(Second of Three Parts)
Fish, like rice, is the staple food of Filipinos. As a matter of fact, fish provides more than half of the protein requirement of almost all Filipinos.
Give man a fish, so goes a very popular Chinese saying, and he will eat fish for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will fish for his lifetime. However, if we don't watch out, this adage may soon become obsolete.
Similar to other essential resources, the fisheries in the Philippines are on the brink of collapse, suffering from the relentless "plunder of the commons." The term "commons" refers to unoccupied land and all bodies of water that are regarded as a divine set of resources available for the public to utilize as needed.
Unfortunately, these resources seem to have been exploited to the point of depletion. In spite of the country's extensive marine resources, which include 220 million hectares of coastal and oceanic waters and a coastline stretching 36,289 kilometers, the country is currently facing a deficit in fish supply.
Ask 50-year-old Ronnie Herrera and his son, Dondon, who is 19 years old. Bago Aplaya, a location where they previously fished, was once a thriving fishing spot in Davao City. However, on a particular noon recently, the elder Estrera had already docked his banca (outrigger) without any catch, despite having set out at dawn. "It's not just now; there have been several occasions when we returned home empty-handed," he expressed his frustration.
His son was more fortunate, managing to catch one ice box full of fish. Nevertheless, he noted that the fish were becoming smaller and less abundant, compelling them to venture further south into the waters of Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur. "Fishers are becoming increasingly rare in Bago Aplaya," Dondon lamented.
Bago Aplaya is part of Davao Gulf. With an area of 308,000 hectares, the gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from the Philippine Sea. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) considers Davao Gulf as one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world. Diverse coral reefs, different mangrove species, cetaceans and a host of invertebrates contribute to the natural diversity of the gulf.
Unknowingly, Davao Gulf is Southern Mindanao's fishing ground. In fact, it is the 10th major fishing ground in the country. As such, "Davao Gulf is a critical resource supporting the economies of six coastal cities and 18 coastal municipalities," says the Davao Gulf Management Council (DGMC), composed of all the local government units surrounding the gulf.
In order "to conserve marine resources and to secure the spawning period of pelagic fishes" in the Davao Gulf, the regional office of BFAR declared a 3-month fishing ban in the gulf.
The fishing ban was sort of a support of a study undertaken by the World Fish Center. It was found out that since 2000, the volume and quality of the fish in the Davao Gulf have been found to be in constant decline. That was what the 10-year study entitled "Strengthening Governance and Sustainability of Small-scale Fisheries Management in the Philippines: An Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management Approach in Davao Region" found out.
A collaborative effort of the BFAR, local government units and the regional office of the Department of Science and Technology, the decade-study looked at the volume and quality of the harvests of 10 commonly fished species in the gulf: matambaka, tamban, moro-moro, caraballas, bilong-bilong, lapu-lapu, danggit, molmol, talakitok, and maya-maya.
Except for maya-maya, the harvest numbers for the species have been falling. At the current rate of decline, the caraballas, bilong-bilong, molmol, and danggit may all disappear completely from Davao Gulf within a decade, the study said.
The matambaka, tamban and moro-moro are more resilient, but even they may disappear within a generation, it added.
But it's not only in Davao Gulf that the situation is happening. Dr. Salome Bulayog, an associate professor of the department of economics at the Visayas State University, said the aquatic marine resources of Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte 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. Mangko or frigate tuna (scientific name: Euthynnus affinis) is its major fishery resource. 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, who headed a study funded by EEPSEA. "But today, fishermen could hardly catch fish."
"Likewise, reef species population is also dwindling," added the study, which was conducted in 1994 yet. "Fishermen have to spend longer to catch a kilogram of fish; some even have to be farther from the shore."
And so it came to pass that the wealth of oceans, once considered boundless, has proven finite. Touted as "the poor man's protein," fish is now a resource coveted — and fought over by countries.
"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, was quoted as saying.
"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 collapse of major fishing grounds in the country would mean uprooting 38,000 fishermen each year. "The fish is getting scarcer," said a father of six. "We all have children, grandchildren. We have to think of the future!"
The condition of open sea access — that exists both for international vessels on the high seas and for domestic fleets within their own countries' exclusive economic zones — is generally regarded as the major reason for the sad state of the ocean.
"Overfishing is the primary cause of dwindling fish populations," notes Peter Weber in his book, Net Loss: Fish, Jobs and the Marine Environment.
Along with fishing pressure, general degradation of coastal environments has influenced the steep decline of fish stock. Population growth and urbanization along shorelines lead to greater municipal, industrial and agricultural waste discharge and pollution.
More than 40 million people in the Philippines live on the coast within 30 kilometers of coral reef, which represents about 45 percent of the country's population. Approximately, two million people depend on fisheries for employment.
Land reclamation, coral mining, and mangrove clearing for aquaculture — itself a source of pollution — alter the aquatic environment. The effects of oil spills and other disaster events involving shipping further threaten the ecological balance.
The country's coral reefs yield 5 to 37 tons of fish per square kilometer, making them very important to the productivity of fisheries. "And yet, only 1.0% to 2.5% is still intact and serves as habitat for diverse marine flora and fauna; 60% of reefs are heavily damaged," wrote Sandra Volpp in her paper, "From the Mountains to the Seas," which appeared in Handbook Philippines.
Mangroves are very important to marine life, fishery expert Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III points out. They serve as sanctuaries and feeding grounds for fish that nibble on detritus (fallen and decaying leaves) trapped in the vegetation, and on the bark and leaves of living trees.
"(Mangroves) are important feeding sites for many commercially important fish species (mullet, tilapia, eel, and especially milkfish), shrimps, prawns, mollusks, crabs, and sea cucumbers," says a World Bank report. "Fry that gather in mangrove areas are very important for aquaculture."
But there's a glimmer of hope: aquaculture. Though a novelty in much of the world, aquaculture has been considered by the fishery division of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the world's fastest growing production system.
"One in four food fish consumed by humans is now being produced by aquaculture," Dr. Albert G.J. Tacon, then FAO fishery resources officer, told this author.
There's hope indeed. "The ultimate success of aquaculture may lie in the ability of its developers to leapfrog the mistakes of agriculture — to resist putting chemicals in the water and hormones in the fry, and consuming vast quantities of resources to get their production out," notes Anne Platt McGinh, a research associate at the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.
"The fish farmers' tickets to the future is to align their business with the growing movement toward integrated, closed-loop production that is already making waves in the agricultural and timber industries," she added. (Conclusion: The possibilities of biotechnology versus food crisis)