According to DA the order would be effective from this month to conserve its tuna stocks. DA Secretary Arthur C. Yap has issued FAO 226 which bans the catching of young tuna with weight of less than 500 grams a piece. It is said that the ban also applies to yellow fin tuna, big-eyed tuna, and skipjack tuna.
According to Yap tuna is one of the top marine export products of the Philippines, and the tuna-fishery resources have been exploited by purse-seine nets, which are observed to catch significant number of small tunas. The FAO also made it clear that the trading of small tuna beyond the bycatch ceiling of 10 percent is illegal.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Malcolm I. Sarmiento explained that the administrative order was also issued in compliance with policies of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) which is advancing increased stocking of juvenile tuna specially big-eyed and yellow fin tunas.
The FAO 226 states that the compliance of the nets to the legal mesh size should start in the first year of the grace period where 10 percent of the total number of purse-seine catchers should phase out the illegal mesh size; on the second year it will be 20 percent and on the third year will be 70 percent.
Yap told that the government has also supported a three-year research project led by the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Council (SEAFDEC), which is aims to find out the relationship of small pelagic stocks in Southeast Asian countries, including their biology and population.
