Philippines boosts Northern Samar tuna fishing with boats and gear
Northern Samar fisherfolk got PHP 42.7 million in boats and gear, but the real test is whether the new handline fleet lifts tuna landings or just spreads crews thinner.
More boats and better gear have reached Northern Samar’s tuna grounds, but the bigger question is whether the added capacity will translate into steadier catches, safer trips and stronger local income, or simply send small crews farther out after the same fish.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources turned over PHP 42.7 million worth of support to four fisherfolk groups in the province on Friday, May 22, 2026. The beneficiaries were the Barangay Talolora CFLC Fisherfolks Association in Palapag, the Mapanas Pacific Town Fisherfolk Association, the Lapinig Deep Sea Fishing Association and the Barangay Mualbual Bangkulis Fisherfolks Association in Laoang. The package included a 62-foot fiberglass-reinforced plastic handline fishing boat to serve as the mother boat, plus smaller auxiliary catch vessels and fishing gear for the four groups. BFAR Eastern Visayas said the distribution came under its Tuna Development Program and Capacitating Municipal Fisherfolks Program, both aimed at strengthening coastal communities that depend on the Pacific tuna fishery.
That matters because Northern Samar is not starting from zero. BFAR’s provincial profile says the province has 24 municipalities, 21 coastal municipalities, 200 coastal barangays and a 429-kilometer coastline. Tuna is already listed as one of its champion fishery commodities, with Palapag, Gamay, Mapanas, Lapinig, Biri, Laoang and San Isidro identified as tuna handline or hook-and-line areas. BFAR expects the new package to generate around 160 metric tons of fish a year, worth about PHP 32 million, while the eastern seaboard of Northern and Eastern Samar is estimated to yield around 600 tons of tuna annually.
This is also not the first time BFAR has tried to raise the province’s tuna take with bigger assets. In March 2023, it turned over the F/V DA-BFAR 2102 purse-seine vessel to the Northern Samar Pacific Towns Fishermen’s Cooperative in Mapanas, in coordination with local governments in Mapanas, Palapag, Lapinig, Laoang and Gamay. That project was valued at about PHP 39 million, and BFAR said then that Northern Samar had almost 1,000 tuna fishers who mostly relied on traditional methods. The agency projected that the vessel could add 180 to 200 metric tons of production, or about 5.4 percent, in a zone that sits within the Tuna Conservation and Management Zone.
For Northern Samar’s tuna crews, the real measure now is simple: whether more boats, more gear and a stronger mother-boat setup open up the fishery without overloading it. The province already has the water, the fish and the handline tradition; this turnover will show whether that is enough to make the access better, or just make the chase longer.
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