Closed Season Policy Is Only Partly Practiced in Surigao del Sur, Philippines

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) make a critical contribution in terms of employment and food security to coastal communities. Fish serves multiple purposes, mainly as a cheap source of protein and minerals for lower-income families. In order to help sustain this demand and to protect fishing resources, the closed season policy, temporal closure, and spatial closure were adopted to protect fish stocks and avoid fishery collapse. To assess the agreement and compliance of the three municipalities (Cortes, Lanuza, and Lianga) in Surigao del Sur to this policy, we surveyed their responses regarding this policy. We used focus group discussions, two focus groups per municipality (N = 80), followed by member checking to gather and clarify the data from six barangays with small-scale fishers (N = 192). The findings indicate that each community in the three municipalities studied have a different method of implementing the fishery closure or closed fishing season policy which resulted in a limited conservation impact on fish stocks. In the municipality of Cortes, 92% agreed with the policy, provided there would be enough money to comply with the policy. In Lanuza, 60% agreed to implement the policy, provided there would be alternative jobs available. In contrast, the municipality of Lianga, which did not implement this policy, had only 4% that agreed to impose the policy to restore depleted fish stocks. Other reasons for not implementing a closed season policy include lack of community organization, poor fishery management, and lack of strong government support for the policy. Moreover, fishers were only willing to stop fishing if they were given a subsidy of PHP 15,000 per month. In the long term, fishers who provide fish protein needs for the nation also need help and attention from policy and decision makers to realize sustainable fisheries.