Fishers reject galunggong fish ban in Palawan, call to regulate big vessels in municipal waters to preserve fish stocks

“Under the present orientation, fishing bans do not equate to preservation of fish species. Rather, it pushes for further exploitation of seas because commercial fishing vessels will do panic fishing and exploit fishery resources as long as they want before the effectivity of the fish ban. Also, these same commercial vessels will fast-exhaust the accumulated fish when the fish ban ends, leaving less for small fisherfolks. In just a couple of nights of large-scale fishing operations, the fish species that were preserved and grown for 3 months will be easily depleted,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.

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