Life
of Fisherman (Panteros) in Ternate, Cavite
The fishermen's
shown on the left side are very busy removing their catch from the net. The fisherman’s uses fish net (PANTI), in which
it’s about a mile long and 6 feet high, the top end of the net are row's of permanently attached wooden ball floater
(boya), and at the other end (bottom) are numbers of lead (plomo).
The wooden
float (Boya) is to keep the net upright while the net is under the water and the lead (Plomo) is to keep the net seating
at the bottom floor of the ocean. The net looks like a long fence underwater and this trap the fish that swim over it.
Usually
there are two but most of the time they are three people in a small fishing boat and all of them must be ready before 4:00
A.M. as of that's the time they should be ready to leave and heading to the sea, they normally back to the
river bank at 9:00 A.M. the same day.
Sometimes
when there is visitor or town folks who wishes to join or go with them fishermen's (Panteros) they will be called
tourist or (turista).
Early
in the morning during the fishing days, the fisherman will get their net ready, load it and neatly arrange it inside so that
when they’re ready to drop the net, it will be easily and continuously pulled and drop to the water in a one long straight
line.
The fisherman
will then start cruising out to the mouth of the sea “ bucana”. While cruising, the Captain (kapitan) will inquire
to the rest of the companion regarding the location or spot for the net be set up or drop.
Once they
reach the location they feel the best place to set up their net, the fishermen will start studying the direction of the wave,
direction of the wind and also make sure that they are not on the way of those big ships, if everyone agrees and justified
that the location is safe and feel that the location they were at are full of fish, the captain will stop the motor and instead
will use a paddle to keep the fishing boat moving to a straight line and moving easily so that the net can be set and drop
easily, but if a strong wind is detected the captain will then keep the motor running to help the boat stirring and running
slowly into a straight direction.
Once the
end of the net is drop, the captain or helper will throw or set up the lighted or unlighted marker on the water, lighted marker
is to be use for other fisherman to see for them to avoid setting a fish net on top of the other and also this marker is for
the fisherman to know where the other end of the net.
After
setting up the marker the fisherman’s will start the motor and proceed to the end where they start dropping the net.
They will set up the anchor, rest and eat their breakfast. The fisherman will wait no more than two hours to prevent the shark
to get to their catch first. If the shark gets to their catch the possibility is a big hole or damage to their net.
After
approximately two hour two person will start pulling the net back inside the boat with the help of paddle or motor, if there
is only few catch or few fish entangle on the net they will remove them and put them in the container, but if there’s
a lot then they will keep pulling the net, because don’t want the shark to gets there before they able to pull the net
out of the water and back inside the boat.
Once they
completely pulled the very last end of the net. They will all prepare them self to a safe position and start heading back
to the town of Ternate.
There
are several people waiting at the edge of the river, specially those kids “pin boy, kid s helping the fisherman removing
the fish from the net for the exchange of few fish”. There are also buyer “regatonas” and boat owners.
Once the
fish are place in the container “banyera” the owner then will take the buyers “regatonas” price thru
silent auction or whisper to the fish or boat owner if how much they would pay for the catch. The silent auction or whispering
is to avoid other buyers from knowing how much the other is paying, but before the buyer decide how much they pay for the
catch they already have an idea how much the fish will cost, it is only a matter of few more pesos compare from one to another
buyer.
The fisherman
usually spends the midday fixing the damage net, by using a line needle “Hayuma”. While fixing the damage they
will listen to a radio station like drama and or music, the day will go on and before they knew it is almost 3:00 in the afternoon
and they will be heading to the sea again and they will set up the net as almost exactly the way they did it in the morning.
Fisherman
usually gets paid every Sunday and that is also the only day they take the rest. Some of them will go out of town like Naic,
Maragondon or Manila to buy household items and other personal
things. They will go out watch movie or go to cockfight arena “sabungan”.
Being
a fisherman in Ternate is not a very good source of income but the kind of work they do is
very respectable and decent.
The fish
vendor or (regatones) sell their fresh fish all the way to Maragondon, Naic, Indang, Alfonso, and Mendez and sometimes to
Manila.
There
are only few people who became very successful through fishing business.
By: Andy
R. Huerto
Date:
3-27-05
Re-write:
July 16, 2006
