Illegal Fishing

Decena, Janine Maris Del monte, Joan Carla ILLEGAL FISHING The Philippines ranked 11th among the top fish producing countries in 2003 with the production of 2.63 million tonnes of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aqua plants. As an archipelagic state with over 2.2 million km of highly productive seas, the Philippines has vast fishery resources, and the most biodiverse marine area in the world. However all the country 's main fish species and marine organisms are showing signs of overfishing. Illegal fishing methods kill our coral reefs and endanger the survival of our bountiful marine resources. In the Philippines, the methods listed below are among the most prominent MURO-AMI SODIUM CYANIDE This kind of illegal fishing came from Taiwan. In this technique, sodium cyanide powder is dissolved in water and poured into a plastic squirt-bottle. This produces a solution that is colorless, tasteless and odorless. When a coral reef or school of fish is seen, divers enter the water and squirt what is in the bottle at the fish, or directly into the coral beds to flush the fish out. This causes the fish to become dizzy, or stunned, making them easier to catch. Sodium cyanide is usually the method used when live fish is needed, for exhibits or restaurants. The problem with this process,however is that Sodium cyanide kills everything else that it touches, especially the corals. It is virtually impossible to detect fish caught using cyanide because it is usually employed to stun the fish, not kill them. Fish caught with cyanide are more valuable alive than dead. A rule of thumb: most fish found in seafood restaurants were most likely caught with cyanide. DYNAMITE FISHING The greatest advantage of dynamite fishing is that the fishermen no longer need to buy a net. Once the dynamite has killed all of the fish, they can easily scoop their catch manually. Nevertheless, the problem in using dynamite, is that not only is a huge number of fish killed...holes are also made in coral reefs. Some have a diameter of up to 5 meters. This is not good, for coral branches take 15 years to grow and a whole coral colony may take 30-50 years (McAllister & Ansula, 1993). Besides this, juveniles are killed and larvae destroyed. In the Philippines, there are many people that sell dynamite sticks (illegally) at prices ranging from P40 to P50 per blast. According to surverys, ten percent of more than 700,000 municipal fishermen are hardcore explosive fishermen. Their tricks include “piggybacking” on the operations of commercial fishermen. By trailing the commercial fishers who use sophisticated equipment, the dynamite fishers are able to track down schools of fish which they blast away, before their commercial competitors can get at them with their bulky nets. Another technique of theirs is to employ local residents to gather the blasted fish. In areas protected by Bantay-Dagat teams, the fishermen explode and escape, allowing trusted local contacts to collect the dead fish. This arrangement, ensures that they do not have to deal directly with law enforcers. A new-found technique at long-distance detonation has made the fishermen more confident. Instead of throwing the bomb into the water right after lighting its wick with a hand-held cigar, blast fishers have developed another method. They invest money on batteries and hundreds of meters of solid electrical wire. One end of the wire is “hitched” to the fuse of the bomb; the other to an improvised detonating switch that is energized by two AA batteries. After dropping the homemade bomb at the target spot, they sail hundreds of meters away until it is enough to detonate the bomb. This method eliminates the risk of accidental blowups that have either killed or injured hundreds of fishers. It also enables blast fishers to trick law enforcers by staying far from the scene of the crime and lowering the sound of explosion by planting the bombs deep down the coral reef areas.
To check for dynamited fish, one has to lift the operculum or the lid covering the gills. Sometimes, the impact of the blast is so strong that even the gills are liquefied or reduced to a mush. If the fish were killed by a weaker blast checking would require a person to squeeze the abdomen. If the innards ooze out of the pharynx in a liquefied or mushy state, then chances are that the fish has been blasted. TRAWL FISHING FINE-NET FISHING ELECTROFISHING AMMONIUM NITRATE The government should do something about these methods. They should be keen in protecting the marine life of the Philippines. There should be a respective punishment to those fishermen who use illegal methods in fishing. We all live in one country, so let’s help the marine life of the Philippines. Let us not destroy the gift that God has given us. Some families are getting their food from the ocean, if we continuously use illegal methods in fishing, time will come and the future generation will not see the beauty of the marine life God has given the Philippines. References: http://www.illegal-fishing.info/sub_approach.php?subApproach_id=114&approach_id=19 http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/muroami.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/cyanide.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/dynamite.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/trawlfine.html

References: http://www.illegal-fishing.info/sub_approach.php?subApproach_id=114&approach_id=19 http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/muroami.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/cyanide.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/dynamite.html http://members.tripod.com/~sagip_/trawlfine.html