BACOLOD CITY –  A top environment lawyer and the governor of Negros Occidental have jointly expressed support to the temporary fishing ban in the Visayan Sea in the wake of opposition from several groups  claiming the move is disadvantageous to the livelihood of small fishermen.

Lawyer Antonio Oposa Jr., team leader of Visayan Sea Squadron, and Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. sent a letter to President Benigno Aquino III on Nov. 18, expressing their appreciation to the enforcement of the close season for sardines and mackerel from Nov. 15, 2012 to March 15, 2013.

The close season is provided in Fisheries Administrative Order 167 passed in 1939 but “was never implemented,” they said.

“It is with great delight for us who have been working for the restoration of the Visayan Sea to know that for the first time ever, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) finally implemented the law,” Marañon and Oposa said.

Governors of provinces surrounding the Visayan Marine Triangle, including  Marañon,  have forged an alliance for the protection of the Visayan Sea, known as the Earth’s geographic heart of marine biodiversity. It is home to more than 12,000 species of fish.

Marañon and Oposa told President Aquino that the fishing ban, launched last Nov. 14 in Bantayan Island, Cebu, is “long overdue but a most necessary initiative” after the  Visayan Sea “suffered severe damage as a result of the destructive fishing methods for the last five decades.”

“This move will undoubtedly increase the biomass of the Visayan Sea and will redound to the ultimate benefits of small fishermen,” they added.

The Visayan Sea Squadron is composed of volunteers such as divers, marine enforcement personnel, legal experts, teachers, architects, and doctors.

According to the BFAR, the fishing ban covers areas  from the mouth of the Danao River on the northeastern tip of the Bantayan Island to Madridejos, through the light house on the Gigantes Island to Clutaya Island, to Culasi Point in Capiz Province, and coastward along the northern coast of Capiz to Bulacaue Point in Carles, Iloilo.

It also includes areas southward along the eastern coast of Iloilo to the mouth of Talisay River, westward across Guimaras Strait to Tomonton Point in Negros Occidental, eastward along the northern coast of the Island of Negros and back to the mouth of Danao River in Escalante, Negros Occidental.

Group such as Pamalakaya Fisheries and Marine Environmental Research Institute and the Visayan Sea Fisherfolk Forum have said in reports that about 100,000 municipal fishermen in the Visayan Sea will be affected by the four- month fish ban.*