Monday, September 08, 2008 Brighter future for tuna seen By Edwin G. Espejo
AGRICULTURE Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras said despite several problems facing the tuna industry, the government is confident it will hurdle these temporary setbacks.
"There is reason to remain bullish on the future of the tuna industry," Paras told reporters covering the 10th National Tuna Congress here that opened Wednesday.
He said the Arroyo government has been addressing clamor for wider access to more fishing grounds for the country's tuna fishermen and purse seine operators.
"Our government has recently signed a bilateral fishing agreement with Timor Leste," he told some 250 delegates attending the annual tuna gab.
According to him, efforts to forge similar arrangements with the governments of Palau, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands and Kiribati are also ongoing.
But the Philippine government is having problems in renewing bilateral agreement with neighboring Indonesia, which terminated its pact with the Philippines in 2005.
It was extended for another year in 2006 but Indonesia has refused to negotiate for another fishing pact in 2007.
Indonesia also banned the export of fresh tuna to the Philippines.
The previous bilateral fishing agreement between the two neighboring countries allowed Filipino fishermen to catch tuna in Indonesian waters.
The termination of the agreement has been blamed as one of the causes of declining tuna catch landed at the General Santos City Fish Port complex.
In the first quarter of this year, landed tuna catch at the GSC fish port went down by 34 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Tuna producers here however blamed rising fuel cost as the main reason behind the decline in tuna catch.
"Lesser vessels going out to the seas mean lesser catch," Domingo Teng last week said.
Teng is president of the South Cotabato Boat Owners and Tuna Association.
