BFAR imposes 4-month ban vs. catching of sardines, herrings
A major portion of the Visayan Sea is off-limits to fishers starting yesterday in a four-month fishing ban imposed by the government.
With strict implementation under the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Office 6, the prohibition is aimed at the protection and conservation of sardines, mackerel and herrings.
And it is not your regular sardines, mackerels and herrings too. BFAR as per Fisheries Administrative Order 167 issued the guidelines in order to provide ample protection for pregnant or gravid sardines, mackerels and herrings.
This, after a scientific research and study done decades ago by fishery experts that established the "pregnant season" of said fish specie rich in the waters of Visayan Sea.
In a news release sent to The News Today (TNT), BFAR 6 Regional Director Drusila Esther Bayate made the public notification alongside the warning – violators will be prosecuted and penalized.
FAO 167 provides that it "shall be unlawful for any person, association, or corporation to kill or catch, or cause to be killed or caught or taken from those waters, purchase, sell, offer or expose for sale, or have in his possession or under his control any sexually mature sardines and herrings and mackerels or their larvae, fry or young known locally as "lupoy," "silinyasi," "linatsay" or "manansi" during the closed season from November 15 to March 15."
The specific areas off-limits to fishers are portion of the Visayan Sea and adjoining waters enclosed by line drawn through identified points and coastlines.
No fishing allowed from the mouth of Danao River on the northeastern tip of the Bantayan Island to Madridejos, thru the lighthouse on Gigantes Island, to Clutaya Island, to Culasi Point in Capiz province, castwardalong the northern coast of Capiz to Bulacaue Point in Caries, Iloilo, southward along the eastern coast of Iloilo to the mouth of Talisay River, westward across the Guimaras Strait to Tomonton Point in Occidental Negros, eastward along the northern Coast of the Island of Negros and back to the mouth of Danao River in Escalante, Negros Occidental.
Violators caught with the pregnant sardines, mackerels and herrings will be held accountable and faces fine of five hundred (P500.00) pesos to five thousand (P5,000.00) pesos or imprisonment from six (6) months to four (4) years, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the Court. Further still, FAO 167 also empowers the Director of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to impose upon the offender an administrative fine of not more than five thousand (P5,000.00) pesos.