OCEAN STORIES

Deep in my heart Folks, I am an environmentalist. I grew up near the sea and every morning my sister Vangie, brothers Eduardo and Antonio would ride a banca through a small lake that ends at the high seas where ships coming from Manila and Iloilo would sail through. That lake was at the back of our house in Mandalagan, Negros Occidental, and is now the site of Bombo Radyo Station, 102.7 Star FM on the radio dial. Afterwards when it was low tide, we would wade through the waters and walk on the sandy shores to pick up beautiful shells and crablets.

It was a very memorable childhood for us, way back in the late fifties and early sixties. Eventually. Mother and Stepfather Sinfronio Puerto   brought us, including my oldest sister, Adelina and youngest half sister, Ebet all back to Manila to study there.

So I love stories abiut the ocean, and even got to watch the film, Titanic 9 times. Was it because of the ocean, the story or of the crushable di Caprio? Whatever, I really enjoyed that film. I also watched the animation film, The Little Mermaid this time because of the songs too. And did you know folks that in Eastern Europe, there is an animated version of the fairytale but it is truer to the original short story by Hans Christian Andersen. It ends on a very sad note as the mermaid could not accept killing the prince (who has gotten married to a princess) so that she could come back as a mermaid in the deep ocean; remember she exchanged her voice for a pair of two feet with the Sea Witch so that she could be with the prince forever? So what happens in the film? She turns into ocean foam, no longer a mermaid nor a human with two feet. 

But I don't like the film Jaws at all. It's too horrifying for me. 

Now here is a story from our own Fisherfolks. 

In the seas down Southern Luzon, a group of fisherfolks went to the high seas to catch some, led by R M. (have not asked his permission yet to write this; somwhen I get this I will write his full name.)

Folks did you know they were able to catch these big fishes, 800 banyeras, even larger than the bangus but they looked so ugly and our folks didn't know what to call them? It was their first encounter with these fishes. So Daniel, an architectural student named the fishes after the head of the fishing team, RM.

The community people didn't want to buy anymfish without a name somthe fisherfolks sold them atbP20 per kilo. 

When they cooked the fishes, they tasted so deliciously that the people are now asking if the still could buy some.

I thnk Folks, the fishes were inhabiting truly deep parts of the ocean so they were able to grow so big. But because of the warming climate and the ocean also had followed suit, they began to wander nearer the surface. Hence they were easily caught by iur Kababayan.

That is something for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to delve into and explain this phenomenon.

Little Mermaid Statue, Copenhagen, Denmark Photographic Print by Michael Runke