BFAR urged to fast track fishing vessel trackers

THE government needs to install tracking devices in commercial fishing vessels, that has been delayed for four years now.

The League of Municipalities of the Philippines in Romblon (LMP-Romblon), Pangisda Natin Gawin Tama and environmental advocacy group Oceana Philippines have called on the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to fast-track the implementation of a vessel monitoring measure ( VMM) to protect the country’s municipal waters.

Under Republic Act 10654 or the “Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Act of 2015,” all fishing boats of commercial scale must have a tracking device on-board.

“The implementation of this requirement of law has been delayed for almost four years and it is imperative for the government to fast track its implementation to protect our food base,” lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Oceana vice president, said in a statement.

Ramos said while fisheries and maritime law enforcement agencies were busy with monitoring the coronavirus disease, commercial fishing vessels were grabbing the opportunity to intrude into the 15 kilometers of municipal waters, where they are not allowed.

Citing Oceana’s monitoring report, Ramos said from January to March 2020, there were 13,803 boats believed to be commercial in scale that were detected fishing inside municipal waters by a satellite-based device called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.

“The immediate implementation of the rules on vessel monitoring measures is most needed. We need support in monitoring our municipal waters and the tracking device installed on commercial fishing boats plying our territorial waters is a big help so we can run after them, seize their boats, and arrest them so they are held accountable by the law,” Mayor Gerard Montojo, president of the LMP- Romblon

Chapter said.

BFAR issued Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 260 in 2018 which provides for the Guidelines on the Installation of VMM on vessels that are 30 gross tonnage (GT) and above.

The law, however, requires that all commercial fishing vessels including 3.1 GT and above must have a tracking device.

“We are calling on the Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar to order a thorough review of the proposed FAO and issue a lawfully compliant guidelines soon and avoid further delay in the implementation of the vessel monitoring requirement,” said Ramos.

EIREENE JAIREE