Fisheries Country Profile: Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago that consists of 7,641 islands with a total land
area of 301,000 km2. The total area of marine waters including EEZ(Exclusive
economic zone) is 2,200,000 km2 and the total length of its coastlines is 36,289
km. The country’s shelf and coral reef areas cover 18.46 million ha(hectare) and
2.7 million ha(hectare).

The Philippines sits at the heart of the coral triangle, which is the global center
of marine biodiversity (Carpenter and Springer, 2005). About halfway between the
provinces of Batangas and Mindoro, the Verde Island Passage boasts the highest
concentration of marine species on the planet. Studies showed that its reefs are
home to nearly 60% of the world’s known fishes, as well as over 300 species of
corals.

In 2017, the Philippines had a population of about 103 million, and mean per capita
consumption of fish and fishery products of 40 kg/year or 109 grams/day with the
percent of fish and fishery products intake to the total intake at 12.8%. In 2015,
the fishing industry contributed 1.5% and 1.7% at current and constant prices,
respectively, to the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) with the fisheries
sector providing employment to over 1.6 million people, 85% of whom were from the
municipal fisheries and 1% from commercial fisheries, while the aquaculture sector
employed 14%.

However, the state of the country’s resources in municipal waters is lightly too
heavily exploited and overfished. Also, the mangrove resources have already
declined, and overfishing brought about by an increased number of fishers and the
open access to fisheries is common to both municipal and commercial fisheries.
Commercial fishing boats continue operating in municipal waters that cause
conflicts among resource users. The use of destructive fishing methods (e.g.
dynamite and cyanide fishing, and the use of fine mesh net fishing gear) had
contributed to the rapid decline of fish stocks and habitat degradation. Recently,
issues on bycatch and discards in trawl and other fisheries have also been
considered as threats to the country’s fisheries sustainability.

The fisheries sector is classified into capture fisheries and aquaculture, where
capture fisheries are subdivided into municipal, commercial, and inland fisheries.
As defined under Republic Act (RA) 8550 otherwise known as the Philippine Fisheries
Code of 1998 and as amended by RA 10654, municipal fisheries is traditional,
artisanal, subsistence or small-scale fisheries that involves the use of vessels 3
gross tons (GT) or less as well as fishing operations that do not use fishing boats
while commercial fisheries include all fishing operations that use vessels of over
3.1 GT. Inland fisheries operate in enclosed freshwater areas such as lakes and
reservoirs using vessels of 3 GT or less.
The country has almost 500,000 ha of inland bodies of water, comprising 246,000 ha
of swamp lands, 200,000 ha of lakes, 31,000 ha of rivers, and 19,000 ha of
reservoirs.

Commercial fishing is classified into: a) small scale – making use of passive or

active gear and utilizing fishing vessels of 3.1-20 GT; b) medium scale – utilizing
active gears and vessels of 20.1-150 GT; and c) large scale – utilizing active
gears and vessels of more than 150 GT. Commercial fishing vessels are required to
fish outside municipal waters, which is beyond 15 km off the shoreline and are
required to secure commercial fishing vessel license (CFVL) from the Bureau of
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which is subject to renewal every three
years.

The Philippines is one of the top fish producing countries in the world. The total
volume of fisheries production in the Philippines in 2015 reached 4.65 million MT
with the total value of US$ 7.26 billion