“Burping caused by gobies on the dining table excites a continuing fisherman’s dream”
SKYWATCHERS in many parts of the world are in for a celestial treat as the September full moon, called the Harvest Moon, will coincide with a partial lunar eclipse when it rises on Sept. 17.
This rare event will offer a spectacular sight for astronomy enthusiasts, since the eclipse will be visible from most of North America, all of South America, Europe, all but the easternmost parts of Africa, western portions of Asia and Russia, and parts of Antarctica.
On this day the Moon will be in a Waxing Gibbous phase – visible through most of the night sky setting a few hours before sunrise, when the moon is more than 50 percent illuminated but not yet a Full Moon
Astromancers say all full moons are impressive sights on their own, but this month’s Full Harvest Moon will be especially noteworthy.
This lunar eclipse is unfortunately a slight one; only the upper portion of the moon will be plunged into the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, known as the umbra.
Still, the eclipse should provide some interesting contrast on craters and other features on the lunar surface to those with telescopes or binoculars.
Aside from the small darkened portion at the top of the moon’s disk, most of the visible lunar disk will be in Earth’s penumbra, the lighter portion of the planet’s shadow that does not entirely block the sun’s light. This will give most of the moon a reddish-brown, slightly “smudged” appearance.
This will not be visible in the Philippines, but northerners – particularly those in Region 1 and Cagayan in the far northeast – those in the coastal communities will be concentratedly watching not the sky but the shoreline ripples and those of connecting rivers.
“Ipon” or gobies appear nine days after the full moon during the months of September, October, November, December, January and February and are captured by the millions from the mouth of the river by fish traps or fish pots called “bubo” in the local language.
It is a zygote fish, with the scientific name of sycyopterus lachrymosus. This small fish that measures about 1 inch in length and ¼ inch in diameter is only endemic to the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and Cagayan, which adjoins Ilocos Norte facing the Babuyan Channel.
Ichthyologists, who specialize in the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha), say the fish zygote is meroblastic, meaning the early cell divisions are not complete
This type of meroblastic cleavage is called discoidal because only the blastodisc becomes the embryo. Fish embryos go through a process called mid-blastula transition which is observed around the tenth cell division in some fish species.
They are also called lunar fish because they only appear after counting 10 days from full moon. The fishermen can catch this fish from three to five days once in a month, making one harvest in the morning and another in the afternoon.
There are at least two fish tales, pun none, that a huge egg hatches in the middle of the water.
Another is that it comes from the sea water to migrate into the river water and later on when it grows bigger it becomes the bukto, or bunog (goby fish) – popular among dwellers of the coastal communities of the rugged Ilocos coastline that stretches from Ilocos Norte down to the towns in Pangasinan just beyond the border of La Union.
This perhaps partly explains why the ipon are abundant in communities near river banks: Santa in Ilocos Sur has the 206-km long Abra River that empties into Luzon Bay, the 73-km Padsan or Laoag River in Ilocos Norte which empties too in the Luzon Bay, the 505-km Cagayan River that empties into the Babuyan Channel, and the 96-km long Amburayan River that originates from the Cordillera mountains and traverses the provinces of Benguet, La Union, and Ilocos Sur and empties into Luzon Bay.
Of course, there is the Currimao River close to the garlic-producing town of Pinili and a stream in this village that meanders through from Lang-ayan in the east to Anggapang westward to Pias-Gaang.
When the fishermen come home at sunrise, their respective families are sure they will have a good supply of “ipon” for the next couple of weeks.
Burping caused by gobies on the dining table excites a continuing fisherman’s dream.
