On good days when the sea is calm, the sky clear and dark — signs of a waning moon, rookie fisherman Ruel Galeon travels 120 kilometers from Dumaguete to the town of Basay to try his luck and catch some fish.
Back in the shore by dawn, and if he had “hit the jackpot”, he hauls in his share of about 10 containers filled with barrilete (skipjack), panit (blue fin tuna), tulingan (mackerel tuna), or yellow fin tuna.
An ice chest of fish could fetch about P6,000 from the comprador who would then deliver the fish to the Dumaguete market. He gets about 10 ice chests; then he goes to sleep as the sun rises.
He and his friend Carlos Culagbang, 55, would head out to the sea every night from the shores of barangay Nagbo-alaw. “We go every night, as long as it’s not rainy, the sea is not rough, and there are no big waves, and usually after a full moon,” described Galeon, 49.
Whenever they are able to spot a huge school of fish in the open sea, they signal the bigger fishing pumpboats to follow, who drop their heavy nets on the spot where Galeon and Culagbang had been patiently waiting. Galeon said they get a quarter of the total haul.
There are actually more than a hundred other pumpboats in barangay Nagbo-alaw alone. This is also where the bigger pumpboats operated by known big-time fishers dock.
Fishing is the main livelihood in this 4th class municipality of Basay, which is fringed by the Mindanao Sea, considered the richest fishing ground in the country. Fish also happens to be the primary source of protein in the Filipino diet.
Since the fishers are at sea from 5pm up to 5 in the morning the next day, with no other island in sight, Galeon said they all know each other at least by the boat they are on. “Tanan naa sa lawod, amigo ra,” he said, and are not necessarily competitors.
Galeon said that when he was able to save enough, he decided to put together a bigger pumpboat, investing about a hundred thousand pesos — all earned from fishing.
He said it’s common for fishers to be able to “hit the jackpot” and save up about P100,000 to be able to build a bigger pumpboat. Which is actually what happened to his lingaw-lingaw, which he initially thought would only be for pamugas (daily personal consumption).
Galeon is not really new to fishing as his father Gerry, a native of Bohol, was also operating his own boat during his prime. He said he was in high school that time, tagging along with his father a number of times.
When they moved to Dumaguete, the younger Galeon set up a boarding house with a carinderia in barangay Looc. It got boring for him as business picked up, started to run on its own, and became quite routine.
So he took the advice of his friend to go fishing with him south of Negros Oriental. It must be fun waiting about 12 hours overnight in the open sea for the fish to come out.
Rogelio Condesa, now 54, said he has been fishing for the last 37 years since he was a teenager. He said he started with “fishing magnate Bangay in Dumaguete”, until deep-sea diving started to take a toll on his body. He was always assigned to do a free dive to check on the nets they would drop in the sea.
But when he returned to Basay, he continued to do what he had been doing best. With other fishers, they would reach northern Mindanao looking for fish. On good days, they would get about 100 banyeras of fish.
Asked when he would stop, Condesa said he cannot even think of other productive things to do. He pauses to ponder on his future, and with a wide grin, says: “Walay retirement sa panagat.” (Irma Faith Pal)
