The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources will start contracting next year fish-ports and post-harvest facilities along the country’s eastern seaboard with the Pacific to encourage tuna fishers to operate in that part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic Zone (EEZ). According to the bureau the fisheries facilities, which include fishports, cold storage and processing plants, will be built in Surigao del Norte, Tacloban City in Eastern Visayas, Infanta in Quezon province, and Casiguran in Aurora within three to five years.
Malcolm I. Sarmiento, director of the Fisheries bureau, told that as per research the Pacific EEZ is rich in migratory [tuna] species like yellowfin, skipjack and bluefin. It is told that the EEZ extends for 200 miles from the country’s outermost land boundaries. Sarmiento said that fishers can catch as much as 50,000 metric tons of tuna every fishing season in the second half of the year. He noted that it is imperative for fishers to operate in the Pacific because Philippines already lost fishing grounds in Indonesia putting up facilities is one factor that would entice our fishers to go to the Pacific.
It is said that the bureau aims to start the program by expanding a municipal fish-port in Infanta, Quezon early next year. Bayani B. Fredeluces, executive director of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., opined that tuna fishing operations in the Pacific would strengthen country’s competitiveness in the world market as one of the strongest players in the tuna industry.
