Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources(BFAR)

January 17, 2019 Dear Madam, Greetings! Thank you for your request dated Sep 07, 2018 04:12:59 PM under Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016) on Freedom of Information in the Executive Branch. Your Request You asked for Fish Catch and Gears, Tonnage, and Number of Fishing Boats. Response to Request This is to formally acknowledge your request for information from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. We would like to apologize for not promptly responding to your request.. This is due to some technical gaps we have encountered in securing access to the FOI portal. It is only now that we have been able to access the pending requests sent through the portal Please rest assured however that we have already initiated measures to address the cause of delay and improve further our services. With regards to your request, here are the following answers: 1. Number of Fish Catch Data on the number of fish catch is directly available in our CountryStat Website. Kindly see the links: Commercial Fisheries Production http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10&pageid=1&ma=C80PNVPP Marine Municipal Production http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10&pageid=1&ma=D10PNVMP Inland Municipal Production http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10&pageid=1&ma=D40PNVIP To extract information, kindly see attached file for instructions. 2. List of gears used and approved by BFAR Allowed fishing gear must be: A. Registered (see SEC 29. Registration and Licensing of Fishing Gears Used in Commercial Fishing) B. Not prohibited as per: - Sec 95 (Use of Active Gear in Municipal Waters, Bays and Other Fishery Management Areas) - Sec. 97 (Ban on Muro-ami, Other Methods and Gear Destructive to Coral Reefs and Other Marine Habitat) of the IRR of the newly ammended Fisheries Code (RA 10654). C. Not prohibited by any Fisheries Administrative Order of the Department of Agriculture (https://www.bfar.da.gov.ph/LAW?fi=346) D. Not prohibited by any local ordinance of respective Local Government Units (kindly check with each LGUs) E. Not prohibited by any other existing laws aside from the specified laws and regulations above. You can also check this link for majority of the types of Fishing Gears and Methods used in the Philippines Fishing Gear and Methods in Southeast Asia: Philippines Part I http://www.seafdec.org/download/fishing-gear-and-methods-in-southeast-asia-philippines-part-i/ Fishing Gear and Methods in Southeast Asia: Philippines Part II http://www.seafdec.org/download/fishing-gear-and-methods-in-southeast-asia-philippines-part-ii/ Note that not all fishing gears identified in these two monographs are allowable, especially active gears in municipal waters. Kindly double-check these gears with existing local ordinances and laws. 3. List of Tonnage Approved by BFAR According to definition of terms of the IRR of RA 10654, the following are the classification of fishing vessel by Gross Tonnage (GT) Commercial Fishing Vessel 1. Small scale commercial fishing – fishing with passive or active gear utilizing fishing vessels of 3.1 gross tons (GT) up to twenty (20) GT; 2. Medium scale commercial fishing – fishing utilizing active gears and vessels of 20.1 GT up to one hundred fifty (150) GT; and 3. Large scale commercial fishing – fishing utilizing active gears and vessels of more than one hundred fifty (150) GT. Municipal Fishing Vessel - 3 GT and below 4) Number of Fishing Boats of BFAR For the number of commercial fishing boats recorded and accounted by BFAR, kindly see attached files. Thank you! Attachments: [PDF] IRR of RA 10654 [PDF] Instructions on CountryStat Data Extraction [EXCEL] Average Vessel Tonnage by Region & Number of Vessels per Gear Type Thank you. Respectfully, FOI Decision Maker FOI Receiving Officer