Illegal Fishing: Still rampant in Balayan Bay

More than two months ago, while browsing the net for references on the endeavor that i was working with (sort of a database for local communities), i came across this column in the provincial government of Batangas website. My referencing was then put aside because of the message below:









Balayan Bay

"I hope n makarating sa ating kagalang-galang na GOV. VILMA S. RECTO ang messages na ito...

Sa parte ng ating KARAGATAN ng BATANGAS at BALAYAN BAY ay marami ng KLASE ng PANGUNAHING ISDA ay NAGLAHO na. Partikular ang isdang TULINGAN(maliit), HIWAS at HASAHASA, GALONG-GUNG, PUSIT, at MACHEREL..na dati ay saganang-sagana sa nasabi kong karagatan kung saan maraming mamamayan ang UMAASA dto.Ang aming dating PANGHANAP-BUHAY na namana pa namin sa aming mga NINUNU ang pamamaraan ay nagsibulok na(PUKOT at BASNIG)kung saan sa mga taga WAWA(batangas) LEMERY at BALAYAN ay ito kinabubuhay,at sa PUKOT naman ay taga BAUAN,LEMERY,TALISAY,CALACA at BALAYAN ang pinagkikitaan..Sa ngayon ang mga nasabi kung mga PAMALAKAYA ay UNTI-UNTI na rin naglalaho.. Resulta pagkawala ng hanapbuhay at pinagkikitaan.. SA KADAHILANANG MARAMI ANG NAG O-OVERFISHING SA MGA PASUKAN NG ISDA PATUNGONG "BATANGAS at BALAYAN BAY. GUMAGAMIT SILA NG SOBRANG LALIM AT LAKI NG LAMBAT, GAMIT AY MAKINARYA SA PANGHILA AT GINAGAMITAN NG MALIWANAG NA ILAW (wala pinagkaiba ito sa malalaking lantsa )ITO AY KUNG TAWAGIN AY "TAKSAY". MORE or LESS 60 PIRASO ANG NAG OOPERATE DYAN SA MGA "BAYBAYING NG MINDORO, LUBANG ISLAND, CALATAGAN, CAVITE to BATAAN.. KYA WALA NG MKAPASOK NA ISDA SA MGA NASABI KUNG LUGAR, KNG SAAN MRAMING MALILIIT NA MANGINGISDA ANG UMAASA.. SANA PO MABASA ITO NG ATING GALANG-GALANG NA "GOBERNADORA" AT BIGYAN NG AKSYON... SALAMAT PO at MABUHAY..

Ohtie L. Magnaye Jr.
ohtie_jr@yahoo.ca"
Sent by Email

True to the words of our compatriot, Mr. Magnaye, i witnessed how abundant these resources are during those time since i first came to Balayan in 1997 though at that time, too, the fluctuation in fishers' caught is already reigning. For five months stay in Balayan in 1997, I saw and i testify that all fishers went home with big handful of catch and most of the times, during that period, bountiful. I refer to all fishers regardless of the gears they are using. This is recorded at the Fish Stock Assessment we are introducing that time as i am working as community organizer of an NGO in the municipality. During this stay also and a year ahead of the passage of RA 8550, the federation with able assistance of CERD, the ngo, has advocated the municipality to declare the 15 kilometers municipal waters exclusive for the use of municipal fishers and prohibits commercial and illegal fishing. At the fifth month of stay i transferred to Zambales for resettlement and Mt. Pinatubo victims development work.

I came back in 2000 to continue my work as a community development worker with CERD though it is almost a phase-out program. We still continue monitoring of the resources through the implementation of Fish Stock Assessment. Each result showed continuous dwindling of fish catch and at times abscence of some of the fish species that were use to be part of the recorded catches. During this period also is the introduction of improvised fishing gears such as "Taksay", an improved purse seine using mechanical equipments and longer nets extended almost up to the seabed. Of course this gear falls under the prohibited gears in RA 8550. The introduction was made by commercial fishers of Quezon and Cavite province who were all apprehended in their places and came to Balayan Bay in lieu of their conserved fishing grounds. It was a history how the federation and the community of small fishers were able to stopped these illegal fishing. Sad to say, some of our kababayan in western Batangas have copied this gear and thus the start of feud between small fisher folks and those that can afford to have this kind of gear.

Sometime in 2002, amidst the monitoring of ANAKBALAYAN and the small fisher folk groups, Taksays caught more than a hundred fish basin weighing 45 kgs. each of hasa-hasa [yellowstriped scad, mackerel] and hiwas [moonfish, sapatero] in its assorted sizes and ages which includes juveniles of these species inside the municipal waters. According to fishworkers (nananamahan or samang-isda) on board, juveniles were thrown back dead to the sea because they have not anticipated the big volume that will be caught and have just carry less fish basins. As our Fish Stock Assessment continue, it showed no specie of hasa-hasa and hiwas caught for nearly 6 years. The specie again showed up on data recorded by randomly selected respondent fisher in 3rd quarter of last year.

During the started feud, Mr. Magnaye has come to our office and discuss matters regarding the fishery and illegal fishing. He is quite sincere in his pursuit of stopping these illegal fishery activities in the municipality of Balayan but he was leaving for abroad to work. While working in foreign lands, he sent messages to BFAR via the President's Office through net informing the rampant illegal fishing in Balayan Bay. BFAR Region IV has furnished us the copy and discussed the matters to the fishery technician who is maneuvering Bantay-Dagat as she proclaim herself as the group's coordinator but still insists that she would obey her superior. The latest updates about the group activities are that they have indeed aprehended illegal fishers from neighbor municipality Lemery two times these past two months but her superior commanded her to release them. It's a complete release without any dues or fees charged unlike other municipalities charging Balayanos due penalties when there is violation of their fishery code. The municipality of Balayan has a municipal fishery ordinance summing up the illegal fishing gears as copied from RA 8550 with its corresponding penalties all typed in bold font.

"The law is created to ensure and organized matters into a balance form where small and common citizenry without wealth, power and capacity must have stronghold of their interests...." Again, sad to say and i personally opined the law is just a bit of an ink in a paper, a literature of paper serving proof of evidence that legislators are working, a transparent framework that any strengthful can pass through, and a recipe that the cook wanted people to taste some!

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