LOKOY Nagac, 53, woke up early on Saturday to have a feel of the Macajalar Bay which is part of the morning ritual of Barangay Bonbon’s grizzled fishermen.
But after gazing through the end-part of the sea horizon, particularly to Camiguin island’s direction, Nagac’s face turned bleak as he blurted the obvious expectation shared by everyone on the shore.
“How can we go fishing tonight when the weather condition is not good again,” Nagac frustratingly asked his fellow fishers, pointing a hand to a sea of clouds that started to accumulate just above the sea waters from afar.
Nagac shared that what they’ve seen early is the weather sign they strictly follow in a traditional way that always plays a significant role in their decision whether to go on fishing or not before the break of darkness.
“Today was no different from the past few days. It might be raining again and it's not favorable for us,” said Nagac, who now considered hunting for squids in the absence of tamban (sardine) fish.
Just recently, the families of fishermen along Macajalar Bay felt compensated by the lowly sardine's scarcity when their breadwinners went home with many boxes of hipon in tow.
On Tuesday alone, the Tamban hunters from Purok 4 Baybay, Bonbon led by Tokan Pactolerin, and his brother Sherwin returned with around 100 boxes of the small beady-eyed fish, swept from the upland river streams.
“Kon dili sa hipon, mag nganga gyod ang taga baybay kay krisis na kaayo ang panamban,” said villager Esteban Oguimas.
Yesterday was heartbreaking as both tamban and hipon had disappeared altogether from Bonbon fishing’s orbit.
“Wala gyoy kuha,” rued Kardo del Puerto.
To Del Puerto and company’s only consolation is the scheduled fluvial parade on Sunday in time of the city fiesta celebration of Cagayan de Oro in honor of the patron saint, Saint Augustine of Hippo.
Del Puerto’s boat is one of more than 20 fishing vessels from Bonbon, Bayabas, and Macabalan that will be used in the annually-held fiesta sea parade that will start this morning in Barangay Bonbon.
The city government will be renting each boat from P2,500 to P5,000 with the ones to host the Black Nazarene icons commanding the highest amount.
“It’s already good for us in times of crisis,” said Del Puerto.
He recalled that in midyear of 2021 when tamban catch was at its low, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had come to their rescue, aiding them with P5,000 cash per family plus a half sack of rice.
“This year we endure already eight-straight months of tamban drought and the same government support has yet to come knocking on our doors,” Del Puerto said in vernacular.
The marginalized fisherfolk were optimistic, however, that the influx of hipon would come and bless them in September when the moon would be deemed darker.
Unlike before when the seasonal hipon would come only in January or February, there's been a sighting of them every two months since April this year.
And they attributed it to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ stricter laws against mining activities in the upland areas.
“We learned that illegal minings in the city’s upland barangays have been neutralized by the DENR. Their chemicals for gold processing such as mercury and cyanide are the killers of ‘Anga’ and ‘Iswel’ river fishes that breed a multitude of hipon species down to Macajalar Bay,” Oguimas explained.
“The DENR’s good job means a lot of hipon. So we remain hopeful,” he added.
For her part, BFAR personnel Ma. Arlene Caminero said their office in Puntod, Macabalan has been mapping out plans to mitigate the sad plight of the local fishing business.
“(The) Year 2021 had its crisis, but this year got worsened as many days of zero catch of tamban fish had been experienced especially in Bonbon area since January. This is a serious problem not only for them (fishers) but for all of us the consumers,” Caminero said.
