WWF, BFAR tackle tuna overfishing in Bicol

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources have joined forces to stop overfishing and help manage existing tuna stocks in Bicol.

The WWF, BFAR and the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries convened the first meeting of the Gulf of Lagonoy Tuna Fishers Federation (GLTFF), comprised of the coastal municipalities ringing the Lagonoy Gulf – 3,070 square kilometers of sea separating the Bicol mainland from the storm-swept island of Catanduanes.

“We’ve waited three years to formalize this federation, which covers 2,000 tuna fishers in the Lagonoy Gulf,” BFAR assistant regional director Marjurie Grutas said.

“GLTFF aims to synergize fisheries management while optimizing cooperation, knowledge-sharing and enforcement. We aim to eliminate illegal fishing, minimize the capture of juvenile tuna and drive commercial fishers away from municipal waters – the three leading causes of overfishing,” Grutas added.

Since 2011, WWF has been working to enhance yellowfin tuna management practices for 5,000 fishers in 112 tuna fishing villages around the Lagonoy Gulf and the coast of Occidental Mindoro.

WWF’s Public- Private Partnership Programme Towards Sustainable Tuna (PPTST) spearheaded the registration and licensing of tuna fishers, vessels and gear to minimize bycatch and illegal fishing, deployed 1000 plastic tuna tags to make the fishery traceable, and completed a series of training sessions on proper tuna handling to ensure that exported tuna continually meet international quality standards.

PPTST harnesses market power and consumer demand to promote sustainablycaught tuna and support low-impact fishing methods like artisanal fishing with hand-line reels – better alternatives to commercial tuna long-lines, which stretch up to 80 kilometres and are rigged with up to 3000 baited hooks.

Funded by Coop, Bell Seafood, Seafresh and the German Investment and Development Corp., PPTST involves European seafood companies plus their local suppliers, BFAR, local government units in the Bicol Region and Mindoro, the WWF Coral Triangle Programme, WWF-Germany plus WWF-Philippines.

Today, about 52 percent of the country’s fish exports come from tuna, which buoys the lives and livelihoods of millions of Filipinos.