Fisherfolks support BFAR’s boat registration program

LAOAG CITY, February 9 (PIA) – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) had registered at least 1,784 fishing boats in the Ilocos provinces under its boat registration (BoatR) program.

BFAR technologist Girlie Dela Peña said the boat registration program will provide reliable information for concerned agencies, groups or individuals.

“The registration of our fisher folk, fishing vessels and gears will help us identify clearly the beneficiaries of the agency’s programs and the assistance they (fishermen) need. They will also have better access to government assistance since they will be certified as boat owners,” Dela Peña said.

The BoatR or the National Program for Municipal Fishing Vessel and Gears Registration is designed to fast-track and complete the nationwide fishing vessels registration with capacity of three gross tons (GT) and below and municipal fishing gears, as required under Executive Order No. 305.

It is a second level technical support to LGUs following the year-long completion of the Municipal Fisherfolk Registration Program or FishR in December 2014.
Dela Peña also reported the registration of 70,699 fisherfolks in Region 1 under the FishR program.

The FishR aims to register all fisherfolk in the country to come up with a national database system which will be used in designing more appropriate programs to aid the LGUs in managing, regulating, conserving and protecting fishery resources.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary and BFAR’s Exective Director Asis G. Perez assured the continuing provision of targeted interventions for fisherfolk with the aid of enhanced registries.

The FishR has now registered over 1.6 million municipal fisherfolk nationwide while the on-going BoatR has already registered over 138 thousand municipal fishing vessels.

Perez said that the creation of both fisheries registries is based on the premise that “what gets measured gets managed.” (Freddie G. Lazaro/ PIA-1 Ilocos Norte)