During the first quarter of 2020, fisheries production was recorded at 980.73 thousand metric tons, lower by 3.2 percent from its 2019 same quarter production of 1,013.04 thousand metric tons. Volume of production declined in all the fisheries subsectors. (Figure 1 and Table 1)

Catch from commercial fisheries went down by 2.2 percent. From the 217.81 thousand metric tons production in the same period of 2019, it diminished to 213.11 thousand metric tons this quarter. Production from commercial fisheries comprised 21.7 percent of the total fisheries production. (Figure 2 and Table 1)

Municipal fisheries subsector reported a 3.4 percent decrease in production as catch from both marine and inland fishing dropped. Municipal fisheries production settled to 260.05 thousand metric tons during the first quarter of 2020, from 269.18 thousand metric tons output a year ago. The subsector production made up 26.5 percent of the total volume of fisheries production. (Figure 3 and Table 1)

Aquaculture production posted a slowdown of 3.5 percent during the quarter. Volume of production dropped to 507.56 thousand metric tons compared with its previous year’s same quarter level of 526.05 thousand metric tons. Produce from aquaculture constituted 51.8 percent of the total fisheries production during the reference period. (Figure 4 and Table 1)

Of the 20 major species, 15 recorded reductions in production led by tiger prawn (31.1%), mudcrab (18.2%), slipmouth (11.2%), fimbriated sardines (10.6%), and roundscad (8.5%).

On the other hand, the volume of produce expanded in blue crab (14.5%), bali sardinella (13.7%), threadfin bream (10.4%), milkfish (0.8%), and squid (0.6%). (Table 2)

ROSALINDA P. BAUTISTA
Assistant Secretary
Deputy National Statistician
Sectoral Statistics Office

Note:

Previous data reported as Indian oil sardines (Sardinella longiceps) is the Bali sardinella (Sardinella lemuru) as per BFAR Administrative Circular Oder No. 1 Series of 2019 and PSA approved memorandum of Correcting Nomenclature of Indian oil  sardines to Bali sardinella dated 03 July 2019