Philippines: Muro-ami and pa-aling fishing methods

Source: 2002. Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia. Lauretta Burke (WRI), Liz Selig (WRI), and Mark Spalding (UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK). (Not available in print version; available online only)
Author(s): Rene Abesamis

For more than 30 years, the fishing method muro-ami was omnipresent in the Philippines. This technique involved sending a line of divers to depths of 30-90 feet with metal weights to bang on corals to drive fish out and into waiting nets.

In 1986, muro-ami was banned throughout the Philippines because of the pervasive use of minors and the damage it caused to reefs.

To compensate fishers, a different technique, pa-aling, was authorized. Pa-aling uses air bubbles instead of weights to drive fish into nets, causing less damage to reefs. However, its efficiency is now raising concerns about overfishing. Research has shown that fishermen can catch more than 50 percent of the fish standing stock after a short series of drives over an area.

Initial analyses of available information on pa-aling suggest that it is depleting fishing stocks, resulting in a decreasing trend in catch-per-unit effort from 1996-1998 in many areas, including offshore reefs.

Pa-aling's effectiveness has renewed fears of overexploitation in remote reefs, especially those in the South China Sea.

References

Abesamis, R.A., Jocson, D.G., and Aliño, P.M. 2000. "Commercial-scale fishing on Philippine coral reefs," Paper (abstract) presented at the 9th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, Indonesia.

Aliño, P.M. et al. 1998. "The fisheries potential of the Kalayaan Island Group, South China Sea," in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea, ed. B. Morton. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Miclat, R.I. et al. 1991. "Pa-aling: an alternative to muro-ami?" Philippine Journal of Fisheries 22: 29-38.

Miclat R.I., Aliño P.M., Aragones N.V., Nañola C.L., and Aguilar E. 1991. "Pa-aling: An alternative to muro-ami?" Philippine Journal of Fisheries 22:29-38

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