Life by the Sea: A Photo Essay
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat News - Philippines
June 14, 2003
SINAIT, Ilocos Sur - Philippines — In the 10-13-hour bus ride from Manila to Ilocos Sur, the sight of the sea provides relief to travelers. Not as fortunate as the tourists who come to enjoy the view, local fisherfolk have to summon the sea the hardest way for their living.
Instead of buying finished fishing net in the downtown, fishermen in Tep-peng, Sinait weave their own using nylon. It usually takes them two days to finish a hundred-meter net.
When done with the nets, fishermen sail to try their luck, hoping for a bountiful catch. It is a feast for their hungry stomachs and empty pockets whenever their harvest reaches 200 kilos. Unfortunately, most of the time, they catch only around two kilos of matangbaka (a fish species), just enough for a simple dinner for their families.
While the elders hope for a big-time catch, teens spend the day catching buge or bangus (milkfish) fingerlings to augment the adults’ small earnings.
One by one, the buge are picked out using small cups and placed in a container. Each buge is sold for 10 centavos at the town plaza.
Fishermen’s children enjoy themselves by playing with worn-out tires or surfing into the waves using square-cut pieces of plywood as improvised surfboards.
A little girl cries out her hunger to the sea while waiting for her parents who are looking for food.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat News - Philippines
June 14, 2003
SINAIT, Ilocos Sur - Philippines — In the 10-13-hour bus ride from Manila to Ilocos Sur, the sight of the sea provides relief to travelers. Not as fortunate as the tourists who come to enjoy the view, local fisherfolk have to summon the sea the hardest way for their living.
Instead of buying finished fishing net in the downtown, fishermen in Tep-peng, Sinait weave their own using nylon. It usually takes them two days to finish a hundred-meter net.
When done with the nets, fishermen sail to try their luck, hoping for a bountiful catch. It is a feast for their hungry stomachs and empty pockets whenever their harvest reaches 200 kilos. Unfortunately, most of the time, they catch only around two kilos of matangbaka (a fish species), just enough for a simple dinner for their families.
While the elders hope for a big-time catch, teens spend the day catching buge or bangus (milkfish) fingerlings to augment the adults’ small earnings.
One by one, the buge are picked out using small cups and placed in a container. Each buge is sold for 10 centavos at the town plaza.
Fishermen’s children enjoy themselves by playing with worn-out tires or surfing into the waves using square-cut pieces of plywood as improvised surfboards.
A little girl cries out her hunger to the sea while waiting for her parents who are looking for food.
