Ludong could be the most expensive fish in the world?

By Al S. Mendoza

A FISH for P4,000 a kilo.

Who can afford that?

Ate Glue can but not me.

On second thought, maybe, with my eyes closed, I’ll buy a fourth of a kilo. Curiosity. But not after cutting on my beer intake for a month to save money on this royal fish they call “ludong.”

After reading Gabriel Cardinoza’s piece on the fish that appeared in the Inquirer on May 11, I can’t take it off my mind.

Is it for real? I mean, such a fish that expensive exists, in our own beloved land at that?

Why, it could be the most expensive in the world.

And I thought this nation’s most expensive fish was that one found only in Taal Lake called maliputo?

In his unlamented time, Marcos was known to collar all the catch when the fish was in season.

So greed-driven was Marcos that even Taalenos and Batanguenos back then were almost deprived of their own treasure.

But, for once, Marcos was wrong. All along, he thought maliputo was the best there is.

Enter ludong, which is endemic to the 500-km long Cagayan River in the Cagayan Valley, according to Cardinoza.

It is also found in the Abra River, which connects with the Cagayan River, in the Cordillera ranges.

Had I known, I would have pestered my Abra-born Erpat (May his soul rest in peace) to bring me one home during his almost yearly ritual of spending the Lenten Season in Pidigan, his birthplace in Abra. But that’s another story.

Sadly, the ludong, according to Cardinoza, is now considered an endangered specie, quoting Westley Rosario, the chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center in Dagupan City.

If it’s endangered, it isn’t for sale anymore?

But even if it is still in the market, although I surmise it isn’t anymore, I might not have the appetite to eat it.

Guilt could make the fish taste like poison.

How can you eat a fish that expensive while nearly 60 million people in this country struggle to eat three meals a day?

That P4,000 can buy me at least four sacks of rice already. Premium. Like magnolia or sinandomeng, if not milagrosa.

Anytime, I’d do that for the life of me-and even help in the resurrection of the ludong now on the verge of extinction.

Rosario cited three major reasons for the vanishing of ludong:

1) Unregulated and unrestrained catching.

2) The destruction of its habitats, like mangrove forests and watershed areas.

3) The pollution of rivers and lakes.

A while back, the diwal, that rare, white shellfish found only in Roxas, Bacolod and Iloilo suddenly disappeared.

The reasons cited above for the disappearance of ludong were the same reasons cited in diwal’s case, although folk tale said the gods got angry and caused the diwal’s disappearance to teach the people a lesson.

Gladly, the diwal is back-and the Panay folk have since become responsible fishermen.

Indeed, you mistreat Mother Nature, you take Mother Nature for granted, you suffer the consequences.

I wish it wouldn’t take that long for a ludong comeback to happen.

It’s all up to the people of Cagayan Valley and Abra.

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