BFAR 6 Secures Global Kasag Partnership at Boston Seafood Expo
| by Allen Quitor
| March 31, 2023
BFAR 6 Regional Director, Remia A. Aparri together with Blue Swimming Crab (BSC) Technical Working Group (TWG) Chairperson, Sheryll V. Mesa during the Boston Seafood Expo
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources VI (BFAR 6) Regional Director Remia A. Aparri, Blue Swimming Crab (BSC) Technical Working Group (TWG) Chairperson, together with Sheryll V. Mesa, BFAR 6 Senior Aquaculturist and BSC-TWG Secretariat attended High Level Meetings with the Global Fisheries Sector and the University of Rhode Island (URI) during the Seafood Expo North America (SENA) held on March 12 to 14, 2023, at Boston Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
The meeting was directed towards the improvement and strengthening of global partnerships for the blue swimming crab fishery in the Visayan Sea and achieve at least a Good Alternative or Yellow Rating. Plans incorporating the global seafoods product criterion for evaluation were discussed to address issues on data collection, transparency, overfishing, use of best fishing practices, and fishery law compliance. This partnership is anchored on the roll out of the Blue Swimming Crab National Management Plan (BSC-NMP) through Adopt-a-Village program using the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) along with the Fisheries Management Areas (FMA) implementation.
"With the approval of the Philippines BSC-NMP, we should start the ball rolling towards sustainable fisheries of our blue swimming crab industry to ensure that all stakeholders across the value chain reap the benefits. We cannot do this alone but with the assistance of this partnership through the Public-Private-Community Partnership (PPCP) we can work this out to achieve the goal towards improvement of the Philippine BSC fishery,” RD Aparri emphasized.
During the round table discussion different topics were discussed including a Brief orientation on Adopt-a-Village Model Concept, BSCNMP pilot rollout, Renewal of the Public-Private-Community Partnership Memorandum of Agreement, the different role and commitment of partners in the pilot roll-out, contribution of the Monteray Bay Aquarium-Seafood Watch (MBA-SFW) in the project implementation, the Implementation of Universal Fish ID of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) as part of product traceability in Concepcion, Iloilo, and the Endangered, Threatened, Protected and By-catch studies associated with Philippine BSC Fishery in the Visayan Sea by the University of Rhode Island in partnership with the University of the Philippines in the Visayas - College of Fisheries and Ocean Science.
“We [MBA-SFW] are really interested in seeing the area [Visayan Sea] improved working in a small area, with traceable products, and with the partnership working together to guide US partners on the sustainability compliance of Philippines BSC”, Wendy Norden said.
Other than the BFAR 6 representatives, Wendy Norden, Seafood Watch Director of Science & Global Strategies of Monterey Bay Seafood Watch (MBA-SFW), Braddock Spear, the Global Policy Director of Sustainable Fisheries Program (SFP), Mitch Hatzipetro, Research Assistant of the University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center, and Timothy Moore, Technical Advisor of Natural Resource Management, were also in the meeting.
As a result of the meeting, the next steps for the partnership will be the conduct of launching of Adopt-a-Village Project to include the Universal Fish ID in Concepcion, Iloilo and a survey study by the MBA-SFW on the BSC Middlemen-Domestic Market chain analysis, the guidance of Dr. Steven Creech, SFW Consultant in BSC Theory of Change implementation and renewal of PPCP Memorandum of Agreement this 2023.