By YOLLY Z. SOTELO

WHILE the entire country was busy with elections, a project to protect the Lingayen Gulf’s resources was quietly launched in San Fabian town

It aims to help fishermen from Rabon village in that town so they need not stay out in the sea for long hours to catch fish.

The National Fisheries Research and Development Institute of the Department of Agriculture had designed a fish trap to be used in the sea to help the marginal fishermen earn more.

Westly Rosarion, NFRDI executive director and chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Dagupan research center, said the agency signed a memorandum of agreement on May 7 with the municipality of San Fabian and the Rabon Fishermen’s Association for the testing of the modified fyke nets to protect and conserve the fishery resources of the Lingayen Gulf and the rivers of Pangasinan.

Rosario explained that fyke nets or banwar in the Pangasinan dialect, are traditional semi-stationary trap fishing gear usually made of fine mesh nets which catch small-sized fishes and planktonic shrimps. They are stationed in the rivers.

“Juvenile fishes usually stay at the rivers’ mouth where plenty of food are available for them, but since they are caught by the fyke nets, the system is not sustainable considering our limited resources. In the sea, the modified fyke nets with larger mesh will catch only the mature fish,” Rosario explained.

The modified fyke nets will be put to sea where the water depth is seven meters or about a kilometer away from the shore. The fishermen will harvest the trapped fishes twice a day.

Fishermen are expected to catch 25 kilos of fish daily and may be higher depending on seasonality of fishes migrating in the area. This is higher than the 2-20 kilos daily catch of the fishermen using gill nets, according to the association’s president, Danilo Ducusin.
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Ducusin said he had to spend several hours a day in the sea to catch fish, but with the fyke nets, he will only go to the sea to harvest whatever is caught by the nets. This is a big help for him because he works as a security guard, he said.

Through design improvement and use of larger mesh-sized nets and relocation trials in coastal waters, the efficiency of the gear in catching larger and high-valued fishes and economic returns will be evaluated.

Under the MOA, the experimental gear will be situated along the municipal waters of this town. The NFRDI will provide fishing materials and technical expertise for the construction and rigging of four units of four fyke nets.

The local government of the town will grant a two-year special fishing permit for fishing trials free of charge.

Four units of fyke nets were given to the organization and 10 families will share ownership of one net. They will get 70 percent of the harvest, 20 percent will be used for maintenance and operation cost and 10 percent will be allotted for other fishery livelihood projects of the local government.

The NFRDI will also study what kinds of fishes are caught in the area. There are no studies yet on what fishes are available there, Rosario said.