SCTB16 Working Paper NFR 22 NATIONAL TUNA REPORT PHILLIPINES Noel Barut Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Phillipines July 2003 1
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Introduction The tuna fishery is the most important sector of the fishing industry of the country both in terma of volume and value. The tuna species exploited commercially are the yellowfin and bigeye tuna which target the export market, the skipjack, which goes to the canneries, the frigate/ bullet tuna and the eastern little tuna which are consumed locally. The purse seine, ringnet and handline are the three main fishing gears used in catching tunas. Other gears used in catching tunas are gillnet, mini-longline, round haul seine, troll line and multiple handline. While tuna fishing are done in all fishing grounds of the country throughout the year, the main fishing grounds for tunas are the Moro Gulf in the south, the Sulu Sea, the eastern waters of the Philippines and the South China Sea. Purse seine and ringnet operations are almost always done in conjunction with a fish aggregating device (FAD) locally known as payao. The payao is made of round steel buoy with coconut frond underneath the steel buoy. Handline fishing is also done within the vicinity of the FAD. They are targeting the deep swimming large yellowfin, bigeye and billfish. In some season of the year large volume of lampris gutatus are also caught by the handliners. Tuna Production The Philippine fishing sector is divided into two sectors namely the commercial and the municipal sectors. The municipal sectors are those fishing boats using three gross tonnage and below while boats above three gross tonnage are considered commercial fishing boats. Commercial fishing boats are not allowed to fish within the municipal waters located 15 kilometers from the shoreline. The total commercial tuna production from 1998 to 2002 is presented in table 1. The commercial production showed an increased for all the important tuna species of the country for the year 2002. The most significant increased was observed for the frigate/bullet tuna followed by yellowfin tuna then eastern little tuna and skipjack. However, for the municipal sector, only the frigate/bullet tuna and eastern little tuna showed an increased production for the year 2002. Yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack tunas showed a decline in production for the year 2002 (Table 2). The combined 2002 tuna production showed an increase in general except for skipjack which showed a decrease of around 3,000 mt as compared to the 2001 production (Table 3). Table 1. Commercial tuna production by species from 1998-2002 Year Yellowfin/ Skipjack Frigate/ Eastern Total Bigeye tuna Bullet Little tuna 1998 39,030 88,686 60,313 17,911 205,940 1999 46,356 79,434 60,702 18,328 204,820 2000 45,071 83,376 59,737 21,019 209,203 2001 49,055 80,766 60,032 20,634 210,487 2002 63,051 83,385 100,958 26,051 273,445 Average 3
Table 2. Municipal tuna production by species from 1998-2002 Year Yellowfin/ Skipjack Frigate/ Eastern Total Bigeye tuna Bullet Little tuna 1998 40,185 27,987 46,120 6,513 120,805 1999 43,997 29,344 50,599 7,078 131,018 2000 45,257 29,635 52,490 6,944 134,326 2001 47,395 31,472 55,873 7,256 141,996 2002 36,743 26,592 62,174 7,870 406,824 Average Table 3. Total tuna production by species from 1998-2002 Year Yellowfin/ Skipjack Frigate/ Eastern Total Bigeye tuna Bullet Little tuna 1998 79,215 116,673 106,433 24,424 326,745 1999 90,353 108,778 111,301 25,406 335,838 2000 90,328 113,011 112,227 27,963 343,529 2001 96,450 112,238 115,905 27,890 352,483 2002 99,794 109,977 163,132 33,921 406,824 Average 91,229 112,135 121,800 27,921 353,084 Fishing Fleet Available information on the number of commercial boats catching tunas is only up to year 2000. The number of municipal tuna handline boats is estimated to be around 10, 000 units deploy all over the country. Licensing of municipal boats are within the jurisdiction of the Local Government Units so that the exact numbers of boats licensed and non-licensed are difficult to obtain. There is now a fisheries census to be conducted this year to cover the number of fishing gear both for commercial and municipal, number of fishermen, household etc. The number of licensed commercial fishing gear used in catching tunas is presented in table 4. 4
Table 4. Number of licensed major commercial gears used in catching tunas (1998-2000) Type of Boat 1998 1999 2000 Purse Seine 109 162 135 Ringnet 18 29 29 Handline 34 23 18 Longline 9 13 14 Final Market Destination Skipjack and small yellowfin tunas are mostly delivered to the local canneries while the large yellowfin and bigeye are exported to the sashimi market in Japan. Those yellowfin and bigeye tunas that did not meet the quality standard for the sashimi market are also brought to the local canneries. The tunas are exported in three forms namely, the fresh/chilled/frozen, canned and smoked/dried (Table 5). The total tuna export for the year 2002 was 72,296 mt valued at P7,510,109 ($145,156). The distributions of the tuna export are as follows: Fresh/chilled/frozen 23,621 mt valued at P2,620,418 ($50,648), canned 47,970 mt valued at P4,820,599 ($93,173) and smoked/dried 705 mt valued at P69,092 ($1,335). Table 5. Tuna export (mt) from 1998 to 2002 Tuna 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Fresh/chilled/ 46,154 42,023 43,060 22,073 23,621 Frozen Canned 53,120 36,857 36,458 33,909 47,970 Smoked/dried 187 253 590 771 705 Total 99,461 79,133 80,108 56,752 72,296 The major importer of the fresh/chilled/frozen tunas for the year 2002 was Japan importing a total volume of 8,907 mt followed by the USA importing a total volume of 5,290 mt. and Hongkong 1,292 mt. Other countries imported a total of 8,132 mt. (Table 6). 5
The country s export of canned tuna for the year 2002 showed that Canada imported a total of 7,404 mt followed by Germany importing a total of 5,450 mt and Singapore at 4,943 mt. Other countries imported a total volume of 30,173 mt of canned tunas (Table 7). Table 6. Major destination of fresh/chilled/frozen tuna export (mt) from 1998-2002 Country 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Japan 16,621 22,422 13,132 4,143 8,907 Thailand 19,131 4,286 11,017 5,604 USA 1,299 10,722 4,672 3,504 5,290 Hongkong 1,292 Other countries 9,103 4,593 14,239 8,822 8,132 Table 7. Major destination of canned tuna export (mt) from 1998-2002 Country 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Japan 1,801 Germany 3,447 4,623 5450 Canada 6,067 3,838 7,404 USA 15,120 9,333 12,313 8,029 South Africa 5,306 Singapore 6,562 4,240 4,943 Other countries 30,893 18,010 13,745 17,017 30,173 6
Table 8. Major destination of smoked tuna export (mt) from 1998-2002 Country 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 USA 132 53 23 23 101 Japan 36 158 490 673 413 Hawaii 15 15 Taiwan 53 109 Belgium 30 Other countries 4 27 47 22 82 Smoked/dried tunas are exported primarily to Japan, Taiwan and USA in 2002 importing a total volume of 413 mt, 109 mt, and 101 mt respectively (Table 8). Only 82 mt of smoked/dried tunas were exported to other countries during the year 2002. The total billfish production of the Philippines from 1998 to 2002 is presented in Table 9. The total production for the year 2002 was observed to be 13,412 mt, broken down into the following: marlin - 2,718 mt, swordfish 4,559 mt and sailfish 6,135 mt. All billfish are normally landed without tail, head and gutted. Table 9. Total Billfish production from 1998-2002 Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Total Marlin 1,470 2,208 2,229 2,304 2,718 Swordfish 4,789 6,120 3,621 3,809 4,559 Sailfish 3,120 5,082 4,969 5,247 6,135 Commercial Marlin 191 234 182 175 232 Swordfish 814 833 630 705 935 Sailfish 51 55 52 57 76 Municipal Marlin 1,279 1,974 2,047 2,129 2,486 Swordfish 3,975 5,287 2,991 3,104 3,624 Sailfishes 3,069 5,027 4,917 5,190 6,059 7
Onshore Development Collection of catch and effort data is being continued nationwide but occasionally stopped due to funding constraint. On the management aspect, there is now a draft Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) being discussed by the National Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (NFARMC) prohibiting the catching of small tunas. 8