A LOCAL writer-historian attributed the ‘secret’ for the exquisite taste of the Bonuan bangus (milkfish) to the mixture of fresh water and salty water in Dagupan’s fishponds, a factor not present in the waters of other coastal towns of Pangasinan and in the entire country that also produce bangus.

Historian Restituto Basa, once publisher of the defunct newspaper “Agno Valley News”, said fresh water from the Cordillera, Sierra Madre and Zambales Mountain drain into the Agno River watershed that ends up in the Lingayen Gulf through various rivers in Dagupan City.

Basa, born in Sta. Barbara town but whose father was from Tebeng, Dagupan, said the presence of the fresh water balances the salinity of water in the city, it more conducive for the growth of the tastier kind of bangus.

Unlike the water in Bolinao which is high in salinity, the waster in Dagupan has a lighter salinity because of the infusion of fresh water from the north, east and west, said Basa, author of many Pangasinan history books.

He did not say however if this is borne by scientific study or other empirical evidence.

Basa bared this in support of the effort of the city government to promote the Dagupan bangus in the world market, one of which is the holding of the yearly Dagupan Festival, now the queen festival of the north.

Dagupan is lucky because it is the most famous of all the coastal towns in the Lingayen Gulf that are raising and producing bangus, Basa said.

He said early fishermen in Dagupan drain their fishponds after each harvest, leaving water only as high as one inch. Then they leave it exposed to the sunlight. In two weeks, he said, algae out from the clayish soil.

Algae is the natural food of bangus that was soon replaced by commercial feeds but which cost much these days.

Unfortunately, Basa said, there are now only about 700 hectares of fishpond lands in Dagupan that are producing bangus, most of which are located in the Bonuan area.

He blamed the fast disappearing fishponds to the rapid urbanization of the city with prime fishponds continuously being sacrificed to become sites of housing subdivisions and business establishments.

Basa said bangus-raising started in Dagupan as soon as it was formed into a community. He tagged bangus as a fish really indigenous to the place.

‘In the past, Basa said, Dagupan used to be all swamps that were dotted with nipa palms and part of the Lingayen Gulf till accretion and sedimentation took place.

Nipa is a kind of palm from whose sap early residents produced wine concoctions, Basa sad.

The nipa wine made many early residents of Dagupan rich, according to Basa.

Fry of sabalo (mother bangus)used to be gathered in the shoreline, of the Lingayen Gulf, till this became rare, now prompting fishpond owners to source out the commodity as far as Ilocos Norte. (PNA)