Fish supply in Western Visayas sufficient—BFAR
Western Visayas has sufficient fish supply based on the sufficiency trend noted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
BFAR 6 director Drusila Bayate said fish production in the region mostly comes from aquaculture. The fish production in wild or capture fishery is unreliable. Sometimes it is stable and sometimes unstable, she said.
The insufficiency in the capture fishery is offset by aquaculture. Aquaculture fishery is doing well in the region wherein fish are cultured through pens and cages. Some fisherfolks engage in mariculture or sea farming, said Bayate.
In the Philippines, capture fishery are classified into marine (municipal and offshore) and freshwater or inland capture fisheries. In municipal fishing, fishing operators are using boats of three gross tonnage or less covering areas of 15 kilometers from the shore.
Commercial offshore fishing utilizes boats of more than three gross tonnages and operates beyond the 15 kilometers from the shoreline. Inland fisheries occur in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs comprising 250,000 hectares.
In an interview over Bombo Radyo’s “Good Morning Philippines” program, Bayate said those who are into the aquaculture focus on the production of commercial fishes which are also of high value.
The aquaculture in the country is classified into three major industry groups based on farming environments. These are the freshwater aquaculture, brackish water aquaculture and mariculture or sea farming.
Bayate said the region has impressive records in production of milkfish, seaweeds, mussels, oysters, prawns, shrimps, crab, catfish and freshwater tilapia. The fresh water tilapia is reared through cages in municipalities which are far from the sea or coastline.
The region posted milkfish production of 69,000 metric tons in 2008. The production in 2007 is even much better with 72,000 metric tons. Before the year ends, it is expected that milkfish production will be much higher since Western Visayas is spared from typhoons unlike in Luzon.
Bayate added sea farming in the town of Caluya in the province of Antique is also doing well. There is an increase of 11 percent in the mariculture. Large area in the municipality is used in the production of “goso.” Carageena is used as binders in toothpaste and ice cream. Seaweed is considered an export product.
The shellfish farming in the province of Capiz is making profit. For the past 10 years, the region is lucky enough that there is no record of red tide incidents. There is no algal bloom that affects the mussel and oyster industry, said Bayate.
