Lauren's Work

This past weekend Lauren was able to make a trip to Carles, Iloilo (one of the areas severely hit by Typhoon Yolanda). Friday 12 boats were donated by the national government to the local fisherfolk organization to help them patrol the Marine Protected Area (MPA) and use for their personal livelihood - fishing. This community like all coastal communities in the Philippines rely on the ocean for their livelihood whether it's a specific type of fishing or gathering of shells to make local products. Carles is located on the Northern tip of Panay Island, one of the most beautiful places for island hopping.

While island hopping Lauren was able to watch a small fishing community compression fish. This is an extremely dangerous style of fishing as fishermen tie a rope around their waste, put wooden paddles on their feet and then dive down with just a flimsy tube that provides air to them by attaching it to the compressor of their boat. In this particular location, they were diving down around 60 feet to harvest scallops for 45min - 1 hour at a time. It was absolutely amazing to see and scary as you are watching hundreds of meters of tubing throughout the ocean attached to 30 plus fishing boats.