@Bitraph 14 June 2020

Fish in the Philippines

Fish is one of the product of our market. It is abundant in any part of the world. It is also a basic food that can be turned into different recipes with different tastes. Moreover, fish is a delicious food and it gives us such good nutrients and energy. Are you fond of eating fish? Aside from being delicious, fish is a food of excellent nutritional value, and it makes a very significant contribution to the diet of many fish-consuming Filipinos. A balanced diet 1s never complete without any dish made of fish. You can fry galunggong, steam lapulapu, make dilis into kinilau, or grill bangus. We just can't do away with fish. It provides high quality protein and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, of including vitamins A and D, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, and iodine. Fish is also a valuable source of essential fatty acids and its protein is easily digestible. But have you ever wondered big and small species of fish make their way to different fishing ports and markets and onto our dining tables? Fishermen catch fish of different kinds and of different sizes in seas, oceans or rivers. But many of the fishes that have become part of our day-to- day delicacies come from fishponds being managed by fishermen themselves or by fishpond owners. There is no mystery as to why our country is home to rich fish varieties, making us the 8th highest in fish production in the world, 2nd in the Asian region with China as the highest in seaweed production, and 11th highest in aquaculture among the 80 fish- producing countries of the world. Credit this to the Philippines, being an archipelagic country of 7,107 islands, which is endowed with vast aquatic resources. Its sea area is about seven mes larger than its land area ot 300,000 km². The country's marine resources of coral reefs, mangroves, and 1sh stocks consist of 220 million ha Within the Exclusive Economic Zone. Of these, 26.6 million ha are coastal and 193.4 million ha are oceanic waters. T he Continental shelf area is about 18.46 million ha. The length of the coastline is 17,560 km.