FISHERY PRODUCTION IN EASTERN VISAYAS DECLINE BY -17.66 PERCENT IN THE 4TH QUARTER OF 2022

Eastern Visayas’ fishery production in the 4th quarter of 2022 was recorded at 24,279 metric tons (MT), lower by -17.66 percent compared with the 29,488 MT production the same quarter a year ago. This was brought about by the decreases in the production of municipal and aquaculture fisheries by -25.35 percent and -33.75 percent, respectively. The increase in the production of commercial fisheries posted at 48.74 percent mitigated the drastic drop in the region’s fisheries during the period (Figure 1 and Table 2).

In the 4th quarter of 2022, Eastern Visayas ranked seventh among the regions with the lowest fishery production (Table 1).

SAMAR RECORDS THE HIGHEST VOLUME OF FISH PRODUCTION AT 6,558 MT

Among provinces, Samar recorded the highest volume of fishery production at 6,558 MT, comprising 27.01 percent of the total fishery production in the region. Leyte ranked second with 5,295 MT fisheries production, accounting for 21.81 percent of the regional total production. Eastern Samar followed with 4,304 MT production, contributing 17.73 percent of the region’s total fishery production. Biliran, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production at 1,327 MT, which only comprised 5.47 percent of the total fishery production (Figure 2).

The total volume of production for commercial fishing went up by 48.74 percent, from 3,312 MT in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 4,926 MT in the same quarter of 2022. More than eightfold (740%) increase in commercial production was recorded in Southern Leyte. It significantly increased to 576 MT in the fourth quarter of 2022 from 69 MT in the same quarter of 2021. Eastern Samar’s growth in commercial fishing followed, the 581 MT production in the fourth quarter of 2021 more than doubled (1,364 MT) in the same quarter of 2022. Increases were also posted in Leyte (31.82%), Samar (17.19%), Biliran (9.08%) and Northern Samar (4.18%) with production of 267 MT;1,136 MT; 667 MT, and 915 MT, respectively.

On the other hand, municipal fisheries’ total volume of production decreased by -25.35 percent from 23,942 MT in fourth quarter of 2021 to 17,873 MT in same quarter of 2022. The sharp decline in production was noted in Northern Samar by -70.32 percent from 7,261 MT in fourth quarter of 2021 to 2,155 MT in same quarter of 2022. Biliran’s decline in municipal fishing followed at -44.14 percent from 1,166 MT in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 651 MT in the same quarter of 2022. Decreases were also noted in Samar (-14.11%) and Eastern Samar (-6.09%) with production of 5,062 MT and 2,906 MT, respectively. Meanwhile, Leyte and Southern Leyte recorded an increase in their production of 4,017 MT and 3,082 MT, respectively. The share of municipal fisheries production to the total fisheries production in the region comprised 73.62percent, the largest contribution among fishery sub sectors.

Similarly, volume of harvest from aquaculture went down by -33.75 percent. Its 2,234 MT production in the fourth quarter of 2021 dropped to 1,480 MT in the same quarter of 2022. The share of aquaculture subsector on the fisheries was 6.10 percent. All provinces decreased, except Northern Samar which posted an increase of 45.08 percent from 36 MT in fourth quarter of 2021 to 52 MT in the same quarter 2022. The rest of the provinces posted drastic decreases: Eastern Samar (-78.24%), Biliran (-48.40%), Samar (-43.73%), Southern Leyte (-39.57%) and Leyte (-25.78%).

Substantial increases of aquaculture production in freshwater cage (1,137.93%), freshwater fishpond (717.46%), brackishwater cage (701.08%) and mussel (609.34%) were pulled down by the deep decreases in freshwater pen (-100.00%), marine pen (-90.31%), seaweed (-63.29%), marine cage (-47.92%) and brackishwater fishpond (-33.26%).