Accents
By Julia Carreon-Lagoc

“Fish be with you!”

Where's the fish? The question would pop up whenever the Pinoys gathered at my sister Bebita's house in Baltimore, Maryland. Her husband Raul, a true-blue Pinoy from Paranaque, Rizal, would offer whatever fish there was on the table, always with his trademark sense of humor, “Fish be with you!”

After the roast beef, the steaks, the ham, and all those gourmet dishes of high-cholesterol red meat, what the Pinoy abroad misses is broiled bangus oozing with fat. Yes, bangus or milkfish Chanos chanos , the Philippines' national fish. Whatever fish Raul and Bebita could come by in Maryland's wet market could not quite measure up to the craving for bangus boneless or whole, broiled or fried, relleno or just plain “siniganged.” Now in semi-retirement in their new residence in Oton, the couple are into fishpond culture of the fish they've been missing. One morning then found us at SEAFDEC, the mecca of aquaculture based in Tigbauan, Iloilo.

I'll not dwell on the “diaspora” of SEAFDEC scientists and researchers whose research output have earned for the institution international stature in the scientific community. Time and distance, not to mention retirement, have separated me from the people I used to work with among whom are the country's best and brightest. More than fifty percent of senior researchers resigned from SEAFDEC last year. Suffice it to say that squabbles (I think irreconcilable differences would be the stronger term) affect performance, and only the future can tell whether what happened was the best or the worst for the advancement of aquaculture in SEAFDEC.

After the tour of facilities with the very accommodating Ellen Flor Doyola as tour guide and tips on fingerling care from knowledgeable Florito Pudadera, we drove home—Bebita leafing through aquaculture literature and I thinking of what one teeny-weeny bit more I could do for this institution so cherished in memory. This is it: accent SEAFDEC's FISHWORLD!

FISHWORLD is a dream come true of SEAFDEC scientist Dr. Doris Bagarinao, an environmental activist nonpareil. A museum-aquarium-ecopark, it was built “to promote informal education needed for responsible aquaculture and fisheries in particular, and for environment protection and sustainable development in general. FISHWORLD is dedicated to science and environment education of the general public or the Sambayanang Pilipino , particularly about aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity, aquaculture, fisheries, ecotourism, and the aquatic sciences.” A vast coverage as stated in the tour brochure, but which the very able tour guide can explain piecemeal to the interested visitor.

Truly a gem for environment education, it is here where school children, the old and young (these include you and me), fishers and non-fishers can be titillated by questions like What fish is featured in a Philippine coin? What is the weirdest–looking crustacean in the Fishes and Crustaceans Collection? Name the differences between whales and sharks. When was the milkfish hatchery technology worked out? What fishes evolved and went extinct in Lake Lanao? Etc., etc. You get answers when you walk through the AQD Milestones, Aquaculture Hall, Fisheries Hall, Arts and Culture Gallery, Marine Science Hall, Fishes and Crustaceans Collection, Audio-Visual Room and Library, Invertebrates and Seaweeds Collection, Kids' Activity Center, and Ang Hardin .

Over and beyond the above-mentioned, FISHWORLD will expand into the future: “FISHWORLD will build an oceanarium with parts of a coral reef and seaweed-seagrass bed and open waters with large fishes. The ecosystems exhibit will include parts of a sandy beach, mangrove lagoon, brackishwater fishpond, rice field, freshwater pond, stream, waterfall, cave, and the highlands, and will show the connectedness and interdependence of their fauna, flora, and ecological processes.

“The ecopark and botanical garden will be landscaped out of an adjacent plant nursery and hillside thicket. The driveway centerpiece, Our Water Planet , will be a large globe showing the oceans and continents.” Indeed, a tall order! A museum-aquarium-ecopark will be a dream flowering when all these will rise from the drawing board.

An enhanced environment education boosting the advancement of aquaculture will hopefully deliver us to food security and/or self-sufficiency. And so, a wish most heartfelt for all of our countrymen: “Fish be with you!” (Comments to juliaclagoc@yahoo.com)