Quarterly Commercial Fisheries Survey (Traditional Landing Centers) 2009

The quarterly volume and value of commercial fisheries production by species by province are the data generated by the survey. The Fisheries Statistics Division of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) maintains quarterly data series since 2002. Prior to 2002, only annual commercial fisheries data were available by province by region and by species. These data were published in the yearly publication entitled Fisheries Statistics of the Philippines.

The then Philippine Fisheries Commission published annually the statistical yearbook entitled Fisheries Statistics of the Philippines. This yearbook consisted mainly of data on volume of unloading of commercial fishing vessels derived from Fish Caught Reports submitted monthly by commercial fishing vessel operators. Summarization and tabulation of these reports were handled by the Economics and Statistics Section of the Commission. No statistical survey was undertaken for this purpose.
However, there was the impression that commercial fishing boat operators might be under-reporting their catch because of tax-related concerns. To correct this probable underestimation of catch, a raising factor was applied to the reported volume of catch. From 1951 to 1962, a raising factor of three (3) was used and was raised to four (4) until 1968. Seemingly, this method had no scientific basis and it was found out to have many defects. Data users, both local and international, raised questions about official statistics on fisheries, particularly, catch and landings in terms of reliability and meeting the needs of planners. This situation led to the visit of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Statisticians who recommended improvements in the fisheries statistical system in the Philippines.

Several innovations were introduced by the FAO Statisticians. Aside from the fish caught reports, actual survey was conducted in major landing centers in the country in 1976. The estimated monthly unloading in a sample landing center was divided by the total catch reported in the fish caught reports submitted by fishing boat operators for the same month. The result was the correcting factor to be used for minor or non-surveyed landing centers in the province.

A survey design for commercial and municipal fisheries was developed and implemented in 1976 as pilot year. Improvements in surveys included additional data items in the survey forms such as number of boats unloading, volume of fish landed by species, by fishing gear, by fishing ground, number of hauls made during the fishing trip, number of trips made during the month, number of fishing hours. This was done until the mid-80s.

When the mandate of collecting fisheries statistics was transferred from BFAR to BAS in 1987, actual field data collection was temporarily suspended for administrative reasons. Alternative methods of estimation were used to produce fisheries statistics in the absence of surveys. Estimates of fish production was done at national level with some indicators coming from operations centers. Regional and provincial outputs were distributed with 1985 as the baseline data.

Improvements in the survey design were implemented through the years, until the quarterly survey of landing centers was adopted in 2002. Due to budgetary constraints, this quarterly survey of traditional fish landing centers was deemed to be the most appropriate design to get the desired information on volume and value of fish production. Since then, the BAS generated statistics on fish production by quarter, by province and by region.