10 tons of tuna dumped in Sarangani

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—At least 10,000 kilograms of illegally caught tuna had been dumped in two coastal villages of a town in Sarangani, causing these to stink and requiring the use of heavy equipment to remove.

Officials of Maasim town said the fish could have been dumped into the villages by people engaged in an illegal fishing method called “likom-likom.”

Vice Mayor Salem Cutan said residents of Lumatil and Kanalo, two coastal villages in Maasim, complained of foul odor one morning and found hundreds of dead tuna scattered in the villages’ shoreline.

Mayor Uttoh Salem Cutan said officials believed the tuna were dumped in waters near the villages on Sunday and were washed ashore.

The mayor said the tuna could have been caught illegally by likom-likom fishers. “Due to the huge volume of the catch, they could no longer carry their nets to the shore,” said Cutan.

Quoting informants, Cutan said the fishermen slashed their nets and threw away catch that they could no longer carry.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) defines likom-likom fishing as a local version of “muro-ami” though smaller in scale.

Likom-likom involves the use of bamboo or hollowed tree trunks as devices to scare fish and drive them into nets.

The fishermen who dumped the tuna, said Mayor Cutan, “brought only what they can carry.” “When high tide set in, the dead fish that they dumped were washed ashore,” he said.

Cutan said the municipal government had to use heavy equipment to haul and bury the fish in a task that took at least three hours to complete.

“Those responsible must be held liable for wasting our marine treasure,” said the mayor.

Cutan said the villagers could help identify the likom-likom fishers. “Residents know who these people are,” he said.

He said the municipal government would also tighten monitoring of its waters as fish of various species are usually abundant at this time of the year and some fishermen, driven by greed, catch more than they can handle.

“Fish usually stay near the shoreline particularly in coral reefs. I just don’t know the reason why but I have observed this for a long time already. I grew up in the area and I’m familiar with this trend,” he said.

This city is known as the tuna capital of the Philippines because of the huge volume of the fish that it exports to international markets. Aquiles Z. Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao