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TUNA industry experts said a ban imposed by Papua New
Guinea, the Solomon Islands and six other Pacific nations on tuna
boats in their waters is unlikely to slow down Philippine players.
In an interview posted at
www.Atuna.com, Stanley Swerdloff, senior fisheries adviser of the
Growth with Equity in Mindanao, said, the “impact [on] the local
tuna industry is small because only a few Philippine vessels are
fishing in the international waters of those nations.”
Swerdloff further said
Filipino-owned vessels are only fishing tuna stocks in international
waters just off the Philippines.
“Traditionally, Filipino
fishing boats catch stocks in the [exclusive economic zones], so the
ban on international waters by the Pacific nations will not have
much impact to our tuna industry,” Dexter Teng, South Cotabato
Purse Seiners Association (Socopa) president, said.
Atuna.com said Socopa consists of
41 fishing companies that operate group purse seine fishing vessels
with carrying capacities of about 20 to 150 gross tons.
Teng said the ban would hit hard
Taiwanese and Japanese fishing firms.
--Ira Karen Apanay
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