BATANGAS CITY — The fourth cycle of the seasonal closure of the Balayan, Talin and Nasugbu Bays are under review and evaluation in an assessment meeting on Thursday spearheaded by the Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office (PG-ENRO) at the Provincial Capitol conference hall here.
In a report on Friday, Jenelyn A. Aguilera, chief of the Batangas provincial public information office said the PG-ENRO and stakeholders agreed to intensify their information dissemination to town constituents in the seasonal closure coverage areas; broaden the resolution network and lengthen the seasonal closure period.
A seasonal closure is a form of spatial control in certain fishing grounds to protect spawning of fishes. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) imposes a two-month closed season that starts in November to December in certain fishing areas in the country under the provision of the Fisheries Code of 1998, in order to rehabilitate the marine resources now depleting due to overfishing.
Batangas imposes its own seasonal closures covering fishing grounds across 11 coastal towns.
Aguilera said the decisions were made after assessing the results of the seasonal closure cycles enforced by the provincial government which pioneered the country’s inter-Local Government Unit Seasonal Closure Initiative.
She said the Batangas seasonal closure cycles are reviewed and studied to prepare for the next series of activities to be undertaken for the succeeding cycles.
She explained that the provincial environment and natural resources office’s seasonal closure initiative was adopted due to the declining fish harvest from the 11 shoreline town’s fishing grounds and bay areas; to ward off illegal fishing; excessive fishing of the small fish variety; and the destruction of the fish habitat.
Dr. Christopher Elvidge, Physical Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization Earth Observation Group shared during the assessment meeting on the cutting edge technology called Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometry Suite.
Elvidge said that the device could collect visible and infrared imagery and global observations of land, atmosphere, cryosphere and oceans and used to detect environmental data records even on a 24-hour basis. (Saul Pa-a/PNA)
