BFAR Administrative Circular No. 238-1: Series of 2013. Amending several provisions of Fisheries Administrative Order No. 238, series of 2012.

This Circular is issued to amend several provisions of Fisheries Administrative Order No. 238, series of 2012 Rules and Regulations Governing the Implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008 on the Catch Certification Scheme .

Section 1 is amended to further clarify item 2 and to include the following objectives: "2. Ensure full traceability of fishery products derived from legal, reported and regulated fishing activities in the Philippines, at all stages from harvesting and processing to marketing;" 5. Update and revise as necessary, procedures on the catch documentation scheme to conform to developments in international markets; 6. Ensure continued global market access of Philippine fish and fishery products;". Section 3 is amended to clarify the scope of application of the regulation, as follows: "This Order shall apply to all foreign or Philippine flagged fishing vessels that supply raw materials to canneries, processors or exporters for processing prior to the export of the processed fishery products to EU-member countries, and to Philippine flagged fishing vessels directly exporting raw materials to EU-member countries. This Order shall also apply to canneries, processors, and exporters which are exporting fishery products to EU- member countries."

Other amendments are made for: declaration of catch landing and transshipment, regular catch certificate, catch origin landing declaration(COLD), traceability, mandatory monitoring of production/ processing activities, etc. For purpose of catch documentation scheme, the mother catch certificate and consignment catch certificate will no longer be issued. Only regular catch certificate will be issued. Risk-based monitoring of processing activities of raw materials intended for export to EU shall be undertaken by authorized BFAR personnel to ensure that accredited traceability system/procedures are strictly followed and therefore ensuring full traceability of fishery products inside the processing plants.