A box of assorted shark’s fin with an estimated weight of 11 kilograms and an estimated worth of Php77,000 loaded inside an Eagle Star Bus headed to Cubao/Pasay was found by the BFAR 8 Fisheries Inspection Quarantine Officer and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) stationed in Sta. Clara Port in Allen, Northern Samar, in the late afternoon of 17-March-2023. Said box…
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The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Office IX conducted the CY2023 Target Setting of Plans, Programs, and Activities Based on the Approved GAA FY2023 back-to-back with the conduct of Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Framework Planning Preparation Workshop headed by the newly appointed and full-fledged BFAR IX Regional Director, Al-zath K Kunting, RFP. The said activity…
Through the Department of Agriculture-National Fisheries Research and Development Institute’s (DANFRDI) technology demonstration on tilapia culture that highlights the use of quality strains and extruded floating feeds (EEF), tilapia can be harvested within 3 months after reaching its marketable size. On 6-September-2022, a total of 189.5 kilograms of the Nile and Red tilapia were harvested from the Villar SIPAG Farm…
BFAR-7, through the Cebu Provincial Fishery Office (PFO), granted Php245,000 worth of fishery livelihood projects to the Asturias Municipal Government to help the town’s small-scale fishermen. Cebu PFO turned over on Friday, 2-September-2022 the projects, specifically two 30-footer fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) boats; one 20-footer FRP boat; and five sets of gill nets. The FRP boats, in particular, were sent…
The City of Pula, Croatia has become the first on the global stage to receive the Friend of the Sea Sustainable City Award. This special recognition was delivered on 17-June-2022 by the Founder and Director of the international certification program, Paolo Bray. The award praises the city’s efforts to preserve the environment and improve its citizens’ quality of life by embracing sustainable solutions. The Croatian city…
DA-BFAR’s Lambaklad Project Beneficiary in Occidental Mindoro Fish Catch Improves at nearly 18,000 KG in seven months The San Agustin Lambaklad Fisherfolks Association in San Jose Occidental Mindoro has produced a total of 17,915.34 kilograms of fish from December 2021 to June 2022 through the implementation of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Capture Fisheries Division’s (CFD) pilot lambaklad…
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, 3-June-2022. 50,000 pieces of Bighead Carp seedlings were dropped into Laguna Lake under the Balik Sigla River and Lake program or BASIL. The seedlings were released in Laguna Lake which covers the towns of Pangil, Siniloan, Paete, Pakil and Kalayan, Laguna. 10,000 pieces of Bighead Carp seedlings were allocated for each town. The launch was successful under…
More than five million farmers, fishers, and farm workers have to date registered under the national Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) that serves as a major requirement, prioritizing them to receive various assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA). “As of March 8, 2022, we have registered 5,463,735 farmers, fishers, and farm workers, exceeding our target amid…
BFAR Region 7, through Fisheries Production and Support Services Division (FPSSD), has dispersed 50,000 tilapia fingerlings in the open waters of Candijay and Guindalman towns of Bohol Island on 30-March-2022. This activity was spearheaded by the division’s aquaculture section and in coordination with the Bohol Provincial Fishery Office and Local Government Units of the said towns. Over 20,000 pieces of…
The Philippines and the Republic of Korea conducted the first joint fisheries committee meeting online on 1-October-2021 to pursue an active partnership between the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) in the field of fisheries and seafood trade. Chaired and co-chaired by MOF-International Cooperation Bureau Director General Dong-sik Woo and DA Undersecretary…
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Visayas (BFAR Region 7) distributed 33,500 tilapia fingerlings and 16,000 bangus fingerlings in Cebu province, particularly in Cebu City and the towns of Asturias and San Remegio. Several tilapia backyard farmers, fishpond, and fish pen operators received fishery inputs from BFAR-7, through its Fisheries Production and Support Services Division (FPSSD) and…
BARRETTO, Olongapo City – Twenty fisherfolk families and one fisherfolk organization received their Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) boats in an awarding program led by Regional Director Wilfredo Cruz on February 24, 2021. The FRP boats, worth P45,000 each, came with a 10 HP diesel engine and a complete set of underwater fittings and accessories. RD Cruz in his speech said,…
Food security, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is “ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food that they need.” The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) further qualifies food security to mean “people having at all times physical, social, economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious…
Violators beware! Collectors of banned fishery products worth nearly Php 13 million were recently apprehended by local authorities during an operation conducted in Barangay Punta Engaño, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. Dr. Allan Poquita, regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Visayas (BFAR Region 7), advises people to refrain from catching or gathering the protected species since…
The Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) is strongly committed to fulfilling its mandate of ensuring food security especially in this challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic, alleviating the economic conditions of the fisheries sector especially the fisherfolk, and addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing among other challenges, that continue to hound the Philippine fisheries…
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) released on 9-March-2021 the results of a study which quantified illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Philippines. The report identifies what more should be done to eradicate IUU fishing in Philippine waters. IUU fishing ranges from small-scale, unlawful domestic fishing to more…
To further intensify the campaign against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF), the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) is now implementing the Integrated Marine Environment Monitoring System (IMEMS) Project, an innovative, optimized, and integrated monitoring system that expands and improves the Bureau’s current monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) program. The new MCS technology seeks…
The Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) lifted the three-month closed fishing season on round scad or galunggong in northeastern Palawan on 31-January-2021. This marks the 6th year since it was first implemented in 2015. The province of Palawan is a major supplier of galunggong in Metro Manila with an average of 95% of galunggong catch…
Nine (9) commercial fishing vessels using Danish Seine, locally known as buli-buli or hulbo-bulbot, were apprehended by fisheries law enforcers of the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) and other agencies in the river of Barangay Tapucan in Mauban, Quezon before the year 2020 capped off. In the morning of 31-December-2020, the commercial fishing vessels…
As part of the Farmers’ and Fisherfolk’s Month celebration, Agriculture Secretary William Dar unveiled the project Urban Aquaponics during the launching of the Plant, Plant, Plant Program in Quezon City. Aquaponics, an innovative technology that combines concepts of aquaculture and hydroponics to allow fishes and vegetables to grow together in an integrated system, is one of the government’s newest project…
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AREAS (FMA) The Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) No. 263 or the Establishment of Fisheries Management Areas (FMA) for the Conservation and Management of Fisheries in Philippine Waters took effect on 9-February-2019. The objective of the policy is to establish FMA and provide a science-based, participatory and transparent governance framework and mechanism to sustainably manage fisheries. Under FAO 263,…
Purse Seiner vessels of a South Korean company, Silla Co. Ltd, is found compliant with Friend of the Sea’s sustainability criteria, following third party certification audit. Six Silla purse seiner vessels catching mainly Skipjack and Yellowfin Tuna in the Western Central Pacific have been approved according to international certification sustainability requirements. The certified Tuna does not come from overfished stock….
The Cagayan River is known throughout the Philippines as the “Rio Grande de Cagayan” because it is the longest, largest and widest river in the Philippines. The length of the river is about 350 km and has a drainage basin covering 27,753 sq. km, flowing along the provinces of Apayao, Aurora, Cagayan, Ifugao, Isabela, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya and…
One of the leading canned sardines and mackerel producers and exporters in Morocco, which has been Friend of the Sea-sustainable since 2012, Cibel has now obtained Friend of the Sea international sustainability certification for its fishmeal and fish oil production. Cibel is the acronym for Complexe Industriel Bel Hassan, a high-tech center for seafood, fishmeal, and fish oil production. It…