In the first quarter of 2013, two foreign vessels ran aground on Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the middle of the Sulu Sea. First was the minesweeper USS Guardian, which had to be removed piece by piece to save the corals from further harm. The other incident involved a fishing boat operated by Chinese poachers, much smaller but causing almost twice the damage. Together, they destroyed over six thousand square meters of corals, including some that were half a millennium old.
But environmentalists were optimistic. Tubbataha hosts a large population of surgeonfish, known locally as labahita (Tagalog) or indangan (Bisaya), which feed on and limit the growth of algae on coral, giving coral larvae the chance to resettle on the scarred corals, affording the reef the opportunity to heal itself. Simply by eating what it is genetically programmed to eat, surgeonfish became the unwitting savior of Tubbataha.
If you look at it that way, then my old man is doing Nature a favor. He does not eat labahita. I knew this, of course, but fish was scarce this morning. Besides, to my untrained eye, surgeonfish resembled tagbago (barhead rabbitfish) closely enough, and I figured frying would further obscure any obvious differences.
I was wrong. He did not even bother to taste it. I did, and then I knew why. Surgeonfish flesh is soggy. Delicious, but soggy nonetheless. I would take it over cream dory any day, though.
Now take a look at the other surgeonfish on the plate. Notice that this one has black streaks while its partner has none? It belongs to another species, Acunthurus nigricauda, or what is called blackstreak surgeonfish, one of at least a dozen species of surgeonfish found in the Philippines. Note also the tell-tale white bar at the base of its tail.
And that’s it for surgeonfish — both in this blog and on our table. If you are wondering how it earned its English name, it is for the dangerously sharp spines near the aforementioned white bar. Even so-called heroes have a nasty side. There’s one arriving from China just about now.
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