Central Luzon’s Total Volume of Fisheries Production Decrease by 2.0 Percent

The region’s total fisheries production declined by 2.0 percent, from 115,485.0 metric tons in the first quarter of 2024 to 113,188.0 metric tons in the same period of 2025. This decrease was primarily attributed to the lower production in inland municipal and aquaculture fisheries, which dropped by 16.2 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. In contrast, commercial fisheries production registered a notable increase of 60.1 percent. (Figure 1 and Table 1)
 

Aquaculture Fisheries Production Decline by 3.0 Percent

The region’s volume of harvest from aquaculture farms was recorded at 100,950.0 metric tons in the first quarter of 2025. This reflects a decline of 3.0 percent compared to 104,030.7 metric tons recorded during the same period in 2024. Among the fisheries subsectors, aquaculture remained the largest contributor, accounting for 89.2 percent of the region’s total fisheries production.

The slight decrease in aquaculture production was primarily attributed to a significant drop of 2.95 metric tons in freshwater fishpond which contributed to overall decline, at 95.9 percent. On the other hand, increases were recorded in the production of freshwater cage, marine cage, seaweed, and brackishwater fishpond. (Figure 2 and Table 2)
 

Municipal Fisheries Production in Central Luzon Increase by 3.2 Percent

Central Luzon’s total municipal fisheries production increased by 3.2 percent, from 10,728.6 metric tons in the first quarter of 2024 to 11,076.4 metric tons in the same period of 2025. This overall growth was driven by the 23.4 percent increase in marine municipal fisheries production, which reached 6,508.0 metric tons in the first quarter of 2025. Conversely, inland municipal fisheries production declined by 16.2 percent, or 884.3 metric tons, from 5,452.7 metric tons in 2024 to 4,568.4 metric tons in 2025.

Municipal fisheries contributed 9.8 percent to the region’s total fisheries production, with 5.7 percent from marine municipal and 4.0 percent from inland municipal fisheries. (Figure 3, and Tables 3 and 4)

Commercial Fisheries Production Up by 60.1 Percent 

The volume of production in commercial fisheries recorded a significant increase of 60.1 percent, or 436.0 metric tons, from 725.6 metric tons in the first quarter of 2024 to 1,161.6 metric tons in the same period of 2025. (Figure 4 and Table 5)

ARLENE M. DIVINO
Regional Director
PSA RSSO 03

STATISTICAL TABLES

TECHNICAL NOTES

The Fisheries Production Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is divided into four (4) major fisheries surveys. These are the Quarterly Commercial Fisheries Survey (QCFS), Quarterly Municipal Fisheries Survey (QMFS), Quarterly Inland Fisheries Survey (QIFS), and Quarterly Aquaculture Survey (QAqS). 

The QCFS gathers information on the volume and price of species unloaded in the landing center.  It covers fishing operations in marine waters beyond 15 kilometers from the shoreline by fishing boats with more than three (3) gross tons.  In Central Luzon, QCFS is conducted in Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, and Zambales.

The QMFS also gathers information on the volume and price of species unloaded in the landing center.  However, unlike QCFS, it covers fishing operations performed in marine waters within 15 kilometers from the shoreline using fishing vessels of three (3) gross tons or less, or fishing not requiring the use of fishing vessels.  In Central Luzon, QMFS is conducted in Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Zambales.  

The QIFS gathers information on volume and price of species caught by inland fishing household.  Inland Fisheries covers fishing operations performed in inland bodies of water using fishing vessels of three (3) gross tons or less, or fishing not requiring the use of fishing vessels. QIFS is conducted in all provinces in Central Luzon.   

The QAqS gathers information on volume and price of species harvested in the aquafarms.  Aquaculture volume of production refers to aquaculture species harvested from the aquafarm that is in marketable size and in fresh form. Species harvested which will be used as input to another culture activity are not considered.  In Central Luzon, QAqS is conducted in all provinces. 

The sampling frames for the surveys of commercial and municipal fisheries were established in 2000 through a nationwide listing of landing centers (LCs). Updating of the lists was conducted over the years. The design used was a two-stage stratified random sampling with the landing centers as the first-stage sampling units and the fishing boats as the second stage sampling units. The landing centers were stratified based on volume of fish unloaded. However, starting second quarter of 2022, the redesigned QMFS utilized the 2021 Listing of Marine Fish Landing Centers (LMFLC) as the sampling frame and new sample selection procedure. The province was the domain of the survey. 

Inland municipal fisheries included fishing activities in inland bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, dams, marshes, swamps, etc. The unit of enumeration for QIFS is the household engaged in inland fishing. 

For aquaculture survey, the lists of brackishwater fishponds, freshwater fishponds, freshwater fish pens/fish cages, marine fish pens/fish cages, oyster/mussel and seaweed farms by province served as the sampling frames. Updating of list frames for aquaculture was done simultaneously with the landing center during the previous years. 

The reference and enumeration periods by survey round are as follows: