Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Speak out: Saving our once-rich seawaters By Pepito C. Suello Apas, Cebu City
NOT long ago, Cebu boasted of cheap fish from Bantayan and the Visayan seas, once considered inexhaustible fishing grounds. Not anymore.
What happened? Why did the fish catch dwindle?
In Bantayan as of 2004, there were at least 26 Danish Seine operators.
It’s a type of fishing that uses active gears fastened with tom weight as sinker.
This tom weight (lingote) weighs a ton or more.
It is dragged on the seafloor to scare fish out from its sanctuary into the waiting nets destroying corral reefs.
Fish are sensitive to change in environment and temperature.
Some are unable to cope with even a slight change.
When disturbed, they just mysteriously disappear or go elsewhere.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) introduced purse seine fishing in the late ‘80s.
It was highly successful.
Local markets were flooded with cheap fish of different varieties.
Purse seine operators became instant cold-millionaires.
To share the pie in the fishing bonanza, many marginal fishermen got huge loans from local banks so they could construct their own purse seine boats.
These boats sail almost nightly scooping all living things on the seabed.
Little is known then that beneath the surface of the sea unfolded an unimaginable destruction of marine life.
Then in the guise of protecting their waters from poachers, coastal municipalities dispatched policemen on seaborne patrol and towed purse seine boats to shore to be held hostage until its operators cough up hundred of thousands of pesos for their release.
But ransom money was just drops in the bucket, so purse seine operators continued fishing undeterred by arrest.
Nothing is permanent, however.
In early 2000s, the devastating effect of purse seine fishing reared its head. Fish catch dwindled to alarming level.
In 2002 Bfar issued Fisheries Administrative Order 222 outlawing tom weights.
It imposed harsh penalty against violators ranging from 2-10 years imprisonment and a fine of P100,000 to P500,000 or both.
Violators were charged under Section 92 of RA 8550.
This is the provision that bans “muro-ami,” a type of fishing wherein coral reefs are pounded to scare fish away from their sanctuaries into a waiting net.
Bfar led the campaign against all forms of fishing that uses active gears destructive to corral reefs.
Several apprehensions were made.
Not surprisingly, not a single operator got a conviction.
The reason is simple: Bfar continued to issue commercial fish gear license to purse seine operators.
So if charged under Section 89 (fine mesh net) or Section 92 (use of gear destructive to corral reefs) of RA 8550, what the
operator does is present the license issued by Bfar.
Furthermore, the phrase “as may be determined by the Department” inserted in Section 92 somehow clips the powers of law enforcement agencies.
Unless the Department of Agriculture (DA) to which Bfar belongs issues the certification that a fish gear is destructive, the
case is vulnerable to dismissal.
Apprehending units do not know also that if a case is to prosper, they must obtain first the requisite DA Certification.
Eventually, they lost appetite to make apprehensions.
Now, all is quiet in the seaborne front.
It’s time to act if we are to save our once rich seawaters.
There’s a simple way to expel destructive fishing without making apprehension or applying the law.
I am recommending tripod sinkers with sharp edges scattered in seafloors.
It destroys fish nets touching on it.
It effectively protects corral reefs and other marine habitats from incursion of destructive fish gears.
We’ve never done this before.
Isn’t it fun to try it?
Pork barrels of congressmen are rich source of funds to finance the manufacture of tripod sinkers.
Congress shall also pass a law declaring certain months of the year as close season and outlawing the catching of spawned fish, crabs and other marine life.
