Print 1972-10-18 IPFC Sec III.Tif
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A itEVI9.. C? TXE 1IOiTT"l)SCxD FISHERY IN THE PRILIFYIMEG I.A. Ronquillo Marine Fisheries Biology Division Philippine Fisheries Sommission P.O. Box 627, Intramu-os Manila, Philippines ABSTRACT The roundscads (Decapterus spp.) form the most important fishery in the Philippines today. Kore than 306 of the total fish of about one million tons reported for 1970 was composed of the two species of roundscads: both species are caught in commercial quantities throughout the Philippine archipelago. The fishery is based on the capture of the immature forms, since adults are not available. The absence of adults may be due to the loss of phototaxic response of adults to the lights used to lure fish into the gear (the bagnet), or the adults may have moved out of the fishing grounds. The biology of these species is reviewed and a general introduction of the geography and oceanographic background of the Philippine waters provided. ii description of the oceanographic conditions of the Zulu Sea, which is one of the most important fishing grounds for roundscads,was made. Through a brief discussion of the zooplankton, egg and larval distribution of tuna and tuna-like fish, as well as other fish species, an assumption of the probable spawning areas of roundscads was advanced. For the pelagic fish, the bagnet and purse seine flsheries were shown to be the most productive; the landing from these methods exceeded 50/0 of the total fish production in 1970. The high production is explained by the increased efficiency attained by the bagnet an6 purse seine,resulting from the use of brighter lights, better synthetic (kuralon) nets, larger vessels,and more efficient gear. This review is on the most important commercial fish in the Phjllpp~necwhich rlas been responsible for the great expansion of the bagnet and %he introduction of the modern purse seine in the ccurtry. The use of the purse seinn led to a several-fold itcrease in coamercinl fish ?reduction md helped to greatly reduce importation of fish and fishery products necessary to fill the protein requirnmect of the Filipino people. This phenomenal ~rowthof the roundscad ('3ecnpterus spp.) f lshery 3f ter the Secon3 ;!orld Var is unparallelrd by any fishery in the coun:ry. lioundscad catches were insignificant durin@;the early years sfter the Lccond ',:orld War; landings were recorded as 18,900 m tons in 1956, increasing tc 96,COQ a tons in 1966, and -lYl,OOO m tons in 1970. The important fnct on this fishery is that,since the fishery ccnsists largely of ore- year class of young to maturing fish before it leaves the fishery for the breedins ground, the 9roblem of overfishing is probably not yet imminent. It is bel.ieved that to have a better understanding of the development of this extraordinar:: fishery in Southeast Asia, background information should be giver,. The Phi.li.ppine archipelap:~whick is in the outer rin of the western Facific is spread within a territorial. area of ebout 1,365,700 square kilomtres ljrir,< between latitudes 21' S4'N and 4O2?'~and lbngitudes 116~~0'~and I~~~!IC'E. It is Sounded or the east Sy the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the ::el.ebes Sea and the ccastal waters of Rorneo, and on the west and north by the Chinn Sea, xhic!~separates it, from the :,siatic mainlad. The total cc3:tlir.e of the islard? is 17,46C kilcrr.etre:;, almost as lory as that of the United Ztstes, frinpint': many navigable Says and gulfs. h number of seas surround the islmds, and these rmec frox deep troqhs an6 trenches to shallow basins and coral reefs. C,rtl.p;a ('951 b) pointed o~t!'our dm? re,~iorl.r;: oce off east of Luzcr. up to the southeast of 'Taiwan; anothrr in tw? Culu Sea; a bhirc: iri the Celebes Sea; and the fourth, the Ptilippine Deep east of 83-nr nr.5 ?:irld:in:jo, The Philippine waters are extensive, about 5 times the Land in swface area but the insular shelves, the seat of commercial fisheries, are narrow and steep. Shallow waters with depths to 200 metres add up to about 165,000 square kilometres which are limited around the islands. Large portions of the she1.f cannot be trnwl.ed due to the growth of coral reefs, and in such areas as northern and sout;hern Palawan,fishiny for pelagic fYsh species takes place with the use of bagnet (basnigan) and pwse seine. ?he slopes, however, are cradunl around many small islands and in a number of partially iand-locked Says. According to Selga (1931 a) the average temperature of the surface waters in ible Philippine seas is 27.T0c, a little higher than that over the land, and the mean sea temperature varies mversely with the latitude. He slw shcwec? that the near? daily r:ir.@e over t.le sea is very small; less than 1':. The mean annunl range is about 7'~in the Bashi and Balintang Shannels near Taiwan, about 5'~in the waters east wd hrst of Luzon, and less than 4'~in all seas north of Luzon. Xnds over the Philippine area are normally li@;htto moderate. 'Chree ~eneralair streams almost entirely govern the climatic patterr, and divide the year into three "seasons"; the southwest monsoon, the northeast monsoon,and the trade wind. The southwest monsoon brings a very cloudy and rainy season (June to October), especially on the western coasts which are fully exposed to the monsoon. This air stream is generally intermitter-t in character due to storms which occur moskly during this period. The northeast monsoon is more uniform and steady than the southwest monsoon and prevails from Kovember through March. This current,which starts from the Siberian high pressure areas,brings modified polar continental air and rushes down over the ocean causing heavy rainfall along the eastern coast and cool, dry weather on the we~ternparts of the islands. The trade wind originates in tie great tropical high-pressure area in the eastern North Pacific Ocean and hits the Philippines in a general easterly direction, dominating the air pattern during Apil and Ray. It is very moderate in force and is the least moist. From July through October, the Philippine archipelago is affected annually by about 3 to 20 tropical storms (typhoons) or cyclones. The maiority of these originate well to the east of the Philippines near the Caroline and Marianas Islands. This in a way prevents extensive exploitation of the pelagic fish resources in the area east of the archipelago. Occasionally typhoons form in the China Sea and also just east of the islands. Areas in he southern part of the country below latitude 8'~are slmost never affected. The Philippine archipelago forms a topographic unit separating the South China Sea from the Pacific Ocean. It stands on a roughly triangular platform with its base forming a natural boandary between the Philippine and Indonesian seas, and its apex pointing northward in the eirection of Taiwan and the Ryukyu chain of isla~dswith which the ' Philippines are linked geologically. Within this plat for^ are various depressions or basin seas in which the bottom water is not in free communication with that of the Pacific Ocean to the east nor with that of the South Chins Sea to the west. The sills between these seas ard the Pacific Ocean are shallow barriers situated along the eastern side of the Fhilippines. The basin seas are themselves sepzrated oceanographically from one a~ofherby definite topographical boundaries. rhilippine waters are made up of distinct water masses wish distinct properties of temperature and salinity. Th~sewater masses are disposed iElayers - the deep, intermediate, central, and surface. Tke surface waters are distinctly tropical in character. They are warm and less saline. In sumer, temperatures generally exceed 28'~ aEd ,in winter are only a degree or so lower. The salinity of the waters in the eastern Fhilippines varies little from season to sesson; on the South China Sea side the surface layers show a marked decrease in salinity during the southwest monsoon. On the basis of the Sathythermograph data collected by the R/V S.F. Baird (Megia, 1952), the thermocline is thicker and deeper in the eastern Philippines than elsewhere in the islands. Superimposed upon the thermocline is the isothermal layer of uniforaly high temperatures. The current system that modifies water movement within Philippine territorial waters is the Worth Pacific E~uatorialCurrent. This divides into two stream upon striking the southern part of the islands. The nortn-swinaing branch tocches the eastern side of Luzon and generates the great Iiuroshio Current. The other stream turns southward and then east- ward across the Pacific to form the Pacific Equatorial Counter-hrrent with a minor branch flowing south of the Philippines toward the Celebes Sea. The direction of currents in the South Chins Sea west of the Philippines is regulated to a great extent by the prevailing winds. A giant eddy of great vertical extent appears tc dominate the water circulation off eastern Luzon. On the western side of the :'hilippines a smaller eddy was reported to enclose a patch of warm water which shifts its position with the seascn?. d survey of the distributior and concentration of nut-ient salts in rhilippine waters on the basis of the Baird data shows tnat the surface waters are almost everphere near depletion which seems to extend down to the depth w!iere the t?errnoclin:! begins. 3.1 The Sulu Sea A brief description of the oceanographic condition of the most. important fishing grounds for roundscad follows: One of the most important; aspects of the Fhilippine Fisheries Programme (1947-51) consisted of surveys of the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea.