Fisherfolk Registration

Last May 2013, the Municipal Fisherfolk Registration System or FishR was  introduced to fast-track the data-related process for the fisherfolk and was in compliance with Section 19 of the RA 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code  of 1998. FishR aimed to provide a standardized national registration system  of municipal fisherfolk.

FishR covers all “municipal fisherfolk” and “fishworkers”, persons directly or  indirectly engaged in municipal fishing and other related fishing activities,  members of the crew of a fishing vessel used for commercial fishing except the  duly licensed and/or authorized patrons, marine engineers, radio operators  and cooks, and fishery operators.

FishR serves as one of the criteria in selecting the Bureau’s programs and  projects beneficiaries and has been the basis in providing technical, livelihood  and other assistance to fisherfolk communities. FishR is an ongoing activity of  the Bureau and as of May 31, 2022, a total of 2,297,727 fisherfolk were already  registered in FishR system.

Boat Registration

The National Program for Municipal Fishing Vessels and Gears Registration or  BoatR is a support program of FishR that was launched on November 24, 2014 in cooperation with different agencies such as DILG, PCG, MARINA, LMP and  LCP. Municipal fishing vessels that are three gross tons and below and  municipal fishing gears are the components of the nationwide registration in  coming up with a national database. This was conceptualized as a requirement  under EO No. 305 s. 2004 and Sec. 19 of RA 8550 otherwise known as the  Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 that intended to assist the LGUs to properly  manage the projects and programs and eventually establish a Comprehensive  Fishery Information System. BoatR was continuously updated where a Mobile Application was developed  to speed up and simplify the calculation, automate the submission of the gross  tonnage of a municipal fishing vessel for use by the Municipal Agriculture  Officers. As of May 31, 2022, a total of 305,811 boats and fishing gears were  registered under the program.