The Philippines should see a higher tuna catch starting next month after the country deployed 36 high-seas fishing vessels to the Pacific, a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) official said.
The 36 vessels left on Sept. 25 for Pocket 1 of the Pacific Ocean for a five-month fishing trip, according to a Business World report.
The ban on tuna fishing in Pocket 1 was lifted in April 2012. Pocket 1 is open sea flanked by Palau, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia -- areas where Philippines tuna fishing companies frequently operate.
Each boat has 40 fish aggregating devices and are allowed to catch 24 metric tons of tuna a day for about 120 active fishing days over the five months granted by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).
The WCPFC is a 25-member organization that regulates the fishing of migratory fish stocks such as big-eye and yellow-fin tuna. It imposed a two-year ban to let tuna stocks recover.