The Philippines has about 7,107 islands, but no one for sure know how long the country’s coastline is. The United States measured it as 36,289 kilometers but the Philippine government sets a far more conservative: 17,500 kilometers.
“The true figure will surely depend on parameters of the measurements criteria, but whichever you choose, it’s long,” writes Lindsay Bennett in her globetrotter island Guide, Philippines.
Senator Loren Legarda, in one of her recent speeches, said the “coastline is indented with several bays and gulfs.” She added that country has “about 132 principal rivers throughout the archipelago which drain through the coastal zones.”
The country claims some 220 million hectares as its territorial waters: 193.4 million hectares of which are part of the oceans and the remaining 26.6 million hectares belong the what is called as Exclusive Economic Zone.
“Suffice to say that the country is truly blessed with its bounty of natural resources thriving in these water bodies,” said a position paper from Philippine Economic, Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting (PEENRA).
It is not surprising that fish is the second staple food of Filipinos – after rice. About 56% of Filipinos’ animal protein comes from fish, and 91% of fish caught in-country are consumed domestically, pointed out Oceana Philippines, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization. “Not only is fish a vital food source, it also provides livelihood for millions of Filipinos,” it said in its press statement.
More than ever, the demand for fish is greater as population continues to grow. The Philippines is now home to more than 100 million people. In 2015, Filipino households consumed about 101 grams per capita per day of fish and fish products, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute said.
The bad news is that the country’s fishery resources are fast dwindling. “During the past decades, the people have enjoyed the abundance of the Philippine marine fishery resource,” the PEENRA paper noted. “Ask the old fisherfolks how they culled their harvests. Many of them would say that fish sized with less than a foot rule will automatically be thrown back to the water. Back then, they even have the luxury to choose the most palatable fish among the wide variety of species thriving in a particular fishing ground.”
But such is not the case anymore. “We are running out of fish and running out of time,” decried Vince Cinches, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia. “For a country known for marine biodiversity, there are very few fish left to catch.”
As a matter of fact, some of the fishes that used to abound in the country’s waters are now facing extinction, according to the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Take the case of tawilis (scientific name: Sardinella tawilis), which may disappear from swimming in the waters of Taal Lake in Batangas.
The IUCN has included the freshwater fish as endangered species. “Within Lake Taal, there are major threats to fish diversity and this species due to overexploitation, pollution and competition and/or predation with introduced fishes, resulting in continuing declines in habitat quality and number of mature individuals,” it said in a statement.
Late last year, the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity reported that the Ark of Taste International has listed tawilis in the “catalogue of endangered heritage foods of the Philippines.”
A species is considered endangered when it is seriously at risk of extinction. The inclusion of tawilis in the endangered list is a “wake-up call,” to quote the words of Dr. Mudjekeewis Santos of the National Academy of Science and Technology, for Filipinos as tawilis can only be found in the Philippines and it is the only freshwater sardine in the world.
“(Tawilis) is found in the third largest lake in the country with an area of more than 66,000 hectares and average depth of 60 meters,” said Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, a fishery expert who popularized tilapia as the country’s most popular fish after bangus. “The fish was landlocked with the formation of Taal Volcano, about 100,000 years ago, which separated the body of water from the sea.”
Although small, about six- to seven-inches long, tawilis is the most dominant fish catch in the lake. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Research (BFAR), a line agency of the Department of Agriculture, said the fish is caught by gill net, beach seine, ring net and motorized push net.
Taal Lake is a tourist destination as it has been described as “a lake within a lake and a volcano within a volcano.” We had been to lake once but unfortunately haven’t tried tawilis. People who have tasted the fish said tawilisis really mouth-watering.
Dr. Aristotle Carandang, chief science research specialist at the Department of Science and Technology, considers tawilis as “the pride of Southern Tagalog.” He says, “Tawilis is best eaten as dried (for frying), deep fried (eat everything), and as pinais (paksiw na nakabalot sa dahon ng saging. There are also bottled tawilis sold in supermarkets.”
“I love the deep-fried style,” says Dr. Richard T. Mata, a physician from Panabo City who never fails to order tawilis whenever he goes to Tagaytay. “They always say that the beauty of tawilis is that you can eat the whole fish without removing the bones. My son loves it, too.”
In addition to raw consumption, tawilis is also processed into various food products. It is one of the many fish species dried, salted and sold as daing in the country. They are also smoked and bottled in oil, and sold commercially.
Overfishing has been cited as the primary culprit on why it has become an endangered species. “The major cause of the drastic decline in the tawilis catch of the fisherfolk in the lake is overfishing, wherein the rate of human exploitation of the fish surpassed the ability of the fish to replenish itself,” commented Dr. Guerrero, who used to be the director of the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development.
The Marine Wildlife Watch in the Philippines (MWWP), in an infographic that was posted in its Facebook, reported that the tawilis population has decreased by at least 50% in the last decade. It said that the reported total catch of tawilis was 1,672 metric tons in 1998. The total catch of the fish dropped to 240 metric tons in 2005 and further dipped to 107 metric tons in 2010.
The use of illegal fishing gear has also contributed to the fish’s demise. “The illegal use of trawlers and ‘superlights’ to attract the fish at night in the past almost wiped out the species,” Dr. Guerrero claimed.
Something must be done to save the tawilis from extinction. Or else, the country will lose an icon culturally, a significant fish historically and a big loss to Philippine cuisine. “Ecologically, without tawilis, Taal Lake will become less biodiverse, unbalanced, and less resilient to environmental changes,” explains Dr. Arnel “AA” Yaptinchay, MWWP founder and director.
Once tawilis is gone from the waters of Taal Lake, it will be gone forever. “If lost, it can never be replaced again,” Dr. Yaptinchay reminds.
Several things can be done to keep tawilis from thriving. “Address all the threats simultaneously,” Dr. Yaptinchay suggests. “Government needs to step in and regulate activities in the lake and manage fishing activities by introducing closed seasons for tawilis, and probably even a temporary ban until a non-determent finding is done.
“More biological and ecological studies should be conducted, especially in culturing the species,” he adds.
Here’s a good news. Dr. Maris Mutia of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute has already submitted her recommendation for a closed season (period of no fishing) during the peak spawning time of thetawilis to the Protected Area Management Board and the local government unit in
Aside from tawilis, there are other sardine species like Sardinella lemuru and S. gibbosa (usually canned or dried) that also need to be properly managed.
“We need to make sure that there is science-based management of sardines, do more scientific studies on the matter, and implement conservation measures to ensure that we will have sardines forever,” pointed out Oceana Philippines, a non-government organization trying to save the world’s oceans. (To be continued)
