Fisheries Management in Honda Bay

1. EddieDomingo

3. Introduction
is one of the three bays surrounding
Puerto Princesa City, the capital of Palawan Province on the
northwestern portion of the Philippines.

5. Introduction
The city has 66 barangays of which 18 are found along
Honda Bay, which has an area of about 28,000 ha and a
coastal population of about 50,000.
Extensive shallow coral reef platforms, seagrass beds,
sand cays and mangrove swamps surround the bay and its
islands forming part of the nearshore ecological system of the
larger Sulu Sea marine ecosystem (Sandalo 1994).

6. Introduction
The semi-enclosed waters of Honda Bay are
economically and ecologically important, with numerous
marine species being nurtured in its lagoons and estuaries.
In the early 1980s, coastal residents of the bay still
enjoyed bountiful coastal resources. Average fish catch per
fishing trip of fishers was 36.5 kg in 1985.
Coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves were of good
quality (Sandalo 1994).

7. Introduction
Honda Bay provides a source of livelihood and
supports tourism, through its many small islands.
Compared to other bays across the country, some
critical littoral ecological habitats of Honda Bay are still
in fair condition with relatively thick mangrove forest,
diverse seaweed and seagrass beds (Roleda et al.
2001).

9. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
Due to its central location and growing
urbanization and population in the area, Honda Bay is
being subjected to increasing resource uses and conflicts,
resulting in more potential for overexploitation.
Fishers from other regions and municipalities
migrate to Honda Bay for greater livelihood prospects. The
estimated coastal population has increased from 12,500
in 1990 to 50,000 in 2000.

10. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
Like most other bays in the country, Honda Bay has also
shown signs of fish resource deterioration. The bay was
categorized as lightly fished with a density of 3 fishers km-1 in
1980 (Fox 1986), but in 2001, it became moderately to heavily
fished with a 900% increase to some 26 fishers km-1 (Aliño et al.
2001a).
Average fish catch per fishing trip declined from 36.5 kg
in 1985 (Sandalo 1994) to 2 kg in 2000. The increase in catch in
2003 was true only in areas near a fish sanctuary (Figure 2).

11. Figure 2. Average fish catch per trip in Honda Bay
36.5 kg
2 kg
1985 20001985 2000
36.5 kg
2 kg

12. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
In 2000, the potential demersal yield of Honda Bay was
3,430 t•year-1 while the demersal catch was 8,781 t•year-1 (Luna et
al. 2001). Annual baywide demersal catch exceeds harvestable
potential yield. These circumstances suggest that the demersal
fishes of Honda Bay are being overfished. Several fish species
exhibit exploitation ratios beyond the optimum range and the
economic value of faunal assemblages has been declining since
1980, which also indicates growth and recruitment overfishing. If
these rates of harvesting continue, the Honda Bay fisheries is facing
a disastrous fate.

13. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
The declining demersal fisheries call for
management measures to reduce fishing effort. Recent
anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been a
decrease in illegal fishing activities, due in part to an
incentive system implemented by the city for illegal
fishers to convert to legal fishing gears. However, the
fisheries are still in an open access state, with no clear
licensing or limited access regime.

14. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
According to fishers in Honda Bay, their
shellfish resources were bountiful in the 1970s
until traders and divers from other parts of the
country came to Palawan and harvested different
kinds of commercial shellfishes. At present,
fishers express apprehension regarding activities
of encroaching fishers using compressor for
fishing in Honda Bay.

15. Moderately to Heavily Exploited Bay?
Although Honda Bay is showing increased signs of fish
resource deterioration, Luna et al. (2001) still categorized it as
moderately exploited because of the low estimates of 17 fishing
boats and 26 fishers per km2 (Aliño et al. 2001a). The coral reef
cover is of fair to good quality (Aliño et al. 2001b), and the reef
fishes are moderate in terms of diversity, abundance and biomass
(Nañola and Rodriguez 2001). The low numbers of fishers/fishing
boats in the bay may indicate that they are using very efficient
gears. Also, since many fishers are transient, it is likely that the
density of boats and fishers was underestimated.

17. Management Issues
Although plans for specific action mechanisms and
implementation are included in the Honda Baywide Plan,
actual implementation is limited. The management
problems of coastal and fishery resources are
compounded by conflicts between tourist boat operators’
association and commercial resort owners, the presence
of transient fishers and different interests of fishers
regarding fishing rights.

18. Management Issues
Monitoring, control and surveillance need improvement.
Coordination among the bay’s stakeholders, including
institutions, is improving, through the creation of sectoral
committees in the city government. The Environmental and
Natural Resources Sectoral Committee regularly convenes the
agencies involved in CRM to discuss issues and concerns.
However, the Integrated CRM Network, which is under the
committee, needs full support to assign a specific body to attend
to specific issues.

19. Management Issues
 strong political will;
 continuous funding support from LGU and other sectors;
 continuous capability-building and monitoring;
 continuous advocacy and awareness activities;
 empowerment of coastal communities, with clear support;
 close coordination between NGOs and LGUs;
 existence of coastal law enforcement group both at baywide and barangay
levels;
 establishment of additional marine sanctuaries; and
 application of fisheries licensing system.
The factors to achieve success in Honda Bay management are as follows:

21. Conclusion
Palawan is considered “
”. Various agencies, organizations
and funding mechanisms are involved in the
implementation of coastal and fisheries management in
Honda Bay and the province as a whole. Several resource
assessments have been conducted. National recognition
has also been given, e.g., Puerto Princesa City was given
the “Galing Pook” (excellent place) award for its coastal
law enforcement activities.

22. Conclusion
Although the coral reef associated fishes, coral
cover, diversity of seagrasses and seaweeds, and
mangrove swamps of Honda Bay are categorized as being
in fair and moderate condition, the bay is showing signs
of deterioration of its fish resources and ecosystems.
Annual baywide demersal catch exceeds harvestable
potential yield, several fish species exhibit exploitation
ratios beyond the optimum range and a decline in
economic value of the overall faunal assemblage.

23. Conclusion
The bay appears to be on the whole overexploited, albeit only
moderately according to the literature. Surveys show that several coastal
habitats in the bay are in moderate and fair conditions, while most fish
resources are overexploited, indicative of excessive fishing pressure.
Thus, applications of licensing system and control of open access
fisheries (e.g., marine sanctuaries) may help regulate the fishing effort. This
indicates the need for further management interventions before it can be
said that fisheries and habitats are being managed at sustainable levels.
From a national perspective, this means that there is still a long way to go
towards sustainable management of fisheries resources of Honda Bay and
those of the country, which are in a worse condition than those of Palawan.

24. Conclusion
This suggests that there are still certain missing
elements in fisheries management in the country which
need to be explored. The correction of the “open access”
system through licensing and limited access regimes is
essential. We must also look at the larger fisheries
ecosystem in management and broaden the scope of
coastal management to include upland problems and
population issues.
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