Monday, September 08, 2008 Angara promises P250M for tuna industry By Edwin G. Espejo
SUPPORT continues to pour for the tuna industry that is facing a host of problems threatening to affect production of canned and processed tuna products.
On Thursday, Senator Edgardo Angara said he will make sure that P250 million of the agriculture department budget for 2009 will go to the modernization of the tuna industry.
"This will go the re-fleeting of tuna fishing vessels and replacement of fishing nets," the senator said.
Angara was one of the speakers during the 10th National Tuna Congress that ended Thursday afternoon.
The senator, who heads the Senate agriculture committee, said he will revive the fund intended for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) which became a "dead letter law."
Tuna production, already on the decline over the last two years, is expected to further drop as the government will start restricting the use of fine mesh nets in deep sea fishing and in municipal waters.
Only nets with mesh size that will catch 500 grams and upward of tuna specie will be allowed, according to a new administrative order issued by Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Arthur Yap.
The ban on catching juvenile tuna also applies to yellowfin and bigeye tuna and skipjacks.
Most purse seine operators will have to replace their nets if they are to comply with the order of Secretary Yap.
According to Gerry Damalerio of Damalerio Fishing, a complete set of brand new nets for large purse seine vessels will cost as much as P40 million if they will comply with the new DA regulation.
Medium size purse seine will need P25 million and small purse seine fishing boats need P18 million.
The order is seen to regulate the catching of juvenile tuna and allow tuna stocks to replenish itself after years of over-fishing.
Traditional tuna handline fishing boats, most of them outriggers, are also increasingly becoming outmoded because of the location of fishing grounds has gone beyond Philippine waters.
