I am sure that I’ve written before about this… that a major dietary component of the Filipinos’ diet is fish. Since there is so much ocean coastline here, the fishes are virtually all of salt water origin. Inland mountainous areas rely more on fresh-water fish such as tilapia, most of which are grown in cages in the lakes. Many Filipinos live on simply rice, fish which they catch themselves, greens, and fruit from the land (bananas, coconut, papaya, etc.).

Many techniques are used to catch fish here, starting by gleaning from the tidal pools on the reef top at low tide. In that way, many kinds of invertebrates - shells, snails, small octopus, sea cucumbers, and crabs are caught by hand and taken home. Then there is the old stand-by, the hook and line to catch the many kinds of fishes. I have never seen a rod and reel used for fishing here. The hand line is used for fish ranging up to 150 pounds or more. There are nets of various types, traps, even improvised explosives and cyanide. To make traps and nets more efficient, the fish are sometime rounded up, by scaring them out of their holes in the reef. Swimmers in the water wearing their crudely carved wooden goggles fitted with ordinary glass lenses, hit the water surface to make noise, or pound on the reef with stones at the end of ropes – dozens and dozens of young boys breath-hold diving with stones on ropes. This is called muro-ami and is illegal, mainly because there are many young lives lost in its use, but also because of the damage muro-ami does to the reef. Dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing are also illegal because of their destructiveness to the reef. Scuba diving near dynamite fishing really makes an impression on you, believe me!

Boats are used to improve the chances of catching something. Simple canoes, outrigger bancas and motorized fishing bancas which can get quite large, and now for the little guy small, single passenger speedboats made of plywood fitted with a simple gasoline engine. This allows the artisanal fisherman to troll for jacks, mackerel and tunas, and to get around quickly to search for schools of fish. They use mobile phone text messages to alert their buddies to the good spots to fish – a logical adaptation of modern technology.

The use of these speedboats in my area is a recent event. Hardly anyone paddles or sails around anymore. I classify these speed boats along with jet-skis and snowmobiles. In other words, they are a public nuisance in many cultures. But almost nothing is a nuisance to the Filipino public, so I keep my mouth shut.

The single-mindedness brought on by hunger results in catching anything and everything that can be caught. Size, species, gender notwithstanding, anything big enough to be caught in the net is kept. It is not unusual to see young tuna in the catch that are 4-5” long or even smaller. The idea of releasing them so they can grow to their 60 inch mature size is not operative – there are too many hungry kids at home. Excess catch is sold for badly needed money. Indeed, at my house we are often offered freshly caught fish for sale. We eat a lot of fish, so usually make a deal with the happy fisherman.

We often see piles of fingerling fish (dilis) for sale in the local markets. They are used to make fermented fish sauce (bagoong, patis) but can also be fixed up fresh for the dining table. These dilis are also dried for storage, and are delicious when fixed in a number of ways. I suspect that many of these small fish may never grow larger than sardine size, even if allowed to do so. But there is always the question in my mind about that.

This morning, my wife presented me with an egg omelet made with these fingerlings. It was served Vietnamese style, cut up in bite-sized pieces, along with a big plate of salad vegetables (lettuce, cilantro, basil, green onion and sliced cucumber) and two kinds of dipping sauce (fermented shrimp paste, and patis with garlic, hot chilies and lemon juice). This breakfast was eaten with chopsticks, and steamed rice out of a bowl. You take a lettuce leaf, add the omelet piece and salad, roll it up and dip it into the sauce of your choice, to eat with the hot rice. Heavenly!

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