DAVAO CITY – The 308,000-hectare Davao Gulf is now closed for commercial fishing until August 31 to give tuna and pelagic fishes such as mackerels, scads and sardines to spawn and let key fishing grounds to recover, an official of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said.
The months from June to August is known to be the spawning season of pelagic fishes and tuna in the Davao Gulf, which spans more than 10 coastal municipalities from Malita in Davao Occidental in the south to Boston town in the eastern coast of the region.
BFAR-11 Director Fatma Idris said this is the sixth year that the government imposed the ban on commercial fishing at the Davao Gulf for three months.
“All bag net and ring net operators will have to take a vacation. But Davao Gulf is still open to all municipal fisherfolk within their realm of municipal waters,” said Idris during the sent off of the Bantay Dagat patrol on Friday.
During the closed fishing season, it is prohibited to use bag nets and ring nets and fishing vessels regardless of tonnage.
The closed season is also seen as one of the measures to curb illegal fishing in the Davao Gulf.
Jerry dela Cerna, the manager of Barog Katawhan Multi-Purpose Cooperative, underscored the need to protect the Davao Gulf to ensure food security.
Dela Cerna noted that “gone were the days when people in Davao could buy a kilo of “galunggong” (round scad), matang baka (Selar crumenophthalmus) and “karabalyas” (yellow stripe scad) at P30, similar to prices between 2001 and 2007. Now the prices of these fishes have gone up to more than one hundred pesos because supply is declining.”
“We want to bring those days when we can buy P30 per kilo of galunggong,” he added.
He said the Davao Gulf is also the spawning ground of tuna, which can grow between 36 and 40 inches.
Based on the study of the National Stock Assessment Program, BFAR said there was a noticeable decrease of juvenile caught for small pelagic fishes using commercial gear ring net and most of the catch was already matured.
The study noted a 20 percent decrease of fish caught in 2018 during and after the closed season.
BFAR also cited an oceanography survey at the Davao Gulf of the MV DA BFAR DYCA showed that more adult fishes were able to spawn during closed season and high abundance of fish eggs during September 2018 while the lowest as February 2018.
The most abundant fish family in the Davao Gulf was the Carangidae (jacks, pompanos, mackerels, runners and scads) with 32 percent followed by Scombridae (mackerel, tuna and bonito) with 20 percent, and Clupidae (herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa ad menhadens) with 10 percent.
During the economic performance presentation in March, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) reported a 7 percent decline in the output of the fishery sector from P2.05 billion in 2017 to P1.9 billion in 2018.
NEDA-11 Director Maria Lourdes Lim called for more efforts to curb illegal fishing activities to enable Davao Gulf to recover from overfishing and destruction.
Lim attributed the poor performance of the subsector on the reduction of the number of fishing trips and municipal fishing boats due to strong winds and rough seas, difficulties in aquaculture production, lack of capital and among others.
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