Small Pangasinan village enjoys bounty of the sea

BANI, Pangasinan—On the shore of Olanen in this western Pangasinan town, residents can tell if fishing boats appearing from the horizon in mid-afternoon had a bountiful harvest.

“Those with big catch stand proudly on the boat as they approach the shore. Those with little catch to show stay seated and stooped,” says Tessie Bahian, 43.

Bahian is one of the buyers of the newly caught fish, which she brings to other markets in Pangasinan. Every day, she waits for the fishermen to dock at Olanen, a sub-village of Dacap Sur (pop: 45,662) which faces the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

These days are good for the fishermen, as their catch includes assorted varieties like “tangigue” (mackerel), “tambakol” (yellow fin tuna), “buslogan” (blue fin tuna) and “dorado” (mahi-mahi).

Sometimes, they gather lobsters and other shellfish (which fetch higher prices in the market), eels, small stingrays and “lapu-lapu” (grouper).

Diomedes Napora, a fisherman, and his two companions load their boat with 100 kilograms of yellow fin tuna that they harvested from the “payaw” (artificial reef) some 40 kilometers from the shore. The payaw is privately owned but its owners do not mind sharing with the fishermen the fish that seek shelter in the area, as long as they use only hook and line to capture these, Napora says.

The fishermen ensure that every resident in the village will have something to eat. Those unable to go to sea are given a share of the catch for their families.

“It’s some kind of an unwritten rule here that fishermen share some of their catch to those unable to go to sea,” Bahian says.

Records from the Bani municipal agriculture office show that 580 small fishermen live in Olanen. This represents more than half of the town’s 944 fishermen in the four villages facing the  West Philippine Sea and two villages facing the Lingayen Gulf. Close to 400 fishermen depend on the Tambac Bay for their livelihood.

Fishing contributes less than P1 million to the town’s coffers, according to Eufemia Rarang, municipal coastal resources management officer. Bulk of the P997,101 income comes from fishpond operations (P905,501.90) while the rest come from boat, gear and fishing licenses.