Guimaras’ fish yield down in two years

Fisheries production in Guimaras continuously dropped in two consecutive years – 2020-2021 – from its 2019 production of 8,355.30 metric tons (MT) to a low of 7,844.53MT in 2021, based on the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“Fish production in 2021 at 7,844.53 metric tons went down by 1.21 percent from the 7,940.37 metric tons output a year ago due to the decreased municipal and aquaculture fishery sub-sector,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.

Losare added that municipal and aquaculture fishing comprised the province’s fishery sector, with no commercial fishing.

Aquaculture production consistently went down in three years with

a slight decrease of -0.89 percent in 2021 or equivalent to 24.96 MT lesser than the 2,815.27MT output in 2020.

The 2020 output was also lower by 10.50% or 330.42MT than the 3,145.69 MT produced in 2019.

“Aquaculture fishing consists of the milkfish cultured from brackish water fishponds, fish cages, and fish pens yielded 2,251.53 MT in 2021 had contributed about 80.69 percent to the total aquaculture fishing in Guimaras,” Losare said.

Losare said the components of aquaculture are –  seaweeds that chipped in 17.34 percent (483.87 MT); tilapia produced from both brackish and freshwater environments that accounted for 1.20 percent (33.56 MT) and other species which include mud crab, oyster, catfish, white shrimp, vannamei, endeavor prawn, spiny lobster, grouper, tiger prawn and some other species that acocunted for 0.77 percent (21.35 MT) of the provincial total.

“The Municipal fisheries exhibited a downward trend for three consecutive years with a 1.38 percent decrement or a shortfall of 70.88 MT in 2021 and a 1.62 percent decline in 2020, equivalent to 84.51 MT compared to 2019 output at 5,209.61 MT,” Losare said.