Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala announced Wednesday that the government is expanding its three-month sardine fishing ban. It will now include the Visayan Sea in addition to the Zamboanga waters. Alcala said during the launch of the 5-year ECOFISH Project of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the USAID in Quezon City that the closure of Zamboanga and the Visayan seas is necessary to ensure a more comprehensive management approach is sardine fisheries. He added that scientific studies undertaken by the Fisheries Agency, as well as other research institurions, indicated that the three major species of sardines such as fimbriated sardines (tunsoy), Indian sardines (tamban) and round herring (tulis) in the waters off Zamboanga and the Visayan Seas belong to one stock only.

Agriculture Department expands sardine fishing ban. (2012, October 19). The Daily Guardian, p. B3.