THERE are a lot of things, controversial things, to write about like the case of Tulfo trying to strip the license of a fellow teacher (retracted later), the 18-day stint of Vice President Leni Robredo as drug czar, or the embarrassing accommodation of foreign-athletes for the South East Asian Games (SEAG) but let others write on these things. I would rather delve on the thing which is seldom written about. I wrote something about the life of farmers/gardeners last week and I would like to continue this line of thought by writing about fisher folks today.
Fishery is part of the so-called marginalized sectors that suffer inequality in terms of economic income. Like the dilemma of farmers/gardeners, traders and owners get the larger shares of the profits or have more stable position in the fishery industry. Their source of food largely depends on their catch. No catch means absence or lack of sufficient meals on the table.
My father was a fisher folk so I have firsthand experience how the family of a fisherman goes by. Fisher folks usually wake up at 4 in the morning. With the use of small boats shaped from the main chunk of a large tree, they paddle offshore against the dark of the dawn using only their navigational skill honed from their day to day sojourn to the sea. They cast their nets into the open sea and wait until daybreak to haul them. Then people would wait on the shore to see if heaven blessed the fisher folks with generous catch. They do the same in the afternoon.
There are times that the seas are rough. These are the months when the easterly winds come by and when typhoons dropped by. In the place where I grow up, the sea is coarse during the months of November and December and fisher folks really have a hard time because they cannot go to sea. The problem is they do not have sufficient alternative sources of income at these times or during times when the sea does not provide them fish. So others do not heed the advice not to go and risk their lives going to the sea. Because for them, it’s either die in the sea or die on the land because of hunger.
One glaring problem of fisher folks in the country is the use of primitive or old style strategies in fishing. We use simple fishing boats that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters and calamities. This is why we have many cases of boat wrecks in the open sea. High waves can easily penetrate these boats and can throw out fisher folks out in one splash of a huge wave. Where to fish is usually dictated by fisher folks’ instincts and familiarization of the sea not on new technologies that display the presence of fish. Fishing boats of progressive countries contain a computerized device where it horns or beeps in the presence of fish.
Most fisher folks in the country still stick to the manual fishing techniques. Their haul their nets with their strength without the assistance of machines. I can still remember the line on my uncle’s palm caused by the nylon burn when he tried to pull a big fish. It was a deep line cut that describes the hardship of the ordinary fisher folks in the country.
In the northern part of the country near the Taiwan Strait, Philippine coastguards in the area would apprehend illegal foreign fisher folks usually Taiwanese. Local folks are amazed of their fishing gears and other fishing materials and gadgets. It is not surprising why they would get larger catch compared to ordinary Filipino fisher folks.
How can we make Philippine fishery a stable source of income among Filipinos? First, ensure that only Filipinos benefit the resources in our seas and other water bodies in the country. Protect them from foreign use. Second, fisher folks should be given orientation in the use of modern technologies and fishing gears that will make their life easier in the sea. Third, regulate the schedule of fishing, the size of fish to catch, the season of fishing for particular sea water species. Fifth, activate and empower the coastguards to employ strict discipline in the sea for the advantage of ordinary fisher folks. Sixth, provide a way where fisher folks can have direct access to the market to ensure that they are paid justly for their catch without middle persons/traders taking advantage of them. Seventh, the government should donate modern fishing equipment to the fisher folks and conduct regular monitoring to ensure of their proper usage. And also, make a record to all pertinent fishing activities including registering fisher folks, the kind of fishing boats they use, and the kind of fishing gears and equipment they possess. These records can make it easier for the government regulate fishery in the country.
In progressive countries, fishing is a sustainable job and business. We cannot speak of the same in the country because the reality is fisher folks here are generally poor. We think that it is the job for people who were not able to finish school, like farmers. But we can change this sad reality if we can make fishing a sustainable activity. We have the luxury of the vast seas and multiple number of water bodies, fishery should be progressive in the country. We would like to reach the point where fishery is not considered a job for the poor or uneducated, but a livelihood for those who have a deep love of the sea and its resources.