By: Joe Sprite

In last week's issue, we committed a blooper. The word should have been necrophobia instead of necrophilia. The first means abnormal fear of the dead while the other means abnormal love of the dead, the exact opposite. Both are abnormalities but the former seems to be a common trait of mankind. We do not like to be reminded of our mortality. It is but natural to regard dead bodies with dread especially if the dead is not a relation. However, if the fear becomes intense, then it is now another story. Well, so much for that.

To us in the tropics, summer has passed, the rainy season has come. Summer had started the last week of March and ended in the early week of June. This is spring season in the northern temperate zone but since we are several degrees below, we are more or less one season ahead. This time the moisture laden winds of the north will meet the cool winds of the south over the skies of the Philippines and the intertropical convergence zone, the area where both winds meet, will experience rainy weather.

The rains will intensify when the southwest monsoon will set in and this will last until the end of September. Typhoons had already been felt but the seasonal ones blow in the northern parts of the Philippines. From June to August storm centers will pass the upper half of the Philippines. Around September the winds will pass Bohol. However, there are freak storms, which will pass any part of the country.

What is now noticeable by the Jagna fishermen is the return of the Pacific mackerel or the mangko or, tulingan if you will. They had been away from our seas for a long while. The El Niños had kept them away. Pelagic fishes like tem has a body temperature, which is one degree higher that the sea in which they swim in so they will look for cooler waters. However, if plankton is abundant, the might tolerate a little more warmth.

Another factor, which kept the mangko away, is the presence of purse seines. They had swept the seas clean until the local authorities apprehended them. They were let off with a fine but there are apprehensions that the fine was not stiff enough. Anyway, to return might be risky if the penalty becomes stiffer for each violation. There might be a way in which the local fishermen would be able to benefit from the situation.

There are medium sized outfits that were able to make a living here. They are the pamo fishers. It is a bigger version of the panamaw outfit. It uses bigger boats and pamo nets instead of the nylon. Being soft and pliant, the pamo could catch fish with sizes ranging from the mangko to the yellow fin tunas. Sometimes Pacific sailfishes, marlins and broadbill swordfishes are caught. However the cost of equipment is beyond the reach of ordinary fishermen.

The common practice here is profit sharing. No catch, no share. The price of each catch is calculated, expenses such as fuel and minor maintenance is deducted and the balance is shared according to agreement. The sharing runs thus; one part is the share of the owner, the other part is the share of the crew. The skipper or the head of the crew gets a bigger share of the crew portion while the rest is evenly divided among the men. The owner shoulders the maintenance of the whole outfit.

Perhaps one solution to this problem is the cooperative. They could band together, organize a cooperative and obtain money from funding agencies so they will be able to acquire the required equipment. However, to organize fishermen into a coherent group is a very tough problem. They are independent for so long and individualistic that they cannot be organized. And when money is concerned, they become suspicious. No amount of accounting would convince them that the sharing of benefits is fair, Organizers are not fishermen and fishermen are not organizers. It is very hard to mix them. The former is willing to invest but wants the control of the operation. The other will not invest but wants the control of the operation because he is doing the operation. There fore, unless the two factors are related by blood or by affinity no cooperative will be possible.