MANILA, Philippines?The fish scare has gripped consumers in the Camarines and Quezon provinces, idling most fishermen who are already reeling from the skyrocketing prices of oil.

The scare has come from reports that 124 bodies from different sunken vessels, including the MV Princess of the Stars, have drifted to Ragay Gulf.

?No one would buy fish, except freshwater fishes or fishes raised in fishponds. Since the news of dead bodies filled the airwaves, we could hardly sell our products,? said Catherine Diaz, who sells blue marlin, tuna, grouper and high-end sea products, like prawns, squid and blue crabs.

?Of the 100 customers who buy here during normal times, you only have one today who would dare buy our products,? Diaz said, dramatizing the immediate impact of human bodies in the seas to their business even as the Department of Health has announced that there was no danger to people?s health.

She said the sellers were also forced to also cut down prices by P40-P60. The adjustment, however, did not make any dent on public perception that fish were not safe to eat, Diaz said.

Freshwater fish

The scare that hit marine products, however, has not increased the sales of freshwater and fishpond-raised fishes like milkfish and tilapia, according to vendors.

One vendor, Rosita Borja, 43, said she had about the same number of buyers and her daily earnings had not improved although prices were lowered to P60-P80.

Meat vendors were also not experiencing a bonanza.

Merle Gorgonia, municipal agriculture officer, said most of the fishing families in the six coastal villages in Balatan town, Camarines Sur, had to find alternative sources of livelihood.

Gavino Napoles, a fishing boat operator in Barangay Siramag here, lamented the misfortune that befell the town?s fishing industry, but he hoped that the scare would not last long.

Balatan Mayor Nena Borja said the scare had advanced the lean season for the local fishing industry, which usually coincides with the monsoon season.

Alternative livelihood

In Pasacao town in Camarines Sur province, Mayor Asuncion Villamante-Arceño admitted that the municipal government was finding it hard to provide alternative livelihood to fishers. This may even require an amount that the town?s coffers could not finance, she said.

Borja and Arceño are both first-term mayors, who along with other local chief executives in the western seaboard of the province, were experiencing similar situations.

Yet, Arceño said, the town was lucky enough that the scare took place at the time when fishing activities were waning. That was why she was optimistic that the scare would not totally paralyze the main source of livelihood of town residents.

Most commercial fishes had sold at an average of P80 a kilo before, but with the fish scare, a kilo of mackerel tuna sells from P40 to P20.

But no one would buy, residents attested. That was why most of the catch, including anchovies and herrings, ended up dried or smoked.

The fish scare has also reached Quezon as commercial fishing operators and small fishermen have stopped catching fish due to lack of buyers.

?Our fishing boats remained anchored for the past five days. With the high cost of fuel and lack of fish buyers, venturing out into the sea is a double whammy. A sure recipe on how to lose money,? said Noli Yu, one of the commercial fishing operators based in the coastal village of Dalahican.

He said at least 15 commercial fishing vessels were currently idle along the long coastline of Tayabas Bay.

With about 60 workers each boat, hundreds of families and thousands of people will continue to go hungry if the government will not correct an earlier declaration to ban the eating of sea products, Yu predicted.

A group of small fishermen in Dalahican was spotted drinking gin to fight boredom after several days of staying inland.

?What?s the use of going out in the sea when there are no buyers of our catch? With the high cost of gasoline, it?s much better to just stay at home and drink,? said Pedro Calubad.

The irony, according to Calubad, is that even their own families believe the government declaration that it is not safe to eat fish.

Persistent news reports and wild rumors of body parts found in the abdomen of big fishes supposedly from the corpses of victims of the ship sinking further fueled the fish scare that reached even places far from the accident site. Juan Escandor Jr., Jonas Cabiles Soltes and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon