Article I
Declaration of Policy and Definition
Section 1. Title This Code shall be known as the “COMPREHENSIVE FISHERY CODE OF 2008 OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MIAGAO”.
Section 2. Declaration of Policy It is hereby declared the policy of the municipality to: 1. Promote conservation and ensure sustainable and equitable utilization of its coastal areas and resources in conformity with the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998. 2. Ensure, for the benefits and enjoyment of the people of Miagao ,Miagao, Province of Iloilo the judicious and wise utilization, protection ,protection, conservation and management on a sustainable basis of its coastal and fishery resources with the necessity of maintaining a sound ecological balance and protecting andprotecting and enhancing the quality of the environment. 3.Protect3. Protect the rights of the small and marginal fishers in the preferential use of communal coastal and fishery resources. 4. Allow people’s full and active participation in the conservation and management of the coastal and fishery resources and shall promote awareness of sustainable fisheries through appropriate education and training. 5. Provide full support for sustainable fisheries in the municipal waters through appropriate technology and research adequate financial production, and marketing assistance, and other services. 6. Allow the private individuals or entities to utilize fishery resources under the basic concept that the grantee, licensee or permittee thereof shall not only be privileged beneficiary of the municipality, but also an active participant and ppartner of the municipal government in the management , development, and protection of the fisheries and coastal resources of the municipality. 7. Promote and adhere to the precautionary principle of conservation, management and exploitation of living coastal and fishery resources in order to assure the sustainable development of the coastal environment. The absence of adequate scientific and technical information should not be used as a reason for postponing or failing to take conservation and management measures.
Section 3. Application of its Provisions The provisions of this Code shall be enforced in: 1. All the municipal waters as defined in this Code; 2. All fisheries resources in the municipal waters; 3. All fisheries activities or businesses relating to the use, development, conservation and management of the municipal waters and its coastal and fisheries resources; and 4. All people, entities or corporation that use and/or intend to use the coastal and fishery resources of the municipality.
Section 4. Definition of Terms As used in this Code, the following terms and phases shall mean as follows: 1. Aquaculture – fishery operations involving in all forms of raising and culturing fish and fishery species in freshwater water, brackish and marine water areas. 2. Aquatic / Coastal Pollution – the introduction of substances by human or machine , directly or indirectly, to the coastal environment which result or likely to result in such deleterious effects as to harm living and non-living fishery and coastal resources; pose potential and/or real hazard to human health; hindrance to coastal activities such as fishing and navigation, including dumping/disposal of waste and other marine litter; discharge of petroleum or residual products of petroleum, and other radioactive noxious or harmful liquid, gaseous or solid substances, from any water, land or other human-made structures. Deforestation, unsound agricultural practices such as the use of banned chemicals and excessive use of chemicals, intensive use of artificial fish feed, and wetland conversion , which cause similar hazard and deleterious effectsconversion, which causes similar hazard and deleterious effects, shall also constitute aquatic or coastal pollution .pollution. 3. Closed season – the period during which the taking of specified fishery species by a specifieda specified fishing gear is prohibited in a specified area or areas in the municipal waters. 4. Coastal Area / Zone – is a band of dry land and adjacent ocean space ( water and submerge land ) in which terrestrial processes and uses directly after oceanic processes and uses, and vice-versa; its geographic extent may include areas within a landmark limits of one (1) Kilometer from the shoreline to high tide to include mangrove swamps, brackish water ponds, nipa swamps, estuarine river, sandy beaches and other areas within seaward limit of 200 meters isobath to include coral reefs, algal flats, sea grass beds and other soft bottom areas. 5. Commercial Fishing – the taking of fishery species by passive or active gear for trade, business are profit beyond subsistence or sport fishing, to be further classified as: Small-scale commercial fishing – fishing with passive or active gear utilizing fishing vessels of 3.1 gross tons (GT) up to 20 GT; Medium-scale commercial fishing – fishing with passive or active gear utilizing fishing vessels of 20.1 gross tons (GT) up to 150 GT; and Large-scale commercial fishing – fishing with passive or active gear utilizing fishing vessels of more than 150 (GT). 6. Coral – marine animals, anthozoan and cnidarian coelenterates, consisting of polyps and the rigid skeletal structure they produce. The living animal with its skeleton and the skeleton alone are both referred to as coral. Included are members of the genus Corallium, characterized by a rigid access of compact calcareous or horny specules and represented by red, pink and white corals which are considered precious corals; the Antipatharians, characterized by a thorny, horny axis and represented by the black coral which are considered semi-precious corals, and ordinary corals which are neither precious or semi –precious and usually characterized by calcareous skeleton. 7. Coral Reef – geological features built by natural classification and other deposits from corals and calcareous algae. 8. Department – shall mean Department of Agriculture. 9. FARMC – shall mean Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council. 10. Fine-Meshed Nets – all net-webbing whether made of natural fibers, synthetic or any other materials used in fishing, with a mesh size of less than three (3) centimeters measured. 11. Fish Cage – any method of culturing fin fish in a fish enclosure which is either stationary or floating made up of nettings or screen sewn or fastened together and installed in the water with opening at the surface and held in place by wooden posts or various anchors and floats. 12. Fish Corral – a stationary wire or trap devised to intercept and capture fish consisting of rows of bamboo sticks, plastic nets and other materials fenced with split bamboo mattings or wire mattings with one or more enclosures, usually with easy entrance but difficult exit, and with and without leaders to direct the fish to the catching chambers, purse or bags. 13. Fish pen – refers to fish enclosures made of closely-woven bamboo screens, nylon screens or nets, or other materials attached to poles staked to the water bottom for the purpose of growing and /or culture of fish to various sizes in both fresh and brackish waters. 14. Fisheries – refers to all activities relating to the act or business of fishing, culturing, preserving, processing, marketing, developing, conserving and managing fishery resources. 15. Fishery License – a document that qualify a person/cooperative/partnership/corporation to engage in any fishery activities in the municipal waters. 16. Fishers – people directly, or personally, and physically engage in taking and/or culturing and processing fishery/coastal/marine resources. 17. Fishers Organization – an accredited organized group, association, federation, alliance or institution of fishers which has at least 15 members, a set of officers, a constitution and by-laws, and having an organizational structure and programs of action. 18. Fishery and Marine Resources – include not only finfish but also mollusk, crustaceans, echinoderms, marine mammals, and all other products derived from aquatic resources in any form. 19. Fishing – the taking of fishery species from the wild state or habitat, with or without the use of fishing vessels. 20. Fishing Gear – any instrument or device and its accessories utilized in taking fish and other fishery species. It ca be either of the following: Active Fishing Gear – fishing gear characterized by active movement and/or pursuit of the target species by towing, lifting, and pursuing the gears surrounding, covering, dredging, pumping and scaring the target species to impoundment or encirclements, such as but not limited, to trawl, purse seines, Danish seines, bag nets, push nets, cast nets, harvesting machines, beach seines, pa-aling, drift gill net and tuna long line. Passive Fishing Gear – is characterized by the absence of gear movement and/or the pursuit of the target species such as, but not limited to, hook and line, fish pots, traps and gill nets across the path of the fish. 21. Fishing Vessel – any vessel, boat, ship or other watercraft equipped to be used for taking of fishery species or aiding or assisting one or more vessels at sea in the performance of any activity relating to fishing, including but not limited to the preservation, supply, storage, refrigeration, transportation and processing. 22. Gratuitous Permit – a permit issued to marginal and subsistence municipal fishers free of any charges. 23. Mangroves – a community of inter tidal plants including all species of trees, shrubs, vines and herbs on coasts, swamps, or border of swamps. 24. Monitoring – for monitoring fisheries, this may include long -term observation of : 1.) fishing effort which can be expressed by the number of days or hours of fishing, number of fishing gears and number of fishers; 2.) characteristics of fishery resources ; and 3.) resource yields or catch. 25. Municipal fishers – persons who are engaged in municipal fishing and are/or fishing within the municipal waters. 26. Municipal fishing – refers to fishing using fishing vessels of three(3) gross tons or less or fishing not requiring the use of fishing vessels within the (15 ) kilometers distance from the shoreline. 27. Municipal Government – refers to the municipal government of Miag-ao. 28. Municipal Waters – include not only streams, lakes, inland bodies of water and tidal waters within the municipality which are not subject of private ownership and not included within the national parks, brackish water fishpond leased by the government, and national fishery reserves, refuge and sanctuaries but also marine waters included between two lines drawn perpendicular to the general coastline from points where the boundary lines of the municipality touch the sea at low tide and a third line parallel with the general coastline including offshore islands and fifteen kilometers from such coastline. Where two municipalities are so situated on opposite shores such that there is less than thirty kilometers of marine waters between them, the third line shall be a line equidistant from the opposite shores of the respective municipalities. 29. Non-Government Organization (NGO) – refers to an agency, institution, a foundation or a group of persons whose purpose is to assist people’s organization/ association in various ways including but not limited to organizing, education, training, research and /or resource accessing. 30. Over fished Area- an area within the municipal waters which cannot sustain the fisheries. It can be due to any of the following types of over fishing: (i) too much harvesting in such a way that the mean sized of fish captured is sub-optimal for providing effective yields from a fishery; (ii) intense fishing pressure by which the process of fishery restocking through reproduction and resettlement is impaired; (iii) shift in community structure from a fishery dominated by valuable species to one dominated by species of less economic value or utility; and (iv) when resource users faced with declining catches and lacking any other alternative, initiate wholesale resource destruction in their effort to maintain their incomes. 31. People’s Organization – a bonafide and duly accredited association of citizens with demonstrated capacity to promote the public interest and with identifiable leadership membership and structure. Its members belong to a sector/s in the community who voluntarily band themselves together to work for their own upliftment, development and greater good. 32. Permit – documents issued to license holders before engaging in fishing using particular gear and/ or boat or engage in any fisheries activities within the municipality. 33. Persons – natural or juridical entities such as individuals, associations, partnership, cooperatives or corporations. 34. RA 8550 – Republic Act no. 8550, otherwise known as the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998. It is the national law that governs the management and conservation of the fisheries resources of the country. 35. Sanctuary – a designated area within the municipal waters where fishing and other human activities are prohibited.