crumbling of the local tuna industry in the next few years, unless the country could forge fishing access agreements with other tuna-fishing nations.

"The tuna canneries will not be here forever. In maybe a little as five years from now there maybe only two or three canneries operate here and they may be operating at reduced capacity," he said.

The reason for this is that the Pacific countries where the large purse seine vessels fish will demand that those tuna caught in their waters will need to be processed and canned in their countries, which will reduce greatly the amount of tuna landing in Gensan, he said.

Nearly 100 percent of the tuna processed in the six tuna canneries in Gensan use tuna caught by purse seine vessels, of that tuna processed by those canneries, 80 percent to 90 percent are caught by purse seine vessels outside of the Philippine waters, Heitz said.

These tunas are caught by both Philippine and other countries' vessels. Less than 20 percent of the tuna canned in Gensan is from tuna caught in Philippine waters, he added.

Presently, the local tuna industry is reeling from the effect of the two-year ban imposed by the Western and Central; Pacific Fisheries Commission to purse seine fishing in two portions of the Pacific Ocean. (Bong S. Sarmiento)

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph