Peter Cadapan, Senior Fishing Regulations Officer of DA-BFAR highlighted the impacts of proper catch documentation such as daily recording of quantity and value of fishes caught (tuna and other by-catch species), catch position, and their fishing activities on board. This is to help fishers better understand their role in submitting log sheet data to manifest the traceability of their tuna and other aquatic products.
Cadapan presented 4 essential parts of the log sheet such as 1) the fishing vessel information, port origin, date and time of departure and arrival; 2) Daily Time Record and Catch Position during fishing operations, and number of payao and pakura deployed; 3) use of species identification and fishing activity codes, and 4) estimation table of length and weight of tuna.
He provided specific instructions on filling-in each part of the log sheet as this information is considered crucial to the traceability process and obtains firsthand information on where and how the fish was caught.
After the lecture, an onboard situation was given to the fishers. They were divided into groups to demonstrate their learning on how to fill-in log sheets. Cadapan, then, checked per group’s outputs and provided feedback on what practices should be done from the given situation.
With an impressive outcome, the objective of the catch documentation training was achieved. Fishers are now equipped with knowledge to accomplish a log sheet and provide more accurate and documented data.
By practicing this moving forward, fishermen not only became accountable and responsible with their catches but also embraced their essential role as the safeguards of our aquatic resources preserving it to the present, and to the next generations.
