Fish, along with rice, is the staple food of Filipinos.
“Fish and fishery products constitute 11.68% of each person’s total food intake which is equivalent to 93.9 grams per day,” said Norberto O. Chingcuanco, Feedmix Specialist Inc. (FSI) vice president. “Each Filipino consumes an average of 34.27 kilos of fish and fish products per year, 65% from aquaculture.”
Unfortunately, the country’s fish supply from the open seas is already dwindling.
“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,” Vince Cinches, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, told a national publication.
“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 Davao del Sur.
The country claims some 220 million hectares as its territorial waters: 193.4 million hectares of which are part of the oceans and the remaining 26.6 million hectares that belong to what is called as Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) or those waters surrounding the country up to 200 nautical miles from the shore.
But despite such huge areas and distinction, the fishermen and those who rely on the oceans and other bodies of water are still grappling with poverty. In fact, most of them belong to the “poorest of the poor” in society.
“Poverty in coastal communities, the progressive decline of fish population and catch, the pervasive encroachment of commercial fishing vessels in municipal waters are just some of the issues in fisheries that may not be grabbing the national headlines,” said Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice-president of Oceana Philippines, an organization working exclusively to protect and restore the world’s oceans.
The country is estimated to have between 2.29 million and 2.6 million people who are directly or indirectly involved in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. This extensive workforce comprises municipal capture fishermen, small-scale coastal fishers, aquaculture workers, as well as those engaged in fish processing and transportation.
“The fisheries sector is one of the most important sources of food and livelihood in the country,” said Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora in his presentation during the 12th Annual Meeting and Scientific Convention of Outstanding Young Scientists some years back
But the production is waning. The majority of the fishing grounds in the country are overfished. “Overfishing is the main issue, with today’s fishers ranging farther and trying harder to catch more – but there are more fishers and too few fish,” observed Gregg Yan, then the director for Communications for Ocean Philippines.
Davao Gulf, one of the country’s fishing grounds, is a case in point. In his study, Villanueva found that 45%-50% of the total fish caught daily by most of the fishermen in the gulf are juvenile – too young, not marketable and, therefore, wasted. “If this continues, there will come a time that we can no longer catch fish here,” he warned.
Fishery experts from all over the world contend that one possible solution to the dwindling fish catch in the open seas is by adopting the so-called “blue revolution.”
The Economist explained it in this manner: “On land, the green revolution allowed dramatic increases in crop production, with increased mechanization, and improved pest control and soil fertility through the addition of herbicides, pesticides and nitrogen-based fertilizers.”
If green is crops, then blue is to fisheries. “The blue revolution has seen companies breeding fish to improve traits such as their growth rate, conversion of feed into flesh, resistance to disease, tolerance of cold and poor water, and fertility,” the London-based magazine said.
Blue revolution actually refers to aquaculture, the farming of marine animals. “Fish farming is more efficient,” said Hal Kane, a staff researcher of the Worldwatch Institute, based in Washington, D.C.
Growing a kilogram of beef in the feedlot typically takes seven kilograms of feed. And although chicken is the most efficient of the land-raised meats, it still takes an estimated 2.2 kilograms of feed to yield a kilogram of chicken.
In comparison, fish need two kilograms of less feed per kilogram of live-weight gain. Fish, suspended in the water, do not have to burn calories trying to heat their bodies, Kane explained.
Mariculture park – similar to an industrial or science park on land – is one best example of aquaculture. In Davao Region, the city government established the Panabo City Mariculture Park (PCMP) in 2006 in partnership with the DA, particularly BFAR.
The city government unit provides local governance and regulations while BFAR provides technical and advisory services. To attract private investors, infrastructure facilities and support services were provided.
Today, PCMP has been identified as one of the most developed mariculture parks in the country. It has an area of 1,075 hectares covering 3 out of 4 coastal barangays of Panabo City. Within those areas, 60 hectares are allocated for marine fish cage and 20 hectares for seaweed production.
“The last wild meal in the human diet” is how fish are considered. In the Philippines, the other sources of meat protein are pork, chicken, and beef.
“But those are very expensive,” complained Jeannyline Arriaga, a housewife with three children. “Before, we managed to buy one kilogram of fish every other day. Today, we have managed to have fish at least twice a week.”
She’s not alone. Most Filipinos are doing that already.
