FISHERIES OUTPUT rose 3.1% year on year to 1.18 million metric tons (MT) in the second quarter led by commercial fisheries and aquaculture producers, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

In its fisheries situation report, the PSA said production of commercial fisheries, which accounted for 27.3% of total output, rose 13.5% to 321.72 thousand MT.

Harvests from aquaculture farms rose 3.4% to 566.94 thousand MT and accounted for 48.2% of total production.

Production of municipal fisheries fell 7.1% to 287.81 thousand MT and accounted for 24.5% of fisheries output.

Of the total output, 88.7% or 255.27 thousand MT consisted of fish unloaded at municipal landing centers while the rest were fish caught in inland waters.

The PSA said that of 20 major fish species in the country, the biggest increase in production was in bali sardinella (tamban) at 45.7% to 125,996 MT, followed by skipjack (gulyasan) at 19.7% to 74,048 MT, and round scad (galunggong) at 18.6% to 74,709 MT.

Other fish showing output gains were cavalla (talakitok), up 8.1% at 7,086 MT, yellowfin tuna (tambakol/bariles), up 3.5% at 29,847 MT, tiger prawn (sugpo), up 2.3% at 12,652 MT, milkfish (bangus), up 2.2% at 106,915 MT, and seaweed, up 1.1% at 312,480 MT.

Registering declining output were fimbriated sardines (tunsoy), down 45.9% at 13,096 MT, Indian mackerel (alumahan), down 24% at 13,906 MT, slipmouth (sapsap), down 17.5% at 9,324 MT, squid (pusit), down 15.2% at 12,694 MT, and big-eyed scad (matangbaka), down 13.2% at 25,994 MT. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

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