PH tuna output declining due to ‘high seas ban’

Local tuna production dropped by 20 percent in the first nine months of the year from year-ago level due largely to the high seas fishing ban imposed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), according to the tuna industry.

The Tuna Canners Association of the Philippines expressed fear that the declining production might jack up the prices of end products, such as canned tuna.

Tuna industry stakeholders are thus pushing for the lifting of the high seas ban, said Francisco Buencamino, executive director of the association.

Buencamino said industry stakeholders were working with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to try to get the ban lifted.

The tuna fishing sector accounts for 12 percent of the country’s total fish production and employs about 120,000 workers.

Buencamino said tuna canners used to import 80 percent of their raw materials but in recent years, only 20 percent has been imported. Given the drop in tuna catch due to typhoons and the high seas ban, this might revert to 80 percent of the materials being imported, he said.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala announced that a “tough” Philippine team was being assembled to pursue talks with the WCPFC.

The commission is a treaty-based organization established to conserve and manage tuna and other highly migratory fish stocks across the western and central areas of the Pacific Ocean.

The tuna fishing ban was imposed on Jan. 1, 2010, to replenish the stocks of the highly migratory tuna species. It covers only two pockets of the high seas in the western and eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean.

Pocket one covers Palau, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which are the areas closest to the Philippines and where local tuna fishers frequently operate.

Pocket two is bounded by Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and parts of Kiribati.

Not covered by the ban are the high seas surrounding Cook Islands, French Polynesia and parts of Kiribati.

The decline in tuna output was also attributed to lesser fishing trips due to increasing cost of fuel and gasoline and other operating expenses.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported in August that the Philippine tuna industry was suffering from high production costs and high raw material costs. The Philippines is among the world’s top 10 tuna producers.