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Early fishing in Cuyo

30 June 2008 8 Comments Print This Post Print This Post

The Cuyo Loop
Cuyo is in blue In October of 2006, I visited the remote islands of Cuyo and Culion in Palawan for a photography assignment and passed Negros and Iloilo in transit. This is my account of that journey.

This is the 7th of a seriesEarly one morning, just before sunrise, I woke up early to take a short walk and take photos along the shore where a fishing boat was beached into the shallow water for a few days already. After a few minutes of seeing, composing, setting and clicking, I started to notice a group of fishermen starting to pull at a rope. They were trawling the shallows and this got me curious since I haven’t seen this before. I went to them and started shooting. There were about 10 - 15 men waist deep and pulling the net.

It was a big net that the first time I saw it, was stretched probably a hundred feet at both ends with the edges kept afloat with rubber cylinders. The men pulled and tugged and seeing their efforts and faces, it seemed, quite heavy.

For the next 30 minutes, they were drawing the net closer to the shore as the area within kept getting smaller and a circle is coming to form. After a while and the catch can already be seen at the center. Fishes of different sizes and types and colors and forms started to splash about as the area holding them started to get smaller. It was a frenzy.

The catch was not that big. The fish caught were usually small but there was a sting ray that one fisherman quickly grabbed and cut the tail to avoid being hit by the poisonous spike (above). There even was a small marine snake that another grabbed and flung far into the water and promptly swam off.

After the catch has been aportioned off, the net is gathered and folded and dried for the next day.

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Stock photography by Stanley+Cabigas at AlamyNOTE: Photo/s are the work of the author and are copyright. Hi-res images are available upon request. Contact me if you need to use any of these or browse my stockphotos at Alamy. I am also available for work or commissions.

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8 Comments and/or Trackbacks »

  • The Islander said:

    di ba sting rays are considered not suitable for catching? kyutan raba ko ana nila.

    1 July 2008 at 10:24
  • donG hO said:

    estan, pwede ba kitang i-feature sa blog ko this month? kailangan ko ng mga certified backpackers. kasama ko kayong ififeature nina oggie, ferdz at ernrico dee (byahilo). dati sa ibang blog ko pinopost pero ngayon sa blog ko mismo.

    ok lang ba?

    1 July 2008 at 12:15
  • estan (author) said:

    the islander, i’m not so sure about it bai pero sting rays are also delicious fish which is known as qiampao in Cebu.

    Dong Ho, no problem for me. Just contact me via email.

    1 July 2008 at 13:01
  • donG hO said:

    salamat estan. finalize ko lang mga tanong. maraming maraming salamat.

    3 July 2008 at 14:03
  • Nomadic Matt said:

    cool photos!

    6 July 2008 at 22:15
  • iva said:

    ang ganda ng mga shots mo dito, lalo na po yung first two photos. astig.

    23 July 2008 at 17:32
  • Pink Ink said:

    Great photos! I traveled to Cuyo in April last year…kind of like a personal pilgrimage to ancestors. I loved it.

    30 July 2008 at 14:37
  • estan (author) said:

    pink ink, glad that you’ve been to this remote place. not too many travelers come here.

    26 August 2008 at 13:40

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