RP saving tuna for tomorrow

RP saving tuna for tomorrow

Overfishing and coastal damages threaten the tuna industry in the Philippines. Johanna Son of Inter Press Service reports.

SARANGANI, Philippines: Sinewy, sunburnt fishermen heave the tuna onto the sandy beaches of this southern Philippine fishing town, fresh fish blood dripping down their shoulders.

Traders tag the tuna by flesh firmness and pinkness, sending the best-grade ones off for export to Japan as sashimi. Market traders and tuna canneries take the rest of the catch.

This scene unfolds every day in the Philippines' tuna capital and remains unchanged -- except that fishermen say the fish they catch have become smaller and that they have had to go further into the open seas in recent years.

The Philippines is among the top ten fish producers in the developing world. In South-east Asia, it ranks third after Indonesia and Thailand in terms of fish output, hauling in some 2.26 metric tons in 1993.

But the country' fishing communities are grappling with the ills of overfishing, harmful fishing methods, overdevelopment of coastal area, pollution and overexploitation of marine resources.

Those in General Santos City and Sarangani province in Mindanao, at the Philippines's southernmost tip, are no exception. Indeed, local fisherfolk say Sarangani Bay, key to the region's thriving tuna industry, is fast getting depleted of its riches.

Years ago, long-time residents say, whales could be seen venturing into the deep bay, which used to be a rich spawning ground for tuna and other species.

Today, much fewer fish seek refuge in the bay because damaged coral reefs mean fewer nutrients, smaller reef fishes and lesser diversity.

"People used to catch tuna over 30 kilos, but they normally get smaller ones now," says Rey Visitacion, a marine biologist who works with a coastal management project that is part of a growth plan for Mindanao.

"It's all linked," he explains. "With damage to coastal areas, there aren't enough nutrients for fish fry that come into the bay. When you disturb nutrient flow, you cut the cycle."

Up to 300 metric tons of fish are landed daily in the General Santos City and Sarangani area, the Philippines' second largest producer of fish. Main fish species are yellow fin tuna, round scad, big eye, skipjack and marlin.

More than 40 fishing firms with 1,000 boats operate in the area with some 5,000 commercial and 25,000 municipal fishermen. Fishing is the leading industry here, and Sarangani Bay provides 75 percent of livelihood in its coastal villages.

Commercial tuna fishing began two decades ago, with General Santos and Sarangani contributing a quarter of the country's total production. The area's catch rose in 1985 to 123,000 metric tons, but has since declined. In 1990 it fell to as low as 74,000 metric tons.

These days, the trend in the Philippines has followed the global pattern of stagnating fish catches. Tuna used to be abundant in Sarangani Bay itself but "except for and occasional school of skipjack tuna entering the fish corrals near the bay's entrance, tuna are no longer caught in the bay", says a local report.

Small-scale and commercial fishermen have been left much on their own in the narrow bay. Municipal fishers often come in conflict with commercial fishermen in Sarangani Bay. Overfishing has destroyed jobs and incomes, and the collapse of major fishing grounds in the Philippines uproots 38,000 fishermen a year.

Due to falling fish catch, Filipino fishing firms have inked agreements to harvest tuna and mackerel as far as Sulawesi and Halmahera in Indonesia, to the south.

Late last year, alarmed residents, environmentalists and government officials banded together as the "Sarangani Bay Watch' and began trying to repair damage to the bay by limiting fishing, rehabilitating mangroves, creating marine sanctuaries and collectively guarding the area.

At least four marine sanctuaries, where no fishing or tampering with coral reefs is allowed, have been created and another 10 sites planned. Buoys mark off waters near the coast where even small-scale fishing is banned. This had begun to increase small fishermen's catch some distance from the coast.

Old culverts have been submerged in the bay to allow coral to regenerate, and town officials taught scuba diving to help protect the bay. Residents are asked to cut back on fishing during spawning time, and to refrain from catching immature fish and using cyanide or dynamite to catch fish.

Because the General Santos and Sarangani areas are part of a growth area, parts of the bay's 400-hectars coastline are being developed into prawn farms of industrial zones. This has damaged mangroves which protect coastal areas, because mud and leaf litter between land and water contain nutrients for fish fry.

'Sarangani Bay Watch' has larger plans for a revived bay, more than just a source of fish. The Philippines' southernmost bay is largely unknown because of its distance from the capital and Mindanao's perception as an unsafe place, but supporters swear by its potential as a world-class dive site and tourist spot.

Economist Ronald Sison of the Louis Berger International firm that drew up the region's growth plan and which is wooing foreign investors proves this point by showing two vials containing beach sand, one from Sarangani and another from Boracay island, whose beaches are popular with European and U.S.tourists.

Says Sison: "Let me tell you that the whiter sand come from right here, from Sarangani Bay."

-- IPS