DAVAO CITY—The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 11 targets to replace all wooden bancas in the region to fiberglass boats under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
BFAR 11 Regional Director, Fatma Idris said that the Department of Agriculture pledge to help the BFAR in replacing all the wooden boats in the region to motorized fiberglass boats.
Idris said that they are targeting to release a total of 3,000 fiberglass boats until 2018, however, they would like to continue the program until all the fishermen in the region will use the new boats.
“In two years’ time we are targeting to release 3,000 [fiberglass boats] after the 3,000 we would still like to continue giving, we can’t just stop by 3,000,” Idris said.
She said that they would like to displace all the wooden boats to give a more sustainable livelihood to the fisherfolks in the region.
In 2016, BFAR has released a total of 300 fiberglass boats through DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
In the entire region, the BFAR has recorded 50,868 fishermen and 8,806 wooden boats.
Idris said that the fishermen who uses fiberglass boats increased their catch from 3 kilos to 10 kilos per day because they can go farther than the wooden boats can.
“Because the fishermen can now go farther with the motorized fiber glass boats, they have increased their catch and it somehow gives them a more sustainable livelihood,” she said.
For the year 2017, they are targeting to increase the catches from 43,657 metric tons in the 3rd quarter of 2016 to 65,597 metric tons.
Idris said that the before they release fiberglass boats to a certain local government unit, one must identify first the beneficiaries in their city as part of their counterpart.
She said that they have increased the number of the molders of the fiberglass boats to increase its production.