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Monday, April 05, 2004
Police: Illegal fishing in north 'manageable'
By Ruby P. Silubrico
ILLEGAL fishing activities in northern Iloilo is still "manageable" despite the series of arrests of boat crew and confiscation of fishing boats engaged in illegal operations, provincial police said.
"So far, illegal fishing in the 4th and 5th districts remain controllable," said Senior Supt. Reynaldo Rafal, provincial police director.
Records of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO) show 26 fishing boats were seized, while 120 illegal fishermen were arrested and charged in court from January to March this year.
IPPO also recovered 61 improvised dynamites believed used in illegal fishing activities.
"We will not stop our operations until we can neutralize the illegal fishers," Rafal said.
IPPO works in close coordination with the Maritime Command (Maricom) headed by Supt. Cornelio Salinas.
The Provincial Bantay Dagat Task Force also recently arrested 13 more illegal fishers and seized three commercial fishing boats in Concepcion town.
The suspects, on board two trawls and a "super haul boat" (super hulbot), are now facing criminal charges for violating Municipal Ordinance No. 1, Series of 1999, that declares almost the entire coastline of the town, 110 kilometers north of the city, a fish sanctuary, that is, the government reserves as breeding ground that bans commercial extraction.
Concepcion allows only hook-and-line fishing in its municipal water that the Fisheries Code of 1998 defines as the portion of the sea within 15-kilometers from the lowest shoreline. The Code also defines commercial fishing boats as those weighing more than 3.1 metric tons, paraphernalia included. RPS
(April 3, 2004 issue)
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