SABLAYAN, Occidental Mindoro—The World Bank recently offered a substantial financial grant to six coastal municipalities of this province to improve the quality of traditional tuna fishing based on sustainable fishing practices and resource conservation.
Mayor Eduardo B. Gadiano told the Manila Standard that The World Bank has expressed interest in providing financial resource by way of grants to the six local government units, actively involved in the tuna fishing industry using the artisanal methods.
“We were told to come up with a joint proposal to list down all we need, such as fish landing, cold storage facilities and fishery-to-market roads, among other necessities, in keeping up with the growing foreign demands of handline-caught yellow-fin tuna,” he added.
Sablayan was chosen by the international funding institution as the site to put up these facilities where the five other towns of Paluan, Sta. Cruz, Mamburao, Calintaan, and Rizal, all tuna-producing municipalities, will bring their catch for processing.
Using the traditional hook, line and sinker (kawil), artisanal fishermen has an estimated annual catch of 375 tons (375,000 kilos) of yellow-fin tuna caught within Sablayan’s 15-kilometer municipal waters. Foreign buyers mostly from member-countries of the European Union prefer tuna caught by “kawil.”
Sablayan was tagged by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources as the “epicenter of tuna production” in Occidental Mindoro followed by Mamburao, the capital municipality.
Two fishing groups, Sablayan Yellow Fin Tuna Fishers Association (SYFTA) and the Samahan Ng Mga Kasa Sa Sablayan (Samasa), told the Manila Standard that their respective members still need assistance from both the local and national governments as “we still face stiff competition from big commercial fishing operators.”
Ernesto G. Tauro, SYFTA vice chairman and 2014 Gawad Saka Awardee For Fish Capture by the Department of Agriculture, said “there is either lack or shortage of payaw (fish aggregating devices or FAD) installed by the government to help boost the tuna catch of local handline (magkakawil) fishermen.”
“All FADs are owned by big commercial fishing operators who are monopolizing the tuna harvest by using the prohibited fishing nets,” Tauro said.
“While they allow us to use their FADs to fish, we always sail home empty-handed as we cannot compete with these big-time operators because they are using long-line fishing nets,” he explained.
The SYFTA, which has 600 artisanal fishermen-members all over Sablayan, has submitted as early as 2015 to the DA, through the regional office of the BFAR, a letter-request for the installation of 10 FADs, costing only P30,000 each, for their own use.
The letter-request, written in Pilipino, said: “Marami nang bangka ang hindi na pumapalaot dahil ang lahat ay puro lugi pagdating sa gabi. Iilan na lang po kasing payaw ang natatalian at nahuhulihan ng tuna ng aming mangingisda. Ito po ang labis na nagpapahirap sa amin, wala na pong payaw na para lang talaga sa mag-tutuna. Ang payaw po na tinatalian namin ay pag-aari ng mga commercial fishers na maya’t-maya ang pag-simbada at pagkulong nila gamit ang malalaking lambat.”
Victor Samson, Samasa president, said that his group, composed formerly of 15 dealer-members, asked the Sangguniang Bayan of Sablayan to pass an ordinance regulating indiscriminate buying of yellow-fin tuna by unscrupulous traders and outsiders.
“Our group is no longer in control of our ‘kasa’ members and have gone separately since outside buyers compete with the locals in buying tuna from handline fishermen,” Samson said.