Seasonal Closure endorsed by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils of Oriental Mindoro

Calapan, Oriental Mindoro - The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils (FARMC) from 12 Municipalities and 1 City in Oriental Mindoro gathered in the Halcon Hall of the Office of the Governor of Oriental Mindoro last August 23, 2017 to tackle and decide on 3 major fisheries management resolutions.

PGOM and MFI commenced efforts to establish a Fisheries Management Zone that will feature a seasonal closure encompassing over 300,000 hectares of municipal waters in the Province. This is the first of its scale in the country that has been initiated by a Provincial Government in partnership with a local non-government organisation.It was a momentous event for the fisheries sector of Oriental Mindoro participated by support agencies from PNP, PNP Maritime, the Philippine Coastguard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. The FARMCs tackled organizational strengthening needs with the PGOrM PAGO and the BFAR pledging support to institutionalize and capacitate the councils in the coming months.

The FARMCs signed 3 major joint resolutions. The first one, is the Joint Resolution endorsing the implementation of a province-wide Seasonal Closure during the onset of new moon from the months of November to January of succeeding year starting 2017. The second and third resolutions constitute their requests to the BFAR National to include the national waters between Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon in the seasonal closure, and to support the implementation of National Law on Fisheries specifically the 15-kilometer rule.

This move, if endorsed by the National FARMC and approved by the BFAR, will further increase the fisheries management area from the expected 300,000 hectares to over half a million hectares of globally important waters. The Seasonal Closure will be marked by a province-wide launching on November 15, 2017 and is expected to boost the fisheries industry in Oriental Mindoro which has a current estimated annual value of over 200 Million pesos.

Malampaya Foundation is the sole major partner of the Oriental Mindoro provincial government in progressing work for the establishment of the province-wide fisheries management zone and implementation of the proposed seasonal closure slated to begin on November 15, 2017.