LIFT NETS

Lift Net Fishing

         The liftnet is one of the major fishing gear types in both the municipal and commercial fishing sectors. The commercial liftnets namely, bagnet and round haul seine ranked fourth and ninth, respectively among the commercial gear by contribution 8.5% of the 1995 commercial fishery production. The municipal lift nets composed of the bagnet and crab liftnet contributed 1.88% of the 1995 municipal fishery production.

            The production of the different types of municipal and commercial liftnets are shown below. The bagnet increasing in catch while the round haul seine declined in 1995 as shown in Table 23. The bagnet among the liftnets is the most important gear in the municipal fishery contributing the highest production as shown in Table 24.

TABLE 23 PRODUCTION OF COMMERCIAL BAGNET AND ROUND-HAUL SEINE 1993-1995                                       (METRIC TONS)

Fishing Gear
Volume (metric tons)
1993
1994
1995
Bagnet
53,889
76,499
77,891
Round Haul Seine
242
2,225
1,528

TABLE 24 PRODUCTION OF MUNICIPAL BAGNET, CRABLIFTNET, ROUND HAUL SEINE AND                                    LIFTNET, 1995 (METRIC TONS)

Fishing Gear

Volume

Percentage share to total municipal production

Bagnet

Crab liftnet

Round Haul Seine

Liftnet

8,663

6,148

6,467

2,970

35.78

25.35

26.67

12.25

Source : Fisheries Statistics, 1993-1995. BAS

             Commercial and municipal liftnets have similar species in the catch composition. The dominant species are roundscad, sardines and anchovies. The 1995 statistics indicated an increase in production for almost all species as shown in Table 25 and 26.

TABLE 25 DOMINANT FISH SPECIES CAUGHT BY COMMERCIAL BAGNET,1993-1995                                                (METRIC TONS)

Species

1994

1995

Roundscad

Anchovies

Indian Sardines

Fimbriated Sardines

Frigate Tuna

Squid

Slipmouth

25,187

10,872

18,466

4,367

5,000

1,779

1,310

27,505

14,114

16,979

4,417

2,895

1,817

1,911

TABLE 26 DOMINANT FISH SPECIES CAUGHT BY COMMERCIAL ROUND  HAUL SEINE , 1993-                           1995(METRIC TONS)

Species

1994

1995

Anchovies

Roundscad

Fimbriated Sardines

Frigate Tuna

Slipmouth

Crevalle

Indian Sardines

Deep-Bodied Sardines

98

594

34

173

10

58

837

123

1,206

5

28

47

134

-

-

-

Source : Fisheries Statistics, 1993-1995, BAS

            Liftnets are mostly operated in municipal waters. Some liftnets like the crab liftnet, shrimp lift net and stationary lift net are set in shallow waters while other kinds of fish liftnet and round haul seine are operated in deeper waters. These are classified according to the targeted species and method of operation.

 

Fishing Gear and Methods

           Lift nets in the Philippines can be grouped into four type.

   8.1   Portable Liftnets

   8.2   Fish Liftnets

   8.3   Stationary Liftnets

   8.4   Round Haul Seine