Just as tiny rays of sunlight trailed the sky and the fainter stars began to fade in dawn light, we arrived at the coastal community of Brgy. Diora-Zinungan in Sta. Ana, Cagayan. The method behind our madness of waking up early was to time our visit when beltfish, locally referred to as "espada" or "bulung unas", hunted for food in schools within the deep waters of the Philippine Sea.
Experiencing Belt Fishing in Sta. Ana | Cagayan
As we met with the fishermen, we were invited to gather for a brief orientation about what we were about to experience that day. Since beltfishing was the main source of livelihood for the residents, the Department of Tourism Region II included it in their newly laid-out "Nature and Adventure" tourism circuit.
We learned from Kuya Wilfredo, the group's lead tour guide, that beltfishing began in Diora-Zinungan in the early 2000s when a fellow fisherman came home with eighty kilos of beltfish catch after venturing more than twenty nautical miles.
In the years since then, they came to understand the beltfish's nature and instincts well enough to realize that they fed during long periods between dusk and dawn. They also pinpointed that beltfishes usually swam at an average depth of eighty fathoms, which was approximately one hundred forty meters.
Using the "Kariti" — a manual and cheaper version of the hydraulic pulleys used by the Taiwanese — the fishermen tied three thin cables with baits to each of the boat's three Karitis and then set out on a twelve-nautical mile area of fishing grounds. More fluent in Ilocano, Kuya Wilfredo managed to converse with us in Tagalog and narrated how they initially built a Kariti using the crank of a bicycle. "After numerous trials and re-designs, we finally came up with this Kariti design which we have been using for ten years now", he added.
Setting out for the Catch
Split into threes, we boarded separate fishing boats, each manned by a pair of highly skilled fishermen, and set out for the ideal fishing grounds for "espada" fish, about two to four nautical miles off the coast of Diora-Zinungan. Fortunately for our group, one of our guides was Kuya Wilfredo who continued his lecture about the process of beltfishing as well as the personality traits of the “bulung unas”.
"The beltfish is different from other fish species because it will only pull the bait downward when hooked. This enabled us to use three baits in one Kariti because the cables wouldn't get entangled if we simultaneously captured three of them," Kuya Wilfredo explained to us in Tagalog.
When we arrived at the fishing ground area, we started hearing cheers from the other boats as they started catching several beltfishes. One boat even caught a total of twelve beltfishes. Since our boat was the last to arrive after escorting another boat that experienced engine problems, we couldn’t catch a single one since the sun was already up.
A Community-run Experiential Nature Tour
Beltfishing had sustained the community of Diora-Zinungan for decades but concerns about its sustainability remained. "Before, any fisherman could easily catch sixty to eighty kilos a day," Kuya Wilfredo told us in Tagalog. "You would be the one to give up and call it a day. Nowadays, it is a miracle to get thirty kilos every day," he continued.
In light of the fact that fresh catch was diminishing in coastal areas that depended on fishing, having another source of income provided an attractive alternative for local fishermen. In this case, a community-run tourism business provided a viable substitute.
By offering an experiential beltfishing tour, the fishermen wouldn't have to catch thirty kilos of fish to earn a living. They could guide tourists to catch a few beltfishes and voilà , they could easily match or even surpass their regular income.
A second advantage of this program was that it would give the beltfish population time to grow as fishing volume would be reduced by a significant amount. The Department of Tourism Region II planned to market this experiential tour combined with a beachfront lunch consisting of their beltfish catch.
For each tour's total catch, a third could be allocated to be prepared and cooked by the community mothers who were part of DOT's "Kulinarya" program, while the other two-thirds could be bought from the fishermen and distributed among the community.
This set-up was a win-win scenario for everyone. First, beltfishes would be able to repopulate; second, tourists would get to experience something unique; and lastly, the fishermen would earn from their tour-guiding job while the community also benefited from other tourism-related services.
As this program was still in its infancy stages, visitors wishing to experience beltfishing should contact the Department of Tourism Region II to be connected with a tour operator who would coordinate with the community.
