A blessed Good Friday to those that celebrate!

Whether or not you believe in the Christian God, you’re (hopefully) benefiting from the religious holiday that is Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus' Passion, Death, and Resurrection. For Catholics, this is preceded by the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Maundy Thursday. This season is marked, among other things, by the need for sacrifice, which, for many Catholics, include abstaining from meat from warm blooded animals. Lent aside, many Catholics choose to abstain from warm blooded animal meat on Fridays as well.

The Philippines, being an archipelago, theoretically should be self-sufficient in terms of fish production.

According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), as of 2024, the fisheries sector directly or indirectly employed 2.29 million people, with fish and seafood making up 11.7 percent of the average Filipino’s diet.

In the 4th quarter of 2025, BFAR reported a total volume of 3,956,913.39 metric tons, with most of it coming from aquaculture (2,179,071.80 MT), followed by municipal fishing (928,342.70 MT), then commercial fishing (849,498.89 MT), with just a 78,843.81 MT difference between the latter two. This was a 2.5 percent drop from previous production within the same period, with a total value of ₱321.19 billion.

Of the 2,704,874 Registered Municipal Fisherfolk, 71 percent identify as male and 29 percent identify as female.

Around 80% of Filipinos identify as Catholics, which should account for a spike in seafood consumption during the Lenten season. Even restaurants offer seafood specials to accommodate the dietary restrictions of the season. I could not, however, find statistics to support this. If anyone can point me to a resource, I would be most grateful.

There are several theories behind Catholics’ abstinence from warm blooded meat during Fridays and Lent. Theories have ranged from symbolic to outright conspiracy. The most widely believed is that this is to honor Jesus’ dying on a Friday. Since he shed his blood for mankind on a Friday, not eating warm blooded meat symbolizes the staying of the execution of the animals—at least until the next day.

The wildest theory is that an early pope (the fact that he cannot be named should have given this away) made a pact with local fishermen (alas, not as exciting as a pact with Satan) who complained that they were losing money. This has been debunked many times, though it has continued to spread simply because it sounds more scandalous.

The top five producing regions are BARMM, MIMAROPA, Region IX, Region III, and Region VI. BARMM remains the country’s top producing region, having produced 1,168,451.18 MT in the 4th quarter of last year, with the second region on the list producing less than half of that volume in the same amount of time.

The top 10 fisheries commodities in terms of volume for the same time period are seaweed, tuna, bangus, tilapia, sardines, galunggong, matang baka, shrimp, mackerel, and dilis (anchovy, to pizza and Caesar salad lovers). But volume does not correspond to earnings, as seaweed’s ₱9.23 billion compared to tuna’s ₱55.93 billion and bangus’ ₱57.32 billion (the highest on the list) show. Dilis earned the least, at ₱4.49 billion, which is nothing to laugh at, considering that, at three to six centimeters in length, they are tiny little guys.

And while fish has been associated with Fridays in the Catholic faith, the eating of fish isn’t actually required. One just has to not eat meat from a warm blooded animal. Technically, one could eat a reptile or an insect without incurring God’s disappointment.

Catholic or not, or even if you eat fish or not, I hope you take time today to appreciate the hard work the members of our fishing industry put into making sure we have a steady supply of galunggong, bangus, and so on. While fisheries only accounts for 11 percent of GVA in Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries, which make up around 9-10 percent of our country’s GDP, it more importantly is an integral part of many aspects of our vast and varied Filipino culture, a welcome dish at every meal, from breakfast to pulutan, from, as the popular variety show song goes, Batanes to Jolo.

It may not always be possible to know where the fish you are buying comes from, but taking a few steps to discover its provenance is a good step towards understanding, appreciating, and repairing our relationship with our food system. And while, especially given current times, it may be difficult or impractical to choose where your seafood comes from, choosing to buy local when possible will definitely help each and every fisher that plys our local waters.

After all, even if it is Holy Week, you don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy fish.