kaban galing - front cover - galing pook

21 CALBAYOG CITY
Sharing Responsibility, Sharing the Bounty
Coastal Zoning: Delineating Coastal Waters for
Commercial and Marginal Fishermen
CONFLICT inevitably arises when two or more entities compete in the
harvesting of resources in areas whose boundaries are contested. This
was certainly the case for the fisherfolk of Calbayog City.
When the Law was Not Enough
Calbayog City has a land area of 90,300 hectares, with a coastline of
35 kilometers and covering an approximate fishing area of 1,198 square
kilometers. Fish and other fishery products are among the primary
commodities of its 35 coastal barangays.
Over the years, the income of Calbayog’s small fisherfolk has steadily
declined. This is attributed to the presence of 800 to 1000 commercial
fishers in the coastal waters of Samar who have been encroaching into
municipal waters. These commercial fishers were apparently undeterred
by the Philippine Fisheries Code which bans commercial fishing within
15 kilometers from municipal coastlines. To make matters worse, the
city of is faced with a unique problem of having a neighbor island
municipality located only 13.5 kilometers away, which inevitably brings
up territorial boundary disputes.
To resolve the issues faced by his constituents, the mayor of initiated
dialogues with his counterparts in the neighboring municipalities. He
did the same with commercial and small fishers and other stakeholders.
The dialogues resulted in the Coastal Zoning Project, which delineated
boundaries of municipal waters and the establishment of a fishing
highway. The project aimed to (a) strengthen seaborne patrol operations
with the established communications network; (b) lessen illegal fishing
occurrences; and (c) increase fish catch and income of small fishers.
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