Fisheries output slid to lowest level in over two decades

By Rose de la Cruz

OVERFISHING, illegal fishing and other destructive methods by local and foreign fishing  vessels have caused output to decline to its lowest level in over two decades to 3.96 million metric tons in 2025 or by 2.51 percent.

Unless the government shows a determined effort to protect the marine resources and shelter small communal fishermen from the aggressive encroachment of high-powered fishing vessels of Chinese and local commercial fleets, the country’s marine resources would be irretrievably gone for good.

This is why advocates against overploitation, the Oceana group, has been calling for vigilance by both government and private sectors to stop the continued overploitation of marine fisheries, or lose whatever remaining species are left in our marine waters.

Oceana flagged the steady decline in fisheries production to an average annual loss of 45,000 metric tons (MT) since 2010, citing critical gaps in enforcing the Fisheries Code and “lack of leadership” from regulatory agencies.

Its report titled, “Net Loss: How Governance Gaps are Sinking Philippine Fisheries,” stressed that data from the mandated vessel monitoring measures (VMM) implemented by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has yet to be publicly available despite over 90 percent of commercial vessels already installed with VMM devices.

The absence of vessel monitoring impedes accurate verification of catch documentation, which could have detected fisheries deterioration and prompted earlier intervention when “recovery prospects were more favorable,” according to Oceana.

“This is a national food security emergency,” Oceana Vice President Von Hernandez said. 

“Our fisheries are being emptied, and with them, the livelihoods and food sources of millions of Filipinos.”

Government data showed that total catch last year fell from the 4.06 MMT in 2024. Historical data indicated that the latest figure was the lowest level of fisheries output since the 3.93 MMT recorded in 2004.

Three out of the four subsectors posted contractions, with the inland municipal fisheries being the only subsector that rose on an annual basis, based on PSA data.

The aquaculture subsector, which accounts for more than half of the total fisheries output, slipped by 1.9 percent to 2.18 MMT in 2025, from 2.22 MMT in the previous year.

For the marine municipal fisheries, PSA said production shrank by 6.6 percent to 749,366 MT last year, from 802,860 MT in 2024.

Commercial fisheries registered 849,498 MT of production in the reference period, down by 2.17 from 868,324 MT in the previous year.

Only inland municipal fisheries expanded by 7.71 percent to 178,976 MT last year from 166,170 MT in the previous year, based on PSA data.

Oceana sees the downtrend in Philippine fisheries as a call for the restoration of vessel monitoring capacity, harmonization of registration systems, complete delineation of municipal water, and strengthened enforcement in hotspot areas.

Hernandez said they would send the report and recommendations to the Department of Agriculture (DA) and BFAR, expressing hope that the agencies would take notice and respond with urgency.

“We call on President Marcos Jr. to reverse this alarming trend by investigating and holding to account the government officials and vested interests responsible for this gross neglect,” he said.

Similarly, Oceana likened the loss in fisheries output as a “jumbo jet of fish each day,”  threatening the country’s food security, coastal livelihoods and the future of its fisheries.

Its comprehensive audit called on the President to declare a fisheries and food security emergency, warning that decades of weak enforcement and failed governance have pushed national fish stocks into what it described as “free fall.”

“The annual loss of 45 million kilograms of fish isn’t just a statistic,” said Hernandez. 

Oceana’s report “The Philippine Fisheries Assessment, A Glimpse of RA 10654’s 10-Year Implementation,” showed a 13-year decline that has cost the country nearly 600,000 metric tons of potential catch since 2010—enough to provide a healthy meal to every Filipino for a month, but is now gone.

Oceana’s findings cite government data showing 88% of fish stocks are overfished and depleted, while total production fell from 2.6 million metric tons in 2010 to 1.9 million in 2023. The group’s satellite monitoring also detected thousands of night lights—indicators of commercial fishing activity—in areas meant to be reserved for small-scale fishers.

For communities that rely on the sea, the numbers translate into daily hardship. More than 350,000 fisherfolk families now live below the poverty line, with tens of thousands classified as “food-poor,” unable to who put food on our tables are now living. He warned the crisis is also erasing a way of life.

“The average age of Filipino fishers is now 50. The next generation of Filipinos is national calamity unfolding out of sight.

Hernandez said the law’s science-based measures should be fully implemented—not amended. “It’s like having a state-of-the-art fire truck, but no one is willing to drive it and run the water. The problem is not the lack of legal tools. but implementation gaps,” Hernandez said. 

Oceana’s report, authored by fisheries scientists from the University of the Philippines Visayas, said the Philippines already has a strong legal framework but lacks the political will and coordination to enforce it.

“We are standing at the edge of a cliff,” Hernandez said. “Either you enforce the law faithfully, fully, and resource it well, or face empty nets and empty seas in the future.”