Best tuna catch is not the forte of the big fishing boats but the small ones owned by poor fishermen can deliver the best. Rolly Puno, a fish classifier from TSP Marine Ventures, Inc., said that these small boats venture in the sea for a few days — normally confined to the “sentro” — so their catch has been considered the best for the last few months. He informed that sentro is the fishing area covering the seas off Maasim and Kiamba, Glan in Sarangani province and Tawi-Tawi, among others within the Philippine territorial limit.
It is told that small fishermen often have a starting capital of P3,000 to P5,000 for a fishing expedition that would last two or three days. These fishermen start their activities before the break of dawn and continue for a few hours as traders determine which of the mature yellowfin stocks will go to the US and Japan. The first class tuna caught by them, which have an average farm-gate price of P200 per kilogram, will be sold to the two countries at much higher prices. After the initial screening, the tuna processors then choose the acceptable quality while the remaining stocks are sent to wet markets in different parts of the country.
According to Puno is these fishermen are not lucky to catch a big tuna using the hand-line fishing method, they fish for skipjack tuna or squid to cover the seed money. Skipjacks are purchased by the canneries and are mostly caught by purse seine boats. John Heitz, export chief of GenSan Aqua Traders who has been in the industry for two decades, said the stricter policy of Indonesia on its rich tuna fishing grounds could be a factor favoring small-scale tuna fishermen.
