In Quezon, return of illegal fishers alarms green groups

TYPICAL DAY A group of fishermen in Lucena City unloads fresh catch in a coastal village on Thursday after a fishing trip in Tayabas Bay. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

LUCENA CITY — The resurgence of big-time illegal fishing activities in the bays of Tayabas and Lamon in Quezon province has alarmed an environmentalist group.

“Despite the nonstop operations by law enforcement agencies, the moneyed operators of illegal fishing never stop,” Jay Lim, project officer of the public interest law firm and environmental protection advocate Tanggol Kalikasan, said in an interview on Thursday.

Lim reported that on June 19, law enforcers from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard apprehended two illegal fishing boats known as “buli-buli” (modified Danish seine) in the municipal water of Calauag town fronting Lamon Bay.

The two fishing boats and their paraphernalia were valued at P3 million.

Lim noted that one of the fishing boats had already been apprehended in November last year for the same illegal activity.

On June 5, another buli-buli fishing boat was also caught conducting illegal fishing in Tayabas Bay, fronting Unisan town. The boat owners and fishing crew were facing criminal charges.

The seized fishing boats were expected to be returned to their owners after they filed a motion for release, as “only the boat paraphernalia (fishing gear) will be confiscated,” Lim said, quoting Danilo Larita Jr., fishery regulation officer of BFAR in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

Destructive

The government has banned buli-buli fishing since 2013 because it destroys corals, seagrass and traps, and eventually kills small fish.

Still, the illegal method, along with the equally destructive “pangulong” (purse seine) and “taksay” (ring net), was being employed by commercial fishers, said Lim.

Small fishers engaged in blast fishing in Tayabas and Lamon bays were also reported almost every day by the Quezon police.

“With the widespread illegal fishing activities [of commercial fishers], most of us have been tempted to join them,” a fisherman in Barangay Barra here admitted to the Inquirer on condition that he would not be named. The small fishers should not be faulted since “family survival is at stake,” he added.

The resource-rich Lamon Bay facing the Pacific Ocean covers towns in the southern part of Quezon while Tayabas Bay encompasses the northeastern towns of Quezon, the island province of Marinduque and parts of Batangas. INQ

READ: Illegal fishing back in Tayabas Bay ahead of holidays