Fish production in the Philippines is in serious decline. “Where have all our fish gone?” Filipino consumers asked.
The major fishing grounds in the country are West Palawan waters, Sulu Sea, Visayan Sea, Moro Gulf, Davao Gulf and others. From 1992 to 1995, these fishing grounds constituted more than 65% of the total commercial fishing catch. (The fishing industry provided employment to about one million Filipinos or around 3% of the country’s labor force in 1998.)
Today, the scenario has completely changed. Most of these fishing grounds are overfished.
Unless something is done soon, fish production may soon collapse. A study done in Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte showed the aquatic marine resources of the area have been deteriorating in recent years.
Home to a variety of fishes, Sogod Bay is a major fishing ground for the 11 municipalities that surround it, according to Dr. Salome Bulayog, who conducted the study when she was still an associate professor of the department of economics at the Visayas State University.
Mangko or frigate tuna (scientific name: Euthynnus affinis) is its major fishery resource. The seasonal influx of this shallow-water tuna species has provided food and livelihood to the people of Sogod and nearby municipalities.
“Frigate tuna used to abound in Sogod Bay and was a major source of income in the 70’s until the 90’s,” said Dr. Bulayog. “But today, fishermen could hardly catch fish.”
“Likewise, reef species population is also dwindling,” added the study. “Fishermen have to spend longer to catch a kilogram of fish; some even have to be farther from the shore.”
This is indeed bad news for fish-loving Filipinos. Fish is the country’s second staple food next to rice. Fish provides more than half of the protein requirement of almost all Filipinos. On average, every Filipino consumes about 98.6 grams of fish and fish products, according to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).
“We are running out of fish and running out of time. For a country known for marine biodiversity, there are very few fish left to catch,” deplored Vince Cinches, who used to be the Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
“Like the other vital resources such as forests, Philippine fisheries are about to collapse,” deplored Jethro P. Adang, the director of Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.
Overfishing poses a significant challenge in the country, where approximately 70% of the nation’s fish stocks are classified as overfished, according to recent reports. This situation has led to a severe reduction in both commercial and municipal fisheries production since 2010.
Experts believe the declining health of the country’s fisheries is largely due to the inability of local authorities to effectively regulate and oversee coastal fishing activities. Additional contributing factors include rampant illegal fishing practices, insufficient political commitment to enforce fisheries laws and regulations, inadequate post-harvest facilities, and the intrusion of commercial fishers into municipal waters.
Actually, Filipinos have two sources of fish. But most people think that fish they are eating are taken out of the open seas like tuna, mackerel, snapper, rabbitfish, surgeonfish, grouper, blue marlin, pompano, and ponyfish. These are called captured fishes.
On the other hand, fishes like bangus, tilapia, catfish, mudfish, and eel are harvested from ponds, lakes, rivers, and other bodies of inland water. They are raised by farmers through aquaculture.
But still if you mention fish, people always associate it with the sea. What most people don’t know is that the fish they are serving in their dining tables these days come from the aquaculture industry, which reportedly contributed 54.15% to the total fishery production of 4.248 million metric tons in 2022.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, aquaculture contributed 2.246 million metric tons to total fishery production in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, it accounted for 55% (545,640 metric tons) out of the 991,140 metric tons total fishery production.
Unknowingly, aquaculture has been a source of human protein for nearly 4,000 years, especially in Asia.
It was the Malay emigrants who must have introduced the first fishponds of the Philippines long before the Chinese traders came to the country. “Our fishpond practices in most respects are similar to those of the Indonesians rather than those of Chinese,” said a Filipino marine expert.
In recent years, aquaculture has become a big business. The Philippines has joined the bandwagon. For one, the Philippines has been listed as the 8th among the top fish producing countries in the world.
For another, the Philippines is among the top producers of tilapia. The tilapia cultivation industry spans approximately 14,000 hectares of freshwater ponds and 500 hectares of fish cages in lakes and reservoirs across the country. Tilapia is also raised in about 200,000 hectares of brackishwater ponds.
During a joint hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, along with the Committee on Finance Senator, Cynthia Villar emphasized the importance of prioritizing the aquaculture farming industry, as well as the House Bills aimed at establishing hatcheries across multiple municipalities and provinces.
Senator Villar advocated for the creation of multi-species marine hatcheries in diverse municipalities and rural regions. She noted that these hatcheries are essential for the propagation of specific marine species, which would help reduce the country’s reliance on imported fingerlings.
Aquaculture species raised in the country are seaweed, bangus, tilapia, brackish water shrimps, oysters, and mussels. Also grown in fishponds are some species of lapu-lapu and seabass.
Mariculture park – similar to an industrial or science park on land – is one of the best examples of aquaculture. In Davao Region, the city government of Panabo established the Panabo City Mariculture Park (PCMP) in 2006 in partnership with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), a line agency of the Department of Agriculture.
“Today, PCMP has been identified as one of the most developed mariculture parks in the country,” says Academician Rafael D. Guerrero III of the National Academy of Science and Technology.
There are several ways of fish-farming methods that farmers can apply. Some of these methods are based on outdoor ponds, some on fenced-off areas of rivers or bays, and some in buildings.
“But virtually all these would integrate fish production with other industrial or ecological activities: growing hydroponic vegetables, recycling urban waste, purifying fresh water, keeping rivers or wetlands healthy,” writes Anne Platt McGinn, a Worldwatch Institute researcher.
Theoretically, fish farms are a good thing: they provide much needed food while taking some of the pressure off dwindling fish populations in the wild.
Fish farming is more advantageous than raising livestock. “For every kilogram of dry feed, we get one kilogram of fish meat,” said Dr. Uwe Lohmeyer of the Deutsche Gesselschaft fur Technische Zusammernarbeit (GTZ), a German Technical Cooperation. “This is a far more favorable rate than in the case of say, pigs: to produce the same quantity of pork, a farmer – given the same quality of inputs – has to provide three kilograms of feed.”
But like most technologies, aquaculture has its own liabilities. Intensive aquaculture, for instance, is in itself a source of pollution, releasing excess feed and feces in semi-enclosed areas and creating over-nutrification and oxygen deficiencies in waterways.
Marine scientists say farmed-fish require amino acids from other fish for growth, which are provided in the form of high-protein feed pellets made from wild fish. An estimated 5 kilograms of oceanic fish reduced into fishmeal are required to raise one kilogram of shrimp, representing a large net protein loss.
SeaWeb, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, says that aquaculture often has resulted in the introduction of non-native species. Sometimes such species are purposely released into the local environment to grow, reproduce, and be harvested as has been done along the west coast of the United States with the non-native Japanese oyster and Manila clam.
Other species escape from more confined culture facilities. In some lakes in the country, fish with unique or peculiar species with commercial value, are being threatened with the introduction of other species. The small goby in Laguna de Bay, and “tawilis” in Lake Buhi and Lake Bato are on the verge of extinction with the introduction of tilapia in these lakes.
Aquaculture might also endanger native fish species by exposing them to diseases that run rampant in the overcrowded and stressful conditions of aquaculture facilities. The use of antibiotics to reduce diseases in the culture systems only adds to the potential environmental problems in natural waters. If sick fish escape, they can easily spread the disease to wild fish.
Erosion, sedimentation, and siltation are also traced to the proliferation of fish cages and fishponds in shallow lakes and rivers.
“Clearing of land where pens and cages are established results in increased erosion, sedimentation, and siltation,” the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources explains. “Water quality is also affected. Turbidity increases if fine silt is suspended in water in great amounts thereby affecting growth of natural productivity.”
The industry is quick to defend itself, even while admitting environmental problems. “It’s the farmer who gets hurt first,” says Greg D’Avignon, executive director of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association. “It’s in his best interest to cite his pens where currents and tides will wash the waste away.”
