Fisheries production in the Philippines has achieved strong growth during the past decade, in spite of the impact of overfishing on fish stocks in a number of important fishing zones. The government's response has been to launch a series of initiatives to protect threatened marine areas and reduce the use of illegal fishing methods while promoting aquaculture to ensure the development of sustainable fisheries production in future. In one of its latest initiatives, the Bureau of Fisheries and AquaticResources is urging fishermen to develop mariculture, or sea cage farming, to cope with the effects of the El Nino phenomenon which, together with the effects of typhoons, have reduced the previous high rate of fisheries production growth in the Philippines by more than half during the past 18 months.
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