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The fishing ban will allow sardine and mackerel stock to increase in the Visayan Sea. Thinkstock Photo
A four-month close season on sardine and mackerel in the Visayan Sea has started Thursday. It will end on March 15, 2013. A send-off ceremony for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ (BFAR) six monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) vessels to enforce the ban was also held at the Port of Sta. Fe on Bantayan Island. The Alliance of the Philippine Fishing Federation, Inc. had requested BFAR to have the close season in the area scheduled at the same time as that off the Zamboanga Peninsula, as the Visayan Sea’s sardine species belong to the same stock and have a similar spawning period.
Two of the six MCS vessels, which will position themselves at strategic points in the Visayan Sea to make sure fishermen comply with the ban. BFAR Photo
According to BFAR, the close season will result in at least 500 additional fish per spawning sardine. The ban covers the areas off Central and Western Visayas. The region contributes at least 10 percent of the country’s total sardine and mackerel production. Another sardine and mackerel fishing ban will be imposed in the waters off Iloilo soon. The Philippines’ sardine and mackerel production had shrunk to 472,000 metric tons (MT) in 2011, a 24-percent decline from 2010. — BM, GMA News
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