Squid

Name: Jose E.
Gabilo
Age: 80 yrs. old
Fishing Experience: 65 yrs.
Name: Marlu C. Gabilo
Age: 60 yrs. old
Fishing Experience: 45 yrs.
Background:
Both learned to fish at a young age. They don’t mainly fish for squids however they are experienced
and seasoned fishermen. They also catch octopus, lobsters, crabs and other seafood.
Traditional method for catching squid is very tricky, once captured, they attach the squid on a fishing
line and their boat drags them as they go back on the shore or while catching more squid. Imagine like
putting the squid on a leash. Since they are still on seawater, they will remain alive and fresh to be sold.
They make the sea around them as their storage, only downside is you can’t do these method on rough
seas.
Nowadays, their boats have this compartment with small hole in the bottom so that seawater
continuously pass there. It’s a built in aquarium to store the gather squids or fishes. When venturing
further on deeper and other squid hunting grounds, they usually bring these big ice boxes or coolers as
their storage. Once their storage are full, the compartment and the ice boxes, they return to shore and
sell their product on the main customers, the hotels and restaurants around the province.
Questions
1. How did the pandemic affect squid fishing?
Nothing’s changed that much they say. Squids in the province are seasonal. Fishermen set sail
and catch them if they have time, catch a few of them just satisfy the local demand. Squid and
octopus supplies remain abundant in their hunting grounds. It’s like it became more of hobby
than a source of income during this pandemic. They’re not only fishermen but also farmers, so
during this pandemic they’ve adopt on the situation and focused on what will feed them on their
daily lives. They don’t even bother to catch many since they know it could not be sold. Freezing
them is another option but the cost is very high and there is no assurance on when will it be
exported. The pandemic affected them just like everyone else, they say. Unless the pandemic
end, which is likely not in near future or they have a way on storing their product to be
exported, squid fishing will never be the same as before.
2. How did the pandemic affect the sales (pagbebenta)?
The hotels and restaurants are the primary ones who buy the squid for the tourist who will be
vacationing in the province. There is zero tourist during pandemic, so meaning the hotels and
restaurants also closed out. They also export squids to the mainland (NCR and Tuguegarao)
before the pandemic. But now, cargo boats only come weekly and planes are every two weeks.
The logistics and process to export nowadays are very tedious during this pandemic. It is very
costly and require many permits.
The sales is very low if we depend on the local population alone as their market. The price of
squid is very high they said, and the local population don’t usually buy squid for their daily
meals. Squids are serve on special occasions and gatherings. The demand is down and very
little is being shipped to the mainland, only if someone specially ordered it. And we say it is
“only if,” but we can’t rely on this, we need a stable demand. Their prices also dropped, as even
if only few is being sold in the local market, it is plenty enough. Also, compared to other places
where they have bigger boats with better storage facilities, we are no match when it comes to
the possibility of exporting it. With the lack of demand through tourists and restaurants sector,
they fear that prices will remain low and even likely to fall even lower.
3. How did the pandemic affect the livelihood of the fishermen in terms of harvesting squids?
We fishermen know that there’s not much demand on squid and octopus during this pandemic
so most of us look for alternative or other sources of income like farming, construction jobs and
hog raising. We don’t bother in squid fishing since traditional methods are not that easy and the
effort for hunting squid does not compensate well if we can’t sell it. If our only customers are
local population, they prefer the more affordable fish instead. And also, it’s not every day they
want to eat squid. Some of us stopped fishing during the early months of the pandemic and
plans to resume once restrictions steadily lifted,

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Name: Jose E.

Age: 80 yrs. old

Fishing Experience: 65 yrs.

Name: Marlu C. Gabilo

Age: 60 yrs. old

Fishing Experience: 45 yrs.

1. How did the pandemic affect squid fishing?

2. How did the pandemic affect the sales (pagbebenta)?

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