A fisherfolk group on Sunday blamed the dwindling municipal fish production to the repressive provisions of the amended Fisheries Code under the Republic Act 10654, including its registration and licensing requirements.
Citing a report of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas said that total volume of production for fisheries was estimated at 971 thousand metric tons during the 3rd quarter of 2017, which is 3.89 percent less than the output for the same quarter in 2016.
Pamalakaya said strict fishing restrictions such as the registration and licensing schemes that curtail the fishing activities of small fisherfolk affect fish production.
The group also scored the continuous entry of commercial fishing fleets that exploit municipal water resources as contributing to the depleting fish catch.
“Small fishers bear the brunt of high costs of boat registration and licensing fees. Failure to comply dreads them with another costly fines and strict penalties like community service, confiscation of fishing gears and worse, imprisonment,” Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said.
Hicap, who is also a local fisherman in Rosario, Cavite, said he spent around P800 for the registration of his fishing boat.
He noted that in the Caraga region in Mindanao, fisherfolk do not only have to register their fishing boats, but even their simplest gears used for fishing including fishing rod, dipper, and flash lights.
“Under the guise of monitoring the fish stock in the sea, the government imposed highly absurd fishing rules that meant to abate fishing activities of small fishers. Some fisherfolk have been discouraged to continue fishing because of these unjust restrictions, which is actually the central objective of the amended Fisheries Code to sever the traditional capture fisheries and give way to aquaculture industry,” Hicap said.