TRAWL FISHING Before anything else,a trawl is a net that is shaped like a cone. The mouth is kept open by various devices. The whole thing is then towed, trailed or trawled, usually at the bottom of the sea to capture bottom-dwelling species. The main problem with trawling is that, although all the fish that they pass along the way is, of course, caught by the trawl, all the corals that they have run over are destroyed in the process. Nowadays,there are two kinds of trawl; the commercial trawl, which is used on a boat weighing more than 3 gross tons, and the baby trawl, which is found on a vessel 3 gross tons or less and is operated by not more than three persons. Commercial trawls are prohibited in Philippine Waters beyond seven kilometers from the shorelines. However, in coastal areas 7 fathoms deep or more which are not reached by sustenance fisherman, the operation of commercial trawl may be allowed by the Minister of Natural Resources only after such areas have been defined and designated as "O.K.-to-be-fished-in-by-trawlers" by the BFAR on a yearly or seasonal basis.

FINE-NET FISHING The ‘holes’ that make up a fishing net is called the mesh. To control overfishing, the government has set a specific size for the mesh; this is because, if the mesh is too fine, then the juveniles will not be able to escape. Fine-mesh nets include all nets with mesh less than 2 centimeters when stretched. Unfortunately, many fishermen do not follow this regulation in order to increase the size of their catch. Ideally,the only times fine-meshed nets can be used is in catching ipon, padas, bangus fry, glass eels and elvers, banak fry and such species which by their very nature are small but already mature such as alamang, tabios, dulong, sinarapan, hipon taguntong and snails.

return to the ILLEGAL FISHING menu