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A tale of two seas: Closed season is a mixed bag for Philippine sardines industry
Since 2011, the Philippine government has imposed a closed fishing season on various major fishing grounds during the sardine spawning season.
Implemented during the tail end of the year until March the following year, the closed fishing season has been both a boon and bane for communities.
In the sardine capital of the Zamboanga Peninsula in the country’s south, the ban has boosted catch sizes for artisanal fishers, while in the Visayan Sea in the central Philippines, catches have dwindled.
Experts point to different implementations of the fishing ban in the two regions and highlight the need to assess the economic implications of the measures, particularly to marginalized fishers.
(FLICKR / MANILA BULLETIN)
Lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Oceana Vice President, said that the existing Fisheries Code implements the constitutional provision guaranteeing the preferential right of artisanal fisherfolk in municipal water by prohibiting commercial fishing operations within the 15-kilometer from the shoreline.
Garcia, a Cebu congressman, authored and filed House Bill (HB) No.7853, which proposes to allow commercial fishing activities in the part of municipal waters, from 10.1 to 15 kilometers from the shoreline as an exception.
It also seeks to allow commercial fishing for coastal cities and municipalities with less than 10 kilometers of municipal waters.
“The plan to amend the Fisheries Code provision is alarming. Our ocean has not even recovered or has not been rehabilitated from overfishing and here they are wanting commercial fishing inside the municipal water. We will not allow it and we will take action to ensure that all our efforts on fisheries management w
sachet, packaging, or products that are multilayered with other materials The list, the groups said, was drawn from the NSWMC Resolution No. 1363 (Series of 2020) on the unnecessary single-use plastics, the five Gyres Better-Alternatives-Now Global Ban Recommendation, Ocean Conservancy’s 2019 International Coastal Clean-up most common items found in the Philippines, 2020 Social Weather Survey Stations Survey, Break Free from Plastic Philippines Project 2020 Brand Audit Report, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 2020 Coastal Clean Up Data. Councilor Lalaine Marcos of Ormoc City, which implemented a week-long ban on single-use plastics, called on the Commission to expedite banning single-use plastics. Ramos, meanwhile, said the NEAPP list should be updated every year.
Pollution Prevention Groups Press Government to Ban Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging
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1 February 2021, Quezon City. The EcoWaste Coalition and Oceana Philippines urged the national government to roll out a long-overdue policy that could help the country leapfrog to a zero waste and toxic-free circular economy.
The groups specifically asked the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), an inter-agency body under the Office of the President, to release the list of non-environmentally acceptable products (NEAP) for prohibition as required under Section 29 of R.A. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The commission should have prepared the said list one year after R.A. 9003 took effect in 2001.