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Fri, 20 Aug 2010
MANILA, Phillippines (Business World Online) --- The Philippines will push for the lifting of the tuna fishing ban being implemented by members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission from January this year to December 2011, a ranking fisheries official said on Thursday.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Malcolm I. Sarmiento, Jr. told reporters that the government is making this move to ease the problem of local tuna fishers, who have run out of stock.
He said the petition will be presented during the annual meeting of the commission in December.
"The Philippines will request the lifting of the ban... We will make a formal representation and we are already preparing our argument," Mr. Sarmiento said.
The ban on tuna fishing in the high seas -- waters outside national jurisdiction -- of the western and central areas of the Pacific Ocean was adopted by the commission and voluntarily implemented by its members in a bid to allow yellow fin and big-eyed tuna stock -- fast depleting due to overfishing -- to replenish, Mr Sarmiento said.
Mr Sarmiento explained in a separate phone interview that the Philippines voluntarily observes the ban "as a member of the commission" and a signatory to the agreement adopting the ban.
While the commission has no power over its members, Mr Sarmiento said it can ask them to restrict from their waters fishermen of countries that fail to observe the ban.
"Right now, all we can do is comply to keep good relations with the other countries as a member of the commission. Another thing is we can move to try to change the existing policy," Mr Sarmiento said.
Bayani B. Fredeluces, executive director of Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., said "an early lifting of the ban is one of the aspirations of the industry."
He noted that the ban has resulted in 600 workers losing their jobs in General Santos City alone.
"A rough estimate of 600 direct jobs or 600 fisher folk were affected," Mr Fredeluces said. "Their fish catch definitely decreased and, in turn, this also had an effect on indirect jobs related to tuna fishing, such as canning workers."
Last April, eight Pacific island states -- Papua New Guinea, Palau, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands -- had said they would push for an extension of the ban.
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