Commercial fishers eye fishing holiday?

CEBU, Philippines - Commercial fishers in northern Cebu are allegedly planning to hold a fishing holiday to protest the huge penalty on illegal fishing under the amended Fisheries Code of the Philippines.

Vince Cinches, oceans campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines, said he heard about the plan of the commercial fishers to go on a fishing holiday.

“I heard that commercial fishers in northern Cebu will also have a fishing holiday and what is funny, commercial fishers are part of the ongoing drafting of the Implementing Rules and Regulation of the said law on how to deter illegal fishing,” said Cinches.

Commercial fishers and traders operating at the Manila Bay held a fishing holiday yesterday to protest the high penalty imposed on illegal fishers under the Republic Act 10654.

Under the amended fisheries law, the fine for illegal fishing was raised ranging from P50,000 to P45 million depending on the violation. It used to be only P1,000 to P5,000.

“It only shows that the main actors responsible for emptying our seas don’t want illegal fishing to end,” Cinches said.

“The commercial fishers should help in addressing the crisis that they were responsible from the start, and stop acting like brats who doesn’t want to be disciplined. Opposition of commercial fishers to the amended fisheries law could bring the country back to a possible trade ban to EU markets,” Cinches added.

The amendments, Cinches said, should be taken within the context of the Philippine seas facing an unprecedented crisis due to overfishing and ecosystems degradation because of illegal, unreported, and unregulated commercial fishing.

“The current amendment is called an act to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. That is why penalties to violations are very high. It has harvest control rules to limit fishing effort within the productive capacity of the sea.  It has a vessel monitoring system to ensure conservation compliance,” Cinches said.

Cinches said that the whole amendment should be taken as part of an overdue response to the crisis of our seas.

Cinches said that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources reported that 10 out of 13 fishing grounds in the country are overfished due to illegal, unreported and unregulated commercial fishing.

One of the 10 overfished fishing grounds is the Visayan Sea, which is considered as heavily exploited.

The amended fisheries law prohibits the operation of all commercial fishers within 15 kilometers of municipal waters, including the use of destructive and active fishing gears.

The fishing industry, Cinches said, is historically unregulated prompting commercial fishers to oppose the regulation.

In a separate press statement, Cinches said that the reason why the Philippines got a yellow card trade warning from the European Union was because it was identified as a possible non-cooperating country to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. 

The Philippines could have faced a seafood trade ban by the EU that would have been very costly to the economy. 

Last year the Philippine government received a yellow card warning from the European Commission because of the issue of Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.  Failure to address the problem will cost the country a whopping 173 million Euros of export to the European markets.

“The Philippines has escaped economic and reputational disaster by the skin of its teeth.  The rapid and much needed changes to the fisheries law was a key component of the lifting of the “yellow card.”  

The protest of the commercial fishing industry against the amended fisheries law will jeopardize the gains of the whole country against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” Cinches further stated. — (FREEMAN)