Philippine Tuna Boats Are Going Dark Near Scarborough and Crews Aren't Hiding Why
Transponders off, lights low, AIS silent. Fishers from Zambales say it's the only way to come back with a catch and a boat.
By Maria Garcia
Tuna boats out of Zambales and Pangasinan have been switching off their AIS transponders before they get anywhere near Bajo de Masinloc. The crews aren't being subtle about it. Ask anyone unloading at the port and they'll tell you straight: the tracker stays on, the water cannon comes out.
This is the part of the West Philippine Sea story that doesn't make the press conference. Fishers know the choreography by now. Light up your position and a Chinese coast guard vessel shows up within hours. Go dark and you might get a few days of fishing before someone spots you on radar.
The math that pushes boats into the dark
A trip to the shoal isn't a flag-waving mission. It's diesel, ice, rice, and a crew that needs to get paid. Coming home empty isn't an option when the boat owner already fronted the money for the run.
Fisherfolk groups have been saying for years that catches inside municipal waters have collapsed. The fish are at the shoal. The shoal is contested. The transponder, which exists to keep boats safe and accountable, has become the thing that gets them chased off the only fishing ground left.
So the math writes itself. Stay legal and lose the trip. Go dark and maybe feed your family this month.
What going dark actually costs
Switching off AIS isn't free. It violates Philippine fisheries regulations and international maritime safety rules. If something goes wrong out there, a sinking, a medical emergency, a collision, nobody knows where the boat is. Search and rescue starts from a guess.
It also gives the government plausible deniability. If a boat without a transponder gets rammed or hosed down at the shoal, the official response gets murky fast. Were they even supposed to be there? Can we confirm they're ours? The silence on the tracker becomes silence on the diplomatic line.
Crews understand this. They've watched the footage. They've seen which boats get defended and which ones get treated like they wandered off the map on their own.
Enforcement that points the wrong way
BFAR and the Coast Guard keep issuing reminders about AIS compliance. Fishers keep ignoring them, because the agencies issuing the reminders are the same ones that can't guarantee a boat will make it back from the shoal with its catch and its windows intact.
The whole arrangement asks small operators to absorb a geopolitical fight on a fiberglass hull. Light up, get blasted. Go dark, break the law. Stay home, lose the boat to the financier who fronted the trip.
Lawmakers have proposed subsidies, fuel support, and escort missions. Most of it has stayed on paper. Meanwhile the boats keep leaving Masinloc at odd hours, transponders cold, running lights dimmed, crew sleeping in shifts.
The men coming back with tuna in the hold aren't asking for a statement at the UN. They want fuel they can afford, a radio that works, and a country that doesn't punish them for fishing where the fish are. Until that shows up at the pier, the trackers stay off.
