The Philippines is considered the “center of marine biodiversity in the world” by the Global Marine Species Assessment of the World Conservation Union. The archipelago is brimming with marine life, but it is also straining to support a nation of more than 100 million people.
In a media briefing held in Quezon City last October 11, 2022, Oceana, an international advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans, enumerated some of the major issues and challenges that continue affecting the country’s fishing industry.
Despite the internationally recognized biological significance, “we have not been very good stewards in ensuring our fish and marine resources and marine habitats they and we, all depend on to flourish.” said Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Vice President of Oceana, in her opening statement.
Fisheries in the Philippines have been continuously plagued by overfishing, unabated illegal fishing activities, and lack of political will to fully implement fisheries laws and regulations, a lack of post-harvest facilities, and encroachment of commercial fishers into municipal waters, according to Oceana.
Dr. Wilfredo Campos, a fishery expert at the University of the Philippines Visayas who joined the briefing virtually reaffirmed the enumerated issues and connected them with the decline of the country’s fish stocks since the 1990s.
Fisherfolk leader, Ruperto Aleroza, President of Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Samahan sa Kanayunan (PKSK), reiterated the importance of using science to determine the capacity of the current fishing grounds and ensure the sustainability of the stocks. Another fisherfolk leader, Martha Cadano, from Victoria, Samar, raised a concern about the lack of postharvest, cold storage and ice-making facilities to ensure the quality of fish.
Both Atty. Ramos and Oceana legal and policy director Atty. Liza Eisma Osorio highlighted the problem of aggressive commercial fishing in municipal waters, a protected zone hosting coral reefs, seabed grass, and spawning grounds of young fish. Atty. Osorio said that there is an urgent need to fully implement the fishery laws and regulations to protect the municipal waters and the local fisherfolk. To date, only 50 percent have complied with the law requiring all registered and qualified commercial fishing vessels to install vessel monitoring measures (VMM) and electronic reporting system (ERS), added Atty.
https://mb.com.ph/2022/11/07/ocean-organization-says-philippine-municipal-waters-are-overfished/
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Indigenous cultural fishing report finds NSW government in Australia ‘failed to effect the will of parliament’
A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry examining the 13-year-delay in commencing legislation to protect Indigenous cultural fishing has handed down its findings.
In its report released on Monday, it found that the government had “failed to effect the will of parliament” by not commencing the legislation, known as section 21AA of the Fisheries Management Amendment Act.
It also found compliance activity and prosecutions against Indigenous people for practising cultural fishing were “unacceptable and creating perverse outcomes” that were inconsistent with the government’s own Closing the Gap targets.
The inquiry’s chair, Mark Banasiak MLC, said it was clear a comprehensive training package was needed to better educate NSW Fisheries compliance officers about cultural fishing.
“To make sure that when they’re dealing with this issue of cultural fishing that it’s done in a respectful way and that compliance is done in a respectful way,” he said.
“Because clearly, that hasn’t been happening.”
The report called for an independent review of the culture within the fisheries compliance division of the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) to identify any cultural problems and implement necessary changes.
The inquiry held two public hearings earlier this year and received dozens of submissions from stakeholders.
During the inquiry, Indigenous fishers detailed their experiences of targeting and harassment by compliance officers on the NSW South Coast.
In response to that evidence, the report recommended the NSW DPI immediately cease all surveillance and prosecutions of Aboriginal cultural fishers.