A maritime floating fish cage project installed in 2020 by the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Central Visayas has started giving actual benefits to the fishermen in Bohol’s southern town of Maribojoc.

The BFAR-Bohol Provincial Fishery Office on Monday said in a statement that members of the Maribojoc Coastal Barangay Law Enforcers Association have reaped the benefits of the maritime floating project with the harvest of 936 kilos of “bangus” from the fish cage installed off the shores of Poblacion village.

The harvest on Thursday translated into a whopping PHP117,000 of income from the sales of the first harvest of their second cage, it said.

BFAR-Bohol provincial fishery officer Candido Samijon said association members just sold their harvest at an affordable market price of between PHP120 and PHP130 per kilo.

The marine floating fish cage project was granted last year through the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) program of the DA and BFAR in Central Visayas.

The SAAD program aims to develop a scheme within three years for the association to eventually manage its own fishery business enterprise.

The 28-member association has two existing fish cages –the first one was a SAAD-aided project funded in 2019 while the other was earmarked on the succeeding year.

Samijon said part of the fish cage project costing over PHP210,000 are the 5,500 milkfish or “bangus” fingerlings and the 120 bags of fish feeds allotted for the first cropping.

The offshore fish cages served as livelihood intervention to the association which was tagged as among the marginalized fisherfolk group in Maribojoc town.

The local government unit of Maribojoc was quick to recognize the group because aside from its poverty status, the members shared a noble cause in protecting and conserving the marine resources, Samijon added.

The BFAR-7 said the project has given the association modern fishing technologies on top of its use of traditional fishing methods.

Based on the association’s income records in 2019, the group recorded a PHP222,600 profit from two separate harvests.

The first harvest that year yielded 905 kilograms of bangus that translated into some PHP108,600 revenues, while the second harvest yielded 950 kilograms of bangus that recorded PHP114,000 in sales. (PNA)