Global warming, competition blamed for drop in tuna catch

Edwin G. Espejo, MindaNews 14 Dec 07;

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/13 December)- Admitting that there has been a steep decline of tuna catch over the last few years, one of the city's biggest tuna producers on Wednesday blamed global warming as one of the major reasons for the drop in tuna production.

Marfenio Tan, former president of the South Cotabato Purse Seiners Association, said warm temperatures are driving tuna stocks deeper and above the equator line.

"The sea temperatures in our traditional fishing grounds have risen by two or three degrees. And these have affected our tuna catch," Tan said Wednesday.

Tan said they have monitored sea temperatures at 29 to 30 degrees Celsius, a notch higher than the "comfort level" of tuna species at 27 to 28 degrees Celsius.

"We have to address this global problem," he said.

Tan likewise tagged rising production cost and stiff competition as key factors to the decline of tuna catch.

"We have many competitors now. The Vietnamese and even China are now into tuna fishing aside from Taiwan which is the world's leading tuna producer," he explained.

The Philippine tuna producers and purse seiners are hard pressed keeping up with Taiwan and Japan because it is lagging in technology.

"The Japanese and the Taiwanese have modern and fast fishing vessels. They can fish anywhere in the world with their fleets and state of the art fishing technology," Tan explained.

The local tuna industry is likewise bearing the brunt of rising fuel costs which eat up a major chunk of the production cost.

But Tan was quick to add that the decline of tuna catch has not yet reached critical level.

Being highly migratory, however, Tan said tuna species may have created new path due to rising temperatures although he also added that wanton fishing and catching of juveniles in past are slowly taking its toll in the production. (Edwin G. Espejo/MindaNews contributor)