Today I want to talk about a favorite local delicacy of mine since I remember having attended a seminar about its gene sequencing and about its preservation
The tawilis, scientific name: Sardinella tawillis, Is the only freshwater sardinella specie found in the world and as of now. They can only be found in the lake that surrounds Taal volcano, which is situated here in the Philippines. Areas that surround the lake had made the fish into a delicacy which later on became the cause of its current endangered status and eventually will lead it to the brink of extinction.
If you ever find yourself in the area of Tagaytay and Batangas, Philippines. these are the areas that serve some of the best fried tawillis and even tawillis pizza that became a specialty of its restaurants. Tourists, especially foodies, travel there for the specific reason of simply having a taste. But what they are unaware of is that eventually these fishes might not even be available in the near future with how overly fished they are.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) had been aiming at its re-population since the endangered status of the specie was raised, however majority of their experiments ended in a failure. One of these experiments involved relocation of the fish into another lake but that resulted in a violent reaction towards the new environment, thus ending in the death of all relocated fish under the trial. Another experiment conducted was to crossbreed the species with its so-called sister specie, Sardinella hualinensis, which is found in Taiwan. It was believed that S. tawillis came from this specie of Sardinella given that 2/3 of their gene sequences were highly identical. However, yet another violent reaction was what resulted in the death of both breeds.
Hopefully there would come a better solution to save the species from extinction aside from allowing them to mate at their respective seasons.
*I wanted to show some result of the experiments from the presentation but then it's not mine to present and I only want to raise awareness for this poor delicious fish*
You have my thumbs-up for writing this. We hardly eat these fish. The only place I see them is in the pet shop. They are sold dry and are meant to be a snack for the cat. I never bought it for mine.