December should have been the start of the manta fishing season, but since manta fishing had been banned, big fishing boats are now used for snagging big deep sea squids. Some years back, in the days of manta fishing with harpoon and grappling hooks, the season started as early as the last days of February until the last days of May. Catching manta during rainy season is not profitable because one will be burdened with a stinking catch. Even during dry seasons dried manta meat still stinks if not dried properly. With the coming of motorized bancas and oversized driftnets, manta fishing started as early as December. Then manta fishing was banned. Authorities say Pacific manta or manta birostris is an endangered species. Sometimes we wonder why. Only Boholanos eat manta. Not even all Boholanos. There might be some people in Mindanao, who appreciate manta but they are either expatriate Boholanos or their descendants. Therefore it is only in the Bohol Sea that the manta is hunted.

Non Boholanos turn up their noses when offered grilled dried manta. It stinks, they say. A Fil-Am expat once remarked that the offer stinks like hell but tastes like heaven. Can you beat that? Anyway one has to acquire a taste for it to appreciate it. Besides, the best things on life are those which are illegal, immoral and fattening and sometimes it also stinks. The manta ban was imposed when whale, dolphin and porpoise fishing was banned. However, the ban did not include the sting ray. A sting ray or “pantihan” is a miniature manta. Except for its size it is no different from its larger relation... Sad to say, marine biologists of the Philippines have no information about the life cycle of the manta birostris. They do not know how long it lives, reproductive age, rate of reproduction and so on. In developed countries, there are fishing bans but there are also closed seasons and open seasons. In open seasons, there are catch limits. It had been observed in the past that the manta follows a modified biblical cycle of one year plenty followed by seven years famine... Let us say, the ban is lifted. What then? To some, it would make no difference. There are fishermen who are so unlucky that the season ends without catching a single manta. These fisherman doers not really care. He simply goes fishing to escape the chores at home...

Manta fishing gear is now used for the “pantihan”. If there may be mantas, or dolphins which get entangled, the fishermen have to get rid of it before the authorities get wise to it. How they do it is another story. It would be illogical to dump it overboard once the catch is dead. Sayang! Anyway like masyaw, the ban is imposed only sporadically. There was a time when dried manta in the public market was confiscated by the authorities. We wonder what they did with it. They forgot that there was also “nilabog” in restaurants. They are manta dishes just the same. All they do is lift a few lids in the display and voila! The evidence is there. But we can be sure that such evidence will not reach the court.