A total of Forty-one (41) participants attended the 13th Annual Tuna Catch Estimates Review-Workshop led by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) in collaboration with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), and the Tuna Industry in early June 2020.
NEW NORMAL MEETING. A photograph of a ‘new normal’ meeting with review-workshop
participants from different agencies and the Tuna Industry.
Heads and representatives
of BFAR Central and Regional Offices, NFRDI, PSA, PFDA, West Pacific East Asia-Improve
Tuna Monitoring Project New Zealand, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission (WCPFC) Secretariat, Peter Williams - principal Fisheries Scientist
(Data Management)-Secretariat of Pacific Community, and the Tuna Industry
joined the said virtual review-workshop.
SFFAII was represented by executive director Rosanna Bernadette Contreras,
Shalimar Abdurahman, project officer, and Mary Jean Villegas, membership development
assistant.
On a yearly
basis, the Philippines, as an active member of the WCPFC, is committed to
provide the annual catch estimates of major Tuna species such as skipjack, yellow
fin, and big eye, classified by gear type, from the country’s national fleet
operating in the WCPFC convention area.
Validated
data such as those obtained from the PSA, port sampling of National Stock Assessment
Program, log sheets, canneries, observers, PFDA, and industry estimates, would provide
the inputs aimed at producing reliable catch estimates by species and by gear
type for submission to WCPFC. Moreover, the workshop also identified various ways
to improve Tuna data and information collection by identifying gaps and constraints
including the development of future program or study.
Some
recommendations presented after the workshop were as follows: a) BFAR/NFRDI and
Tuna Industry will review the possible data gaps (e.g. from Region 10) in
ringnet and handline fisheries for 2019 and provide necessary revisions for
2019 provisional catch estimates, if needed; b) BFAR to present a comparative
study of fish aggregating device vis-Ã -vis free school-set fishing operation for
Philippine-flagged purse seine fishing operations in High Seas Pocket 1; and c)
Replication of activity for other fisheries commodities recognizing the
importance of a consolidated annual catch information derived from various
sources.
The participants have acknowledged that the review-workshop is useful to manage resources in fisheries management areas.
