Commercial fisheries in the Philippines are the fisheries located more than from the coast, which are generally fished with boats larger than 3 gross tons. Commercial fishing occurs throughout the country, targeting both large and small pelagic species, especially tuna and sardines, as well as demersal species.
While fishing in the Philippines has a long history, a distinct commercial fishing industry began to emerge in the 20th century as fishing efforts intensified and new technologies were introduced. Overfishing led to increased competition, and over time coastal waters became restricted to municipal fishing for local use and smaller vessels. Current laws are based on the Fisheries Code of 1998, which distinguishes between the two forms of capture fisheries. Small commercial fishing boats can fish within the outer bounds of municipal fisheries, but only with the permission of that local government.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is responsible for managing commercial fisheries resources and maintains a registry of commercial fishing vessels. A large commercial fishing industry works out of southern Mindanao, mostly focused on tuna. Many other vessels are registered in Metro Manila, although their actual fishing grounds are often elsewhere. Philippine-registered tuna fishing vessels sometimes fish outside of Philippine waters in the Pacific, and sometimes Indian, oceans.
Definition
Commercial fishing boats are defined through the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA 8550), which defines fishing scale by boat size: 3.1 to 20 gross tonnes as small-scale, 20.1 to 150 gross tonnes as medium-scale, and anything larger as large-scale. While some boats, especially large ones, are monohull, the bangka-style boat can be as large as , and are common due to being relatively cheap, and locally constructed.
Smaller commercial fishing boats fish both in municipal waters where permitted by the municipality and in water further out to sea (more than from the shore), although larger fishing boats are banned from operating close to shore. Common equipment includes trawling nets, push nets, ringnets, lift nets, and Danish seines. Some boats, known as basnig, are specially designed bangka which incorporate lift nets. Medium-sized boats are commonly used for seine fishing, with models including the super hulbot. Large boats range throughout the country, but are often registered in Metro Manila.
Resources
The Philippines is an Archipelagic state whose over 7,000 islands are surrounded by waters including of exclusive economic zone and of territorial sea. surrounding of coasts, of which is on continental shelf of deep or less, and is coral reefs. The value of marine ecosystem services is thought to be around US$966.6 billion. The thousands of islands support a large coastal population. Highly productive due to large amounts of sunlight, and stable and warm temperatures, the country's waters are highly diverse, and are part of the Coral Triangle.
Philippine fisheries include small and large pelagic fisheries, demersal fisheries, and invertebrate fisheries.
Large pelagic fish Tuna are the most valuable commercial fish, and the only one caught outside Philippine waters. There are 21 tuna species, 6 of which are fished commercially, and of these 4 are the most important: yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, Eastern little tuna, and frigate tuna. Other large pelagic species include marlin, swordfish, and sailfish. In 2022, skipjack made up 50.04% of tuna production. The bigeye tuna and bullet tuna are caught in some quantity, while the albacore tuna, longtail tuna, striped bonito, and Pacific bluefin tuna are caught in minor quantities. Aside from frigate tuna, bullet tuna, and eastern little tuna, these species are usually caught in the deeper ocean.
As of 2019, the Philippine tuna fishing fleet was 91 vessels, the largest national fleet in the western Pacific. Some fishing is carried out in international waters and other national waters for tuna in the Pacific Ocean, and on occasion in the Indian Ocean. Reported tuna catch is thus not all domestic, although the majority is. The reported figure includes both fish caught outside of Philippine waters, and fish landed in the Philippines by foreign-flagged vessels. It is thought around half of skipjack tuna, two-thirds of bigeye tuna, and 87% of yellowfin is fished domestically.
Trolling is used to catch mahi-mahi and marlin.
Small pelagic fish The most fished small pelagic species is Bali sardinella, followed by roundscad, bigeye scad, squid, and anchovies. The cheap but nutritious sardine fishery consists of nine species, although there are six main ones: Bali sardinella, Goldstripe sardinella, white sardinella, spotted sardinella, white sardine, and fimbriated sardines. The most fished small pelagic species is Bali sardinella, followed by roundscad, bigeye scad (and others of the Carangidae family), squid, and anchovies (of the Stolephorus genus). Other small pelagics include mackerels of the Rastrelliger genus, round herrings of the Clupeidae family, fusiliers of the Caesionidae family, flying fish, halfbeaks, Indian oil sardines, and Indian mackerel.
While the tuna fishery operates throughout the year, the sardine fishery fluctuates seasonally due to the implementation of closed seasons. From 1991 to 2001, 63% of small pelagic fish caught were from commercial fisheries.
Others Commonly fished demersal species are threadfin bream, slipmouths, blue crab, groupers, rabbitfish, spadefish, and catfish. Deep-sea fishing is less common, with the only commonly fished species being Squalidae (dogfish) sharks. These deep-sea fisheries go through boom and bust cycles of perhaps half a decade or so as fishing depletes the population. Their main product is squalene, which is extracted for export. Other deep-sea products caught include fish of the Trichiurus genus, mostly consumed by ethnic Chinese, the manetail snake eel, mostly exported to South Korea, and shrimp including Plesionika species, Heterocarpus sibogae, and Heterocarpus gibbosus, popular among Taiwanese buyers.
The country has 51 swimming crab species, 7 of which are fished for market. The blue crab Portunus pelagicus makes up 90% of all catches. There are significant fisheries for the Acetes shrimp, Penaeus monodon, Penaeus merguiensis, Penaeus semisulcatus, Metapenaeus ensis, and Trachypenaeus fulvus. Squid species harvested include species from the Loliginidae family, such as Uroteuthis bartschi, Uroteuthis duvaucelii, Swordtip squid, Uroteuthis singhalensis, and bigfin reef squid. Also present are the Pharaoh cuttlefish and Sepia esculenta. Octopus species include Amphioctopus membranaceus.
Distinct large major marine fishing grounds include the East, West, and South Sulu Sea, the Sibuyan Sea, the Visayan Sea, the Samar Sea, the Camotes Sea, the Bohol Sea, the Moro Gulf, the Davao Gulf, and the Babuyan Channel. Many large-scale commercial ventures operate out of the Mindanao region, especially in the cities of General Santos and Zamboanga.
Productivity and methods + Commercial marine capture fisheries by species in 2012 Species Volume (metric tonnes) % of total Indian oil sardine 175,159.54 16.8 Round scad 167,152.72 16.0 Skipjack tuna 165,105.27 15.8 Yellowfin tuna 79,508.70 7.6 Frigate tuna 72,572.61 7.0 Fimbriated sardine 48,440.75 4.6 Bigeye scad 42,795.50 4.1 Indian mackerel 36,268.87 3.5 Anchovies 27,150.09 2.6 Eastern little tuna 21,650.28 2.1 Slipmouth 17,672.82 1.7 Others 188,840.00 18.1 Total 1,042,317.88 100.0 In 2020, commercial capture fisheries produced 35.84% of the Philippine's fisheries output, or 975,205.08 metric tons. As of 2022, commercial fisheries produced 862,686.35 metric tons worth PhP 74.93 billion. The costs involved in capture fisheries are mostly operational, with less than 10% being fixed costs like licenses, taxes, and fees.
Key fishery species are caught by both commercial and municipal fisheries, with commercial fisheries taking 61.2% of the 10 most caught species in 2012. Large commercial fisheries focus on tuna or seasonal mackerel and roundscad. The largest commercial fishery is the tuna fishery, which includes big-eye tuna, eastern little tuna, frigate tuna, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna. This is followed by the sardine market, which includes Bali sardinella, fimbriated sardines, and round herring. The various roundscad species make up the third largest commodity. The sardine market is generally over two-thirds commercial.
As of 2018, 1,856 registered commercial fishing boats targeted small pelagic species such as sardines, 68% of which used ringnet fishing, 19% of which used purse seines, and 13% of which used bagnets. Fishing may be undertaken by a fleet of ships operating in one fishery. Some may handle fishing, often around payao (platforms that act as a fish aggregating devices). A payao is often owned by a commercial operator, although municipal fishermen may be allowed to fish with handlines near a payao, in part to ensure other commercial operators do not fish there. These smaller boats transfer caught fish to another ship for transport to port. Almost half of tuna are caught using seine nets, with ringnets and handline fishing tools capturing about a quarter. Large fishing light attractors known as "superlights" are used to attract species such as the squid Uroteuthis bartschi.
Commercial captures are landed at a mixture of large government ports (run by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA)), local government ports, private ports, and traditional landings. Much is unloaded in the smaller ports, with the seven PFDA-run ports receiving only 16% of caught fish in 2012. By 2022, commercial landings at all PFDA ports had increased to 36.65%. In 2020, there were 5,557 commercial fishing vessels, mostly small- and medium-scale. Half of this fleet operates out of Mindanao, including 1,783 from Region XII (Soccsksargen).
The larger ports are more able to handle complex operations. The most used, in General Santos, received 13.4% of all commercial fishing in 2012, although the port in Navotas has more piers. Foreign fishing vessels also bring fish to General Santos and Davao City. General Santos is especially important for the commercial tuna fishery. Zamboanga City is the major port for sardine commercial fisheries, with the Zamboanga Peninsula region receiving 46% of sardine catch. The six most significant sardine fisheries are the Ragay Gulf-Ticao Pass-San Bernardino Strait area, the Bohol Sea, the East Sulu Sea and Sulu Archipelago, the Visayan Sea, the Moro Gulf and its associated Illana Bay, and Sibuguey Bay. Foreign vessel tuna transshipment is only permitted at the Davao port.
Impact The increase in commercial fishing and the collapse of municipal fishing have contributed to malnourishment, and for species where both fisheries compete, more are now caught by the commercial sector. The average price of many species has increased over time. Commercial roundscad production has declined since 2003 due to overexploitation. Prices have risen in turn, and roundscad imports have taken place on and off since 2001 to supplement domestic production. Commercial catches for Barli sardinella, Indian mackerel, and Indo-pacific mackerel are decreasing, and the commercial squid industry has also seen declining production.