LIGAO CITY — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has confiscated 16,000 pieces of mangrove crablets loaded in a public utility bus in Sta. Elena town in the province of Camarines Norte on Thursday, Jan. 29, the agency said in a belated report Tuesday, Jan. 31.
In an inventory done by enforcers based at Tabugon quarantine and monitoring station, the species (magrove crablets), which is described as having the size of a fly, costs P80,000.00.
“When it was checked there was no legit documents presented. It came from Daet town and was supposed to be transported to Manila when the bus was flagged down on January 29,” Nonie Enolva, BFAR Bicol spokesperson, told Inquirer in a phone interview.
Enolva said no one was apprehended but they are tracing the shipper and will be charged for violation of Fisheries Administrative Order 264 or the Regulation on the Catching, Possession, Transporting, Selling, Trading and Exporting of Mangrove Crablets, Juvenile Mangrove Crabs and Gravid Mangrove Crabs (Scylla spp.) in relation to Section 128 (Other Violations) of the Republic Act 10654 (amended Fisheries Law).
“The relentless collection of these juveniles fly-size mangrove crabs with use of push net or scissor net may lead to stock depletion and growth overfishing if it will not be stopped,” Enolva stressed. Michael Jaucian / INQ
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