{"id":1091,"date":"2015-07-06T02:48:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T02:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2015-07-06T02:48:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T02:48:27","slug":"waiting-for-tuna-in-albay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/waiting-for-tuna-in-albay\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for tuna in Albay"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gregg Yan<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/a>

A little boy admires his family boat’s sigil – a jumping Bankulis or Yellowfin Tuna. The boy’s future might very well depend on whether these oceanic giants keep on jumping.<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Late afternoon and we\u2019re holed up in a hut along the coast of Tiwi in Albay, trading fish tales and waiting for fishermen to return. Sitting around us are their wives, mending nets and eyeing the swelling crowd of kids cajoling in the surf. It is June, the season for yellowfin tuna.<\/p>\n

The first of the bancas<\/em> arrive, unloading a decent haul of pundahan<\/em> or skipjack \u2013 small, striped tuna which have proven surprisingly resilient to commercial fishing. Bancas two and three return empty-handed while a fourth disgorges a tub of galunggong<\/em> or scad. Just one bankulis<\/em> or yellowfin tuna has been landed, hours earlier. She tipped the scales at 39 kilograms, golden sickle-fins resplendent even in death. We wait until the sun dips into the sea, but no more tuna come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lagonoy Gulf is the Bicol region\u2019s richest tuna site \u2013 but it is heavily overfished,\u201d explains BFAR National Stock Assessment project head Virginia Ola\u00f1o. \u201cTwo decades ago, fishers regularly caught large yellowfin. In 1998, a fisherman landed a 196 kilogram giant, long as a car and fat as a drum. Now yields are waning and yellowfin average just 18 to 35 kilograms \u2013 meaning juveniles have replaced adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though yellowfin tuna are highly-prized, they are far more than mere seafood. Top predators in the marine food chain, they maintain the balance between oceanic predators and prey. \u201cToday the Lagonoy Gulf\u2019s most common fish are anchovies,\u201d warns Ola\u00f1o. \u201cThere aren\u2019t enough predators to eat them \u2013 because we\u2019ve eaten most of their predators.\u201d<\/p>\n

To stop overfishing and help manage existing tuna stocks in Bicol, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), plus the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) convened the first meeting of the Gulf of Lagonoy Tuna Fishers Federation (GLTFF), comprised of the coastal municipalities ringing the Lagonoy Gulf \u2013 3070-square kilometers of sea separating the Bicol mainland from the storm-swept island of Catanduanes. Over 500 people attended Bicol\u2019s first large-scale gathering of fishers, held at the Lagman Auditorium of Bicol University\u2019s Tabaco Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve waited three years to formalize this federation, which covers 2000 tuna fishers in the Lagonoy Gulf,\u201d says BFAR Assistant Regional Director Marjurie Grutas. \u201cGLTFF aims to synergize fisheries management while optimizing cooperation, knowledge-sharing and enforcement. We aim to eliminate illegal fishing, minimize the capture of juvenile tuna and drive commercial fishers away from municipal waters \u2013 the three leading causes of overfishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2011, WWF has been working to enhance yellowfin tuna management practices for 5000 fishers in 112 tuna fishing villages around the Lagonoy Gulf and the coast of Occidental Mindoro.<\/p>\n

WWF\u2019s Public Private Partnership Programme Towards Sustainable Tuna (PPTST) has since organized tuna fishing associations in all 15 municipalities in the Lagonoy Gulf, plus six LGUs in the Mindoro Strait. It spearheaded the registration and licensing of tuna fishers, vessels and gear to minimize bycatch and illegal fishing, deployed 1000 plastic tuna tags to make the fishery traceable, and completed a series of training sessions on proper tuna handling to ensure that exported tuna continually meet international quality standards.<\/p>\n

PPTST harnesses market power and consumer demand to promote sustainably-caught tuna and support low-impact fishing methods like artisanal fishing with hand-line reels \u2013 better alternatives to commercial tuna long-lines, which stretch up to 80 kilometers and are rigged with up to 3000 baited hooks.<\/p>\n

Funded by Coop, Bell Seafood, Seafresh and the German Investment and Development Corporation, PPTST involves European seafood companies plus their local suppliers, BFAR, local government units in the Bicol Region and Mindoro, the WWF Coral Triangle Program, WWF-Germany plus WWF-Philippines.<\/p>\n

Today, about 52% of the country\u2019s fish exports come from tuna, which buoys the lives and livelihoods of millions of Filipinos. WWF\u2019s Global Oceans Campaign, Sustain Our Seas, builds on decades of work to rekindle the health and productivity of the Earth\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederations like GLTFF are the resource management systems of the future,\u201d concludes WWF-Philippines president and\u00a0CEO Joel Palma while sampling maguro<\/em> sashimi (thinly-cut tuna slices) sourced from the sole 39 kilogram yellowfin landed in Tiwi.<\/p>\n

Savoring sashimi, I hope that by working to conserve their shared resource, Lagonoy Gulf\u2019s fishers might someday herald the return of the giant bankulis<\/em>. Now that fish tale should be worth the wait.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A fisherman shows off a colorful squid lure, used to entice large pelagic predators to bite.<\/em><\/span>
A plethora of makeshift items – from dyed feathers and rubber squid to shredded plastic bags – are used to attract and catch tuna, billfish and mackerel.<\/em><\/span>
Each fisher has his own formula: “I use a combination of rubber squid and shredded plastic lures, but my real secret is squid ink, which I tie-off in tiny plastic bags. As the lure moves, the squid ink squirts out. Fish find this irresistible,” shares Miguel Borres, a grizzled veteran.<\/em><\/span>
Though gear has evolved, many fishers still rely on age-old techniques to collect their quarry.<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"<\/a>

Yellowfin Tuna are so-named because of their canary yellow fins and finlets.<\/em><\/span>
The torpedo-shaped fish have clocked in speeds of 75 kilometers per hour – almost TWICE the speed of the world\u2019s fastest person, Usain Bolt!<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The most sought-after fish in Bicol’s Lagonoy Gulf is the Yellowfin Tuna. A fisher shows off a handsome 39-kilogramme fish.<\/em><\/span>
Two decades ago, fishers caught a 196-kilogramme Yellowfin – the largest caught in the Gulf.<\/em><\/span>
Classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as near threatened, Yellowfin Tuna sport metallic blue backs, golden flanks and a silver belly. Sickle-shaped dorsal and anal fins, hued bright yellow, grant them their name.<\/em><\/span>
They form schools with other tuna species and sometimes with dolphins. While most fish have white flesh, tuna tissue hosts loads of myoglobin, which efficiently oxygenates their systems to give tuna meat a distinctive red hue and mouth-watering texture. This is why they\u2019re so highly sought after.<\/em><\/span>
WWF works to conserve tuna stocks in the Philippines through its Partnership Programme Towards Sustainable Tuna (PPTST) project.<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"<\/a>

Smaller fish such as scad and mackerel comprise the majority of fishers’ subsistence hauls.<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A fisherman rests after unloading his craft’s catch.<\/em><\/span>
Thousands fish under the shadow of Mayon Volcano, whose rich volcanic nutrients fuel blooms of plankton – the essential base of the marine food pyramid.<\/em><\/span>
PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF-PHILIPPINES<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, about 52% of the country\u2019s fish exports come from tuna, which buoys the lives and livelihoods of millions of Filipinos. WWF\u2019s Global Oceans Campaign, Sustain Our Seas, builds on decades of work to rekindle the health and productivity of the Earth\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,7],"tags":[658,660,659,517,516],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","category-spotlight","category-travel","tag-bureau-of-fisheries-and-aquatic-resources","tag-gulf-of-lagonoy-tuna-fishers-federation","tag-philippine-council-for-agriculture-and-fisheries","tag-world-wide-fund-for-nature","tag-wwf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1099,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}