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MANILA – A three-month closed season for sardine fishing in the Burias Strait will commence on November to allow the fish specie to reproduce, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said on Monday.
“With the success of the three-month closed fishing season in Zamboanga Peninsula, we want to replicate this in other traditional sardine fishing grounds without losing supply for the market,” Asis Perez, BFAR director, said.
He said sardine catch more than doubled since the lifting of the fishing ban in Zamboanga.
“Based on our studies, the biomass of sardines more than doubled since we lifted the fishing ban in Zamboanga in March. We note that there has been a steady increase in catch in East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait and Sibuguey Bay,” Perez said.
He said BFAR is studying if it could expand the fish management efforts to Leyte, Cotabato, Palawan and other areas where sardines are also caught.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the government will meet with various stakeholders next month to discuss how they can provide affected fishermen alternative livelihood during the closed fishing season.
“We have four known sardine stocks in the country, one of which is found in Bicol. If we will be able to implement a fishing ban in Burias Strait, this will add up to our now replenished stocks from Zamboanga,” he said.
Agriculture statistics for 2010 show that sardines represent about 26 percent of the 1.24 million metric ton catch of commercial fisheries and 11 percent of the 1.18 million municipal fish catch.
In 2011, however, the total catch went down by 24 percent to 109,000.
Last March, the government lifted the three-month fishing ban in the sardine conservation area near the waters of East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait and Sibugay Bay.
BFAR research indicated that for every ton of fish left to spawn, a three-fold increase in the biomass of the fish ensues.
Sardines, which includes herring, is a major food fish species and enjoys a big market next to big eye tuna, which dominates Philippine waters.
Schools of tuna are attracted by the presence of plankton and swarms of sardines. An adequate supply of sardines would mean a higher presence of tuna in Philippine waters, Perez said.
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