Eastern Visayas’ fishery production in the fourth quarter of 2024 was recorded at 22,892 metric tons (MT), lower by 7.9 percent compared with the 24,869 MT production in the same quarter of 2023. This was brought about by the decreases in the production of commercial and aquaculture fisheries by 37.0 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. On the other hand, municipal fisheries posted an increase in production by 3.9 percent or 16,079 MT during the fourth quarter of 2024 from 15,475 MT in the same quarter of 2023 (Figure 1).

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Eastern Visayas ranked seventh among the regions with the lowest fishery production (Table 1).      

SAMAR RECORDS THE HIGHEST VOLUME OF FISH PRODUCTION AT 6,206.03 MT

Among provinces, Samar recorded the highest volume of fishery production at 6,206.03 MT in the fourth quarter of 2024, comprising 27.1 percent of the regional total production. Leyte ranked second with 5,949.97 MT fisheries production, accounting for 26.0 percent of the regional total production in the fourth quarter of 2024. Eastern Samar followed with 4,247.40 MT production, contributing 18.6 percent of the region’s total fishery production. Southern Leyte and Northern Samar followed with 3,443.54 MT (15.0%) and 1,752.27 MT (7.7%) production, respectively. Meanwhile, Biliran recorded the lowest volume of production at 1,292.74 MT, which only comprised 5.6 percent of the total fishery production in the fourth quarter of 2024 (Figure 2).  
       
The total volume of production for municipal fishing went up by 3.9 percent, from 15,474.83 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 16,079.39 MT in the same quarter of 2024. Eastern Samar posted the highest increase (105.0%) in municipal fishery production to 4,003.83 MT in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 1,953.36 MT in the same quarter of 2023. Leyte’s production growth (54.5%) followed with 2,529.94 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 3,908.85 MT in the same quarter of 2024. Increases were also posted in Biliran (22.8%), and Southern Leyte (3.7%), with 953.40 MT and 3,245.14 MT production, respectively. The share of municipal fisheries production to the total fisheries production in the region comprised 70.2 percent, the largest contribution among fishery sub sectors (Table 2).

On the other hand, aquaculture’s total volume of harvest decreased by 8.4 percent from 3,135.15 MT in fourth quarter of 2023 to 2,871.39 MT in the same quarter of 2024. The highest decline in production was noted in Leyte by 19.1 percent from 1,727.64 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 1,397.73 MT in same quarter of 2024. Northern Samar’s drop in aquaculture followed at 11.1 percent from 26.66 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 23.69 MT in same quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Samar, Southern Leyte, Biliran, and Eastern Samar recorded increases in their production in the fourth quarter of 2024 at 1,378.91 MT, 10.95 MT, 29.77 MT, and 30.34 MT, respectively (Table 2).

The substantial increase of aquaculture production in freshwater pens of 2,225.0 percent was pulled down by the huge decreases in small farm reservoir (90.0%), freshwater cage (86.4%) and mussel farm (59.4%) (Table 4).

Similarly, the volume of harvest in commercial fishery went down by 37.0 percent. Its 6,259.04 MT production in the fourth quarter of 2023 dropped to 3,941.16 MT in the same quarter of 2024. The sharp decline in production was noted in Eastern Samar by 85.3 percent from 1,450.10 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 213.23 MT in same quarter of 2024. Northern Samar’s downtrend in commercial fishing followed at 61.0 percent from 2,443.42 MT in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 954.08 MT in same quarter of 2024. Decreases were also noted in Biliran by 22.0 percent and Southern Leyte by 0.7 percent with production recorded at 309.57 MT and 187.44 MT, respectively. The rest of the provinces posted increases in commercial fishery production, Leyte by 184.6 percent and Samar by 5.1 percent (Table 2).

SGD. WILMA A. PERANTE 
Regional Director