INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY – Authorities seized P25,000 worth of assorted fish allegedly caught by destructive fishermen in Tayabas Bay in Quezon province on Sunday, July 30.
Lucena police reported that their station in Barangay Dalahican was tipped off around 6:30 p.m. on the presence of illegally caught fish in the fishing port located in the village.
The police found Michael Rojas in possession of two large boxes of different fish species weighing 100 kilos and with an estimated market value of P25,000.
An examination conducted by a government fish examiner confirmed that the seized fish were caught through illegal dynamite fishing.
The suspect was placed under police custody and will be slapped with corresponding criminal charges.
The report did not specify if the suspect is a fisherman engaged in illegal fishing or a fish trader at the port.
Illegal and commercial fishing, and pollution have damaged the 287,332-hectare bay, according to a study by Tanggol Kalikasan, a public interest law office that advocates environmental protection.
Reef conditions have deteriorated due to dynamite and cyanide fishing, while mangrove forests along the coastline have been degraded or destroyed, it said.
The Quezon police have also noted rampant illegal fishing in Tayabas Bay and Lamon Bay in their daily reports, including blast fishing and the continuous illegal operations of commercial fishers inside municipal waters.
Thirty-four of Quezon’s 42 towns are coastal—17 along Lamon Bay in the Pacific Ocean, 12 off the Tayabas Bay facing the China Sea and five along the Ragay Gulf. INQ
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