WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2019 35 top aquaculture product of the country, making up 67 percent of all aquaculture fisheries production in 2015. The Philippines was third after China and Indonesia in production of aquatic plants, including seaweeds. Among the three environments for aquaculture (freshwater, brackishwater, marine), the greatest production is in brackish water, which contributes 325,633 t or 14 percent of the total. Of this production, 99 percent is from ponds. Fresh water is the second most common environment for Philippine aquaculture, contributing 303,126 t of production (13 percent of total), most of it also in ponds. Most marine aquaculture systems are fish cages. In 2014, the Philippines ranked fifth in the world in terms of total aquaculture production of finfishes, molluscs, crustaceans, other aquatic animals and aquatic plants (FAO 2016). Brackishwater fish pond systems are primarily used to grow The Philippines is an archipelago in Southeast Asia with a total land and water area of about 300,000 km2. Bounded by major bodies of water on all sides, the country has a thriving fishing industry. The contribution of fisheries to the Gross Domestic Product in 2015 was 1.5 percent, which translates to US$3.8 billion (DA-BFAR 2015). In 2014, the country ranked twelfth in global marine capture fisheries, with a total output of 2.14 million t of marine products, or 2.6 percent of the world’s total production of 81.55 million t (FAO 2016). Most of the total fish produced by the country in 2015 is from the aquaculture sector, which accounted for 2.35 million t or 51 percent of the total, valued at US$1.85 billion (DA-BFAR 2015). Oysters, mussels and seaweeds account for 1.60 million t (68 percent) of aquaculture production (Table 1). Philippine mariculture is primarily seaweed farming; seaweeds account for 1.57 million out of 1.60 million t (98 percent). By sheer quantity, seaweeds are the Some Current Trends and Challenges in Philippine Aquaculture with an Emphasis on Synergies with Biodiversity Initiatives Ronald Allan L. Cruz, Vikas Kumar and Janice A. Ragaza In local public wet markets in the Philippines, wild-captured and aquacultured fish, crustaceans and plants are sold to avid consumers (Photo: J.A. Ragaza). (CONTINUED ON PAGE 36)
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