Kalap Vol. 10, No. 01, January-June 2009 556kb - Bureau of ...

12
A P A R R I ,
CAGAYAN – Like a
magical well, it has
brought wealth to those
who have drawn from
it.
But no, this is not
some fantasy riches
from fairy land, but a
fishery resource locally
known as aramang.
Aramang or
Nematopalaemon sp
in scientific parlance is
an endemic species in this coastal
town at the northern edge of Luzon.
It thrives at the estuarine area of the
mighty Cagayan River.
Ricardo Umoso, a long time and
multi-awarded model fisherman, said
that he was able to send seven of his
kids and relatives through college
with the bounty from aramang alone.
Umoso, vice chair of the
Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic
Resource Management Council,
owns two of estimated 60 bannuars
used in catching aramang or softshelled
shrimp. The municipality also
list about 80 smaller boats known as
‘single-an’ as aramang gatherers.
Hundreds more are employed in
ancillary industries such as
processing, drying, and trading.
Although this fishery resource has
been present since “time
immemorial” as Municipal
Agriculture Officer Alice Sebastian
said, only in the latter part of the last
century has this been gathered in
commercial scale.
Data from the Bureau of
Agricultural Statistics indicates
aramang production at a record
4,160 metric tons in 2008. But,
production were not always this
good. There was a time when
Aparrianos nearly lost this resource.
KALAP January - June 2009
Unwritten agreement helps in resource conservation
Production in 1989 to 1993
plummeted drastically due to
indiscriminate gathering.
Gentlemen’s agreement
Alarmed by the sharp decline,
aramang gatherers met and forged
among themselves a ‘gentleman’s
agreement’. This unwritten but
surprisingly binding rule outlines a
five-point measure that the gatherers
followed to stem the decline and
prevent abuse in the future. The
agreement states that:
• Gathering is allowed only
during daytime from 5AM
to 3PM, good weather
and when aramang are not
gravid
• 5 to 7 days harvest period
with about 15 days as gap
between periods
• A meeting among
gatherers be conducted
first before a gathering
period to set price and
estimate demand
Open season is from April to
January. Gathering ban is signified
when a green flag is raised in Brgy.
Punta, near the river mouth here.
Umoso said that with the
enforcement of the agreement,
not been threatened since
then.
Bannuar is actually a
fishing outfit that refers to
both the boat and the
fishing gear. It is basically
a drift filter net attached to
two wooden poles fixed at
the aft and fore starboard
of the wooden boat which
drifts with the current.
Depth reached by the gear
is about 10 to 12 meters.
One bannuar boat
entails a crew of around 15
fishermen. The high number of crew
is needed to counterbalance the boat
and prevent it from tilting to one side
and rolling over when there is
abundant catch.
In 2000, the LGU submitted a
request thru the Bureau of Fisheries
and Aquatic Resources, for the
exemption of bannuar among those
banned active gears under a
Fisheries Administrative Order being
promulgated then by the Department
of Agriculture, on grounds that use
of smaller boats (less than 3 gross
tons) are unsafe and imperils lives of
fisherfolk.
Subsequent FAO issued has
excluded bannuar as among those
banned fishing gears.
Umoso estimates production of
one bannuar at 50 cans in one good
day of operation. Expenses to cover
gas and food provisions per 5-day
fishing trip is around P 13,000.00.
Catch is usually divided into 26
shares wherein 7 or 8 goes to the
boat owner, 2 or 3 as extra, and one
share each for the crew.
Current price is 300 to 370
pesos per 1 cooking oil can (14 kg).
The fisherfolk prefer to dry the
aramang than sell it fresh specially
aramang stocks rebounded and has (turn to next page)