TUGUEGARAO CITY — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Cagayan Valley is encouraging fishermen in the region to voluntarily surrender their trawls in exchange for legally-allowed fishing gears.
The move is to put a halt to the use of active gears in municipal waters and at the same time ensure that fishers continue their main source of livelihood, Dr. Nelson Bien, BFAR 2 (Cagayan Valley) director, told reporters on Tuesday.
Provincial Fisheries Officer Venchito Villarao said since last December until this week, the bureau has collected 111 combined sets of baby trawl and trawl, locally known as “galadgad”. The fishing gear is prohibited under Section 95 of Republic Act No. 10654 or An Act to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, amending the 1998 Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.
The collected fishing gears were from fishers mainly coming from the towns of Gonzaga and Aparri. Villarao, however, said that fishers from Buguey also utilize such illegal fishing gears.
The surrendered fishing gears were swapped with gill nets.
Villarao said the agency still has available stocks of gill nets ready to be given to fishers who would surrender their trawls.
