According to WWF thousands of people in the western Philippines are on the verge of losing their livelihoods with the trade in live reef fish bound for expensive seafood restaurants in China facing imminent collapse. WWF also told that 60 percent of all fish taken from the reefs around Palawan province, 600 kilometres south-west of Manila, were now juveniles, a good indication that “it has been highly overfished.”
It is found that the trade in live reef fish in Palawan supports more than 100,000 people, many of whom have few alternatives for livelihoods, yet the fishery is highly unregulated and is in a serious state of decline. Geoffrey Muldoon, live reef fish strategy leader for WWF explained that under the business-as-usual scenario, Palawan’s live reef fish trade will become economically unviable within the next decade.
In a bid to help these fishermen and trade, WWF convened a meeting Monday with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, fish traders and fishermen to discuss the sustainable management of the fishery. Among other measures they discussed to regulate the industry are the introduction of accreditation processes, quotas, levies, and surveillance and monitoring systems.
Muldoon said establishing a regional alliance with traders from other live fish trade hubs, such as those in Indonesia and Malaysia is the need of the hour. He added that this alliance will provide a unified voice for fishers and traders to express their social and economic concerns as well as provide the regional network needed to pursue a more sustainable trade.
