MRes students arrive in Calatagan, Philippines

Emily and Becca have just arrived in the Philippines. Follow their adventure here, on twitter @fishtalesphils and Instagram: fishtales_philippines.

Landing beach, ‘Balon Bato’ for the fishers of nearby Barangay. Fish are kept offshore, within walking distance from the beach. Credit: R.Turley

We arrived at our home for the next three months, after a 16 hour flight and long journey down from Manila, even driving past an active volcano! When we got to Calatagan we met Rey and Chewa, our partners from NGO Community Centred Conservation (C3), who we will be working with over our time here. Our accommodation is basic, but great, like living with family, but with very broken communication and a lot of hand gesturing.

The next day we got right into work. Rey and Chewa swept us around the Police Station and Municipal Hall to meet all of the relevant agencies and officials. It has been a lot more nodding and repeating ‘salamat-po’ (‘thank you’, one of the few Tagalog words we know so far!). If we weren’t so sweaty and clueless it might have been a more daunting experience meeting all of these high-ranking people. Everyone was very welcoming and seemed genuinely pleased to see us and learn more about why we are visiting their community.

Later on, we went to the beach where the aquarium fish are collected and were introduced to a couple of the fishers to the being introduction and scoping for our research. The beach was idyllic, but we learned that it has recently become a tourism hotspot, surrounded by several expensive resorts. One of the fishers briefly mentioned that they may lose use of this beach due to increased tourism. The fishers we met seemed really keen to show us how they fish and one of the fishers even invited us to his house, and then to join him on his fishing trip the following day.

Landing beach, ‘Balon Bato’ for the fishers of nearby Barangay. Fish are kept offshore, within walking distance from the beach. Photo credit: Rebecca Turley

We arrived at the beach at 7:30 am sharp. Rey, Chewa, and the two of us all climbed into the fisher’s small motor boat. The fisher took us to three different collection sites and so we were able to see which fish he caught, the gear used to collect the fish, and where he caught them. It was amazing to see how specialized his methods were to collect specific fish. He even let us try to collect one of the slowest moving fish, at which we failed miserably. It made us realize how difficult this job can be, using coral reef friendly techniques! The fisher also only collected the fish that he needed, and put back any extra fish back on the reef. We were really impressed with the skills the fisher possessed to collect his vast amount of fish. Not only was he successful in catching the exact species he wanted, but he was also extremely knowledgeable about each of the fishes’ behaviour. However, we were disappointed to learn that after all their effort, it is very rare for the fishermen to receive a higher price for the superior quality of species collected using net-based methods, instead of illegal cyanide to stun the fish.

The following week, the Byahero (middlemen) arrived at the landing site to take all the fish to Manila. Over two hours, the fishermen, together with their wives and children, packaged up all of the fish they had collected over the previous six days, and transferred them from ‘lambats’ (net-like enclosures kept in the sea) to large plastic bags. There was a strong sense of community among the fishers as they helped each other fill bags with oxygen, to increase fish survival. We were blown away with how many fish and bags were collected in just six days, at least 150 bags with tens of thousands of fish! There was huge variety of colours and species, ranging from many little gobies and damselfish to large tangs and angelfish. We were even privileged to see the prized Emperor Angelfish, worth a grand total of 500 pesos ($10).

We have had a very productive week, with many eye-opening experiences and a number of new research questions. Very excited to see what the next week has to offer.