A press release from the Provincial Government today announced the province’s bid to write a record in the Guiness Book. It read:
One of the new exciting events highlighting the Baragatan Festival sa Palawan 2008, the Longest Seafood Grill is set on June 23 right after the Saraotan sa Dalan, the Cuyono phrase for street dancing.
It came with a photo release of government officials cooking reportedly 20 kilos of fish in open fire last Sunday during the annual festivities’ soft opening.
I must say I didn’t quite get the drift or the point of the exercise, which was apparently to imply that there is an abundance of fish in Palawan. Methinks the record that needs to be set clear, if anything, is that there is in fact a decline of fisheries and the ocean’s productivity because of a combination of factors including population and increased demand for food, and rampant destruction of coral reefs and fish habitat.
It used to be that Malampaya Sound in northern Palawan was supplying 60 percent of Manila’s fish consumption. Now there’s no more fishing going on there. Palawan’s fishing grounds, while still productive compared to most parts of the country, are under threat from cyanide and dynamite fishing.
Here’s an excerpt from a paper by Israel and Banzon:
While it is economically significant, the fisheries sector currently faces a serious problem that threatens its viability as economic base-overfishing (Silvestre and Pauly 1987; Dalzell et al. 1987; Trinidad et al. 1993; Padilla and De Guzman 1994). It has been argued that if the current rate of overfishing continues unabated, marine fisheries may collapse as important edible fish species virtually become extinct.
Still, the longest trivial pursuit that Palawan has set forth to achieve won’t be denied. Kudos to the organizers, who promised as follows:
For this Longest Seafood Grill event, the PEDCO shall prepare and set up the grills, the charcoals and a variety of seafoods. Eight tons of mouth-watering reef and deep-sea fish species such as blue marlin, grouper, sea bass, snapper, mackerel, big-eyed tuna, swordfish, squid, cuttlefish and octopus shall go into the grill. Crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs and seashells like green mussels and oysters are also in the menu. About 3,000 grillers are expected to man the charcoal-fired grills after which the sumptuous grilled items shall be shared and enjoyed by participants and sponsors with their families, friends and guests.
So okay, I won’t spoil the fun any further, and I’ll be there for the blue marlin! Bon appetite!
