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making dried fish with LIBUD, drying in the sun.

Fishing “Libud” (Anchovy). These tiny small fishes -about one inch long- are fished with nets and it must be a special weather to catch them. There should be no wind, flat water, no moon, no clouds but there must be bright starlight so that the fishermen can see the ”Libud” down under the watersurface in the dept. Libud is needed as a bait for the other fishermen for the hooks on a 2 kilometers long fishingline -with about 1600 hooks on one line !- to catch bigger fishes like LapuLapu or so.

Fisherman OSCAR is back from fishing. A good catch today. Oscar starts fishing at two a clock in the night (when the wind sleeps...) and returns usually at about eight a clock in the morning.

No time for fishing to the fisherman. Cause of the bright moonlight reflecting on the ocean surface , one cannot see the fishes.

A good fisher-islander must be sensitive to nature as signs for a good catch are provided. Before he goes out fishing, for instance, he must look up to the sky to see if there are many wavy, scaly clouds indications of a good haul.

A fisherman must fish at low tide, because otherwise, the fish would hide at the sea bottom.

When the winds and currents are as mild and cool as AMIHAN, fishing is like enjoying a feast or a celebration in the deep sea. The waters teem with fish such as BOLINAO, SAPSAP, PAROTPOT, BANGKOLIS, TANGIGUE, SANDATAN AND TAMBAN.

A good catch feeds the fishing households of Malapascuia´s 7 barangays and income for the school education of children.

When the winds and currents are as strong as HABAGAT, fishing is like a GABA (curse) inflicted by the spirits. Rampaging waves capsize fishing boats, break wooden oars and tear fishnets into shreds.