07/07/2020
Dive at the Sardine Run
Swimming with sardines
Moalboal’s millions-strong sardine schools sustain many other types of fish, including jacks, mackerel, and tuna. To avoid predators, the tiny fish form complex, flowing shapes.
When I ask people about sardines, they’re usually equated with 555, Ligo, or for the more nostalgic ones, Rose Bowl. But what do sardines look like? Surprisingly, most people don’t know, for when they peel open sardine cans, they get faceless fish swimming in sauce, heads and tails already chopped off.
Last month, I got a chance to swim with them in Moalboal, a town in the Visayas famous for its “sardine run,” where divers can interact with millions of sardines that gather just meters from shore.
Forming the building blocks of the marine food chain, sardines gorge on wafting clouds of zooplankton and are in turn eaten by larger marine predators like mackerel, tuna, and sharks. Six major sardine species are commercially harvested in the Philippines and except for fish geeks, they all look alike.
Though small in size, their economic contribution is anything but tiny. In 2015, the country netted 344,730,201 kilograms of sardines, amounting to R7.43 billion, proving that the industry is one of the country’s major economic drivers. Thousands of Filipinos are employed as fishers, traders, or factory workers in the canning, fish drying, and bottling sectors, Zamboanga alone employing over 30,000 people.
Though the production trend for sardines seems to be increasing since the year 2000, some local stocks are showing signs of overfishing, like smaller sizes for mature fish and dwindling catch rates for commercial ring-netters. Despite the sheer size of sardine shoals, they aren’t limitless.
Armed with massive nets and tracking gear, commercial fishing vessels can make short work of sardine schools. Without proper management, they may someday be overfished until local stocks go down under.
“Given how important sardines are to our economy, we should ensure that our fisheries are well-managed. We fully support the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in creating a science-based management framework for sardines,” says Oceana Philippines senior marine scientist Jimely Flores.
Over the past five years, closed seasons banning sardine fishing have been implemented in the Visayan Sea and Zamboanga, which produces 80 percent of the country’s output. But sardine reproduction is influenced by many factors. Closed season regulations are just one of many solutions needed.
Oceana believes that by protecting fisheries with science-based policies and empowering coastal communities to defend their home waters, humanity can raise wild seafood yields by 100 million metric tons yearly, enough to feed a billion people every day, forever.
In Moalboal and many places in the country, sardines still swim above and around coral reefs exploding with life. “Now this is the world we envision,” concludes Oceana Philippines vice-president Gloria Estenzo Ramos. “Vibrant oceans teeming with life, able to feed Filipinos and act as bastions for biodiversity.”
As I recall last week’s dive, I’m hopeful that a sound science-based management plan will let tourists like me swim with—and eat them—for many years to come.
📷Yoannvitel
https://mb.com.ph/2017/10/21/swimming-with-sardines/
