Philippines: One of the world’s best tuna catcher

DAVAO CITY — It’s not a secret anymore here that the Philippines is one of the world’s best tuna catcher.

Being the best tuna catcher, they also run the most profitable tuna canning business as well as the processing of fresh and frozen tuna for exports to Japan, US and other world markets hungry for Philippine tuna.

“Filipino tuna catchers are so damn smart, they’ve scared the bloody hell out of all the tuna swimming in Philippine seas, driving them farther into Indonesian waters, even out into the Pacific Ocean,” says a smiling William Krelle, 76, a Davao-based seafoods exporter who sometimes ship fresh tuna out of this southern city if he’s lucky enough to get a bundle of catch from tuna catchers here.

It’s a rare compliment for this tough-talking Australian seafoods exporter, but this off-the-cuff praise for Filipinos, is also shared by Indonesian traders who signed up some years ago for joint-ventures with Filipino business partners from General Santos City in the neigboring province of South Cotabato.

With tuna canning plants running at full capacity in Bitung. North Sulawesi island in Indonesia, Filipinos are teaching Indonesian fishermen how to catch more tuna in their seas while still importing more tuna caught by sharp-eyed Filipino fishermen on the Philippine side of Celebes Sea which separates both countries.

That’s how tuna tycoon Domeng Teng runs PT Sinar, a joint Indonesia-Philippine joint venture that gets 80 percent of its raw tuna catch from General Santos with Indonesian fishermen hauling in the rest of the 20 percent tuna supply which are all processed into canned tuna and shipped to importers in the United States.

To catch tuna, one needs a tuna catcher boat called a “Purse Seiner” which has a kilometer-long net that could easily haul in hundreds of smaller tuna in the high seas.

Not all tuna catchers use this expensive tuna boat which could cost around 2.5 million U.S. dollars for a second-hand and double for a brand-new boat, and only the big tuna firms here have their own purse seiner boats.

To catch the bigger tuna, they use a tuna fishing boat called a “long-liner” which is equipped with long fishing lines with large meat baits that could catch the real, giant tuna one at a time.

Tuna fishing companies which sent out their fishermen on long fishing expedition–which could take up from six to eight months–in the Pacific Ocean, use both the purse seiner and long liner to “harvest” the tuna from the high seas and shipped back home from time to time by refrigerated boats called “reefers” that preserve the freshness of the tuna catch for long periods.

With all the tuna fishing going on for years around the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted a continuous decline of tuna population at an alarming rate. Knowing the urgency of preserving and saving the world’s spawning grounds for tuna along the Sulu-Sulawesi sea corridor, the four member countries–Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines– got their heads together and finally agreed to come up with an in-depth study to be funded by the Asian Development Bank that will arrest the decline of the world’s tuna population, according to Trade Asst. Secretary Merly M. Cruz.

“We need to protect our rich marine resources in this region for our future generations,” she said.