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ILOILO City – Beginning yesterday, it became “closed season” for the catching of sardines, herrings and mackerels at the Visayan Sea.
Violators will be imprisoned from six months and one day to six years and/or be made to pay a fine of P6,000.
The closed season ends on Feb. 15, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). It aims to allow the fishes to repopulate.
The violators’ catch will also be forfeited and their fishing permits or licenses cancelled.
Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 167-3 specifically prohibits the catching, killing, selling or processing sexually mature sardines, herrings and mackerels or their larvae, fry or young known locally as lupoy, silinyasi, linatsay or manansi.
According to BFAR, sardines, herrings and mackerels are three of the most plentiful of group of fishes in the Visayan Sea, the rich fishing ground bordered by the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Masbate.
These fishes ranked first in marine municipal fishery and third in commercial fishery production in the country.
The order covers the portion of the Visayan Sea and adjoining waters enclosed by line drawn through the following points and coastlines: from the mouth of the Danac River on the northeastern tip of the Bantayan Island to Madridejos, through the lighthouse on Gigantes Island, to Clutaya island, to Culasi Point in Capiz province, eastward along the northern coast of Capiz to Bulucaue Point in Varles, Iloilo, southward along the eastern coast of Iloilo to the mouth of Talisay River, westward across the Guimaras Strait to Tomonton Point in Occidental Negros, eastward along the northern Coast of the Island of Negros and back to the mouth of Danao River in Escalante, Negros Occidental. (PIA-Iloilo/PN)
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