PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) will be constructing 11 more community fish landing centers in strategic coastal areas here and 10 municipalities in Palawan to reduce post-harvest losses.
Alvin De Sena, fisheries information and management center officer of BFAR in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), announced this on Thursday, after two community fish landing centers were previously turned over to fisherfolk associations in Coron and El Nido towns in northern Palawan.
De Sena said that BFAR has allocated a total of PHP39 million for the establishment of 13 fish landing centers in the entire province.
Fish landings equipped with cold storage facilities and eight stainless stalls are now under construction in Linapacan, Agutaya, Cuyo, Roxas, Cagayancillo, Kalayaan, Brooke’s Point, and Sofronio Española.
Construction for the towns of Quezon, San Vicente, and Puerto Princesa are still in the site identification stage.
“The main purpose of these projects is to centralize fish landings due to the existence of cold storage and handling facilities to minimize wastage because fish is perishable,” he said.
In Puerto Princesa, the community fish landing center will be constructed in Honda Bay, Barangay Sta. Lourdes, on a 1,000-square-meter site owned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
De Sena said the facilities will also help in the gathering of important information on fisheries and in monitoring the presence of illegal activities within municipal waters and beyond.
“If there are illegal fishing activities, they can be easily monitored because of the fish landing centers. BFAR can be easily accessed also,” he said. (Gerardo Reyes, Jr./PNA)
