(Fis.com) Philippines - The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has lifted the three-month fishing ban on sardines in the Sulu Sea. The 11 sardine canneries and various fishing fleets in Zamboanga City will now be able to resume operations and 30,000 people will go back to work.
The government imposed the ban from December-February in East Sulu, Basilan Strait and Sibuguey Bay to let sardines spawn and multiply before the fishing operations that begin in March.
During the closed season for sardine fishing, some of the canneries with frozen stocks were able to continue production temporarily but eventually shut down due to a lack of raw materials.
For the three months, canneries reconditioned their machines and the fishing fleets repaired nets and prepared for the next fishing season that commenced this month, PNA reports. The suspension of operations of both groups has also forced a rise in the price of canned sardines across the country due to the lower supply and affected the export of the product.
Meanwhile, although the ban has been lifted, acute power shortages in the Zamboanga Peninsula will significantly harm the sardine canning business, an industry leader said, Business World reports.
"The rotational brownouts would affect the production of the fishing industry particularly sardines canning," said George G Ledesma, president of the Industrial Group of Zamboanga, Inc, whose members are mostly into fish canning. During the ban, BFAR deployed three vessels to patrol the seas and make sure nobody was violating the law.
BFAR National Director Asis Perez, said that two fishing boats were caught violating the closed season in the Sibuguey Bay area, Sun Star reports. BFAR also used one of these vessels to conduct research on the spawning season of the fish.
Last month, BFAR Regional Director Ahadula Sajili confirmed that studies done during the three-month period demonstrated that sardines were indeed spawning, as evidenced by eggs found in the specimens caught by the research team.
Sajili said that this was enough to justify the ban. At the same time, Perez said more studies will be required to institutionalize the closed season period to allow the fish to breed.
The open season for fishing sardines begins in March and ends in November, BFAR officials said. BFAR officials estimated that the sardine catch could climb by as much as 327 per cent based on the estimated 100 tonnes now available.