SABLAYAN, Occidental Mindoro—The El Niño phenomenon will not adversely affect the yellow-fin tuna fishing industry in six coastal municipalities of Occidental Mindoro, local officials said.
Sablayan Mayor Eduardo Gadiano said “so far, the El Niño weather is not felt in Sablayan as rainfall and cold weather continue to be felt here. It does not presently give problem to the fishing sector.”
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said at least 100,000 fisherfolk throughout the archipelago will be needing alternative sources of livelihood as the strong El Niño is expected to reduce the normal fish catch by at least one-fifth.
The government’s fishery agency said the rise in surface and sub-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean may reduce by 447,000 tons or 20 percent the annual volume of fish caught in the open sea.
Last year’s volume of tuna (yellow fin) catch by handline fishermen in Occidental Mindoro totaled 301.1 metric tons, according to a provincial fishery regulatory officer.
Gadiano explained that local fishermen, specifically the artisanal ones, capture yellow-fin tuna by the use of handlines or by hook, line and sinker (kawil). “Our fishermen do not go tuna fishing beyond 15 kilometers of the municipal waters.”
Mamburao is the first local government unit in the Philippines to export handline-caught yellow fin tuna to Europe in 2010. “Actually, yellow-fin tunas are caught by local handline fishermen anytime of the year,” Mamburao Mayor Anthony Voltaire C. Villarosa said.
Villarosa said the LGU has an existing partnership program with the World Wildlife Fund, the BFAR and some European businessmen to maintain the long-term sustainability of the tuna industry in the area.
“They prefer yellow-fins caught in the Mindoro Strait because the fish species is caught by handlines and they are traceable, where the fish was caught and who caught it,” the Mamburao official said.
Sablayan, the country’s largest municipality, and Mamburao, the provincial capital, are Occidental Mindoro’s top producers of the highly-priced yellow-fin tuna caught in the Mindoro Strait.
Mindoro Strait, a part of the West Philippine Sea, is considered by BFAR as the “Philippines’ new tuna highway” and as “one of the most prosperous new yellow-fin tuna fishing sites in the Philippines.”
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said around 40 percent of the country or 32 provinces will feel the brunt of El Niño before the country’s weather condition returns to normal by mid-2016.
A fish landing center, worth P2.8 million; a cold storage and ice plant, worth P10 million; and fish aggravating devices or “payaw,” and a P25-million fish port, with cold storage facilities, have been provided by the BFAR to boost the local fishery industry, especially tuna fishing, in Sablayan and Mamburao municipalities.
Fishermen totaling 1,700 persons, on board outrigger boats, venture regularly in Mindoro Strait waters, to catch yellow fins using an estimated number of 79,900 hooks (kawil). They are artisanal tuna handliners whose yellow-fin catches are exported to and preferred by EU member-countries.
“These artisanal fishermen are residents of Abra de Ilog, Paluan, Mamburao, Sta. Cruz, Sablayan, and Calintaan municipalities who operate within 10 to 15 kilometers of their municipal waters within Mindoro Strait,” the local officials said.