Educational Field Trip to Pangasinan

Lailani M. Siblawan

Cental Luzon State University

October 3-5, 2019

Everyone knows that experience is the best teacher. No matter how prowess and inept you become in
class, the case might not be the same in the actual field. So to better understand and grasp on how
things are actually done in the world we're preparing to enter, this 3-day educational field trip to
Alaminos, Anda and Bolinao of Pangasinan was planned and carried out.

Since almost everyone in our year level agreed to come, 8 vans were rented as our vehicle where each of
it have an instructor in charge of keeping an eye on us. With our arranged group in our designated van,
we departed at the main gate as early as 1:00 in the morning for us to arrive at dawn.

Near Hotel Monte Rio Alaminos, we had a small break to relieve ourselves, buy and eat our snacks and
breakfast. It was already dawn when we arrived at our first destination which is Lucap in Alaminos,
Pangasinan. Since we're considerably early, we took our time take pictures and to check out some items
that the vendors we're selling.

After that we then went to BFAR RMaTDec, a Mariculture station near the sea, one of the primary
purpose of our visit. Despite the endless queue we had to endure just to log in, we were finally divided
into four groups to make the tour faster and make it easier for the guides. Mr. Christian Garcia, our
guide, enthusiastically shared informations about the species they culture which includes orange spotted
grouper, orange spotted spinefish, mangrove red snapper, abalone, sandfish and sea urchin where some
of them were in Carias island. He first led us Natural Food Production Laboratory where miss Joanna
taught us about the culture and production of green and brown algae which is used as food for rotifer
and artemia. The second laboratory was the Seaweed Propagation Laboratory which is incharge of
studying and developing different seaweed propagation. After that was the Biotoxin Marine Laboratory
which is responsible of studying the toxicity of samples from the sea. Mr. Garcia also directed us to their
Siganid, Sandfish and abalone hatchery where we got to try the hand refractometer in checking salinity,
and got to learn how they are induced to spawn, their male to female ratio and even the change in their
diet as they grow up.

After all the groups' tour, we had a simple appreciation moment with the guides then we were out to fill
our stomachs for lunch. That afternoon, we did not miss the chance to visit the hundred islands and with
our swimming clothes we sailed forth. The first destination of our island hopping is Carias island which,
as I aforementioned, is the marine extension of BFAR RMaTDeC. The person assigned in the station
kindly entertained our curiosities and showed us some of the species. After Carias was the Governor's
island, Marcos island, Kids' island and Pilgrimage island where we got to swim on the seawater, enjoy
some activities while admire the sand, the nature and the sceneries.
Before going to our accommodation in Anda, we were given time to take a bath first which is why when
we reached Villa Cecilia it was already dark. While eating our dinner, the rain fell and we hastened to find
our cottages for the night. Though there were some issues with the place, everyone eventually receded
to take a rest.

In this day 2, each group of their laboratories carried out their requirements which is to interview a
fishermen about their livelihood then afterwards have a morphometric and meristic count on some fish
species. On our free time, we were able to go out to the shore and spectate the exposed aquatic
organisms icluding sea shells, starfish and some sea cucumber brought out by the low tide. In the
afternoon, we had our team building consisting of 3 games only which for me was not enough because
we started late then the rain made us retreat early. Though there was still an Amazing race left, some of
us just chose to go back to our cottages and called it a day.

In the morning of our last day, some issue rose but fortunately it didn't affect others that much since
everyone is busy preparing their things for departure. The last municipality we visited was Bolinao where
one of the stations we visited we was UP Marine Science Institire Bolinao Marine Laboratory. In this site,
we were first oriented about the place and that they were originally founded to study and culture giant
clams which at that time were endangered. After that, we were ushered to see the Giant clams outside
the building especifically Tridacna gigas where I learned that not all clams actually form pearl. There
were also Anguila anguila or glass eel, sea urchin, starfish, helmet shell, and coralls. Too bad we were not
able to visit their museum on the second floor.

Back on our assigned vans, we had a short stop at the road to buy for our lunch. When we reached the
Mangrove farm, we had our lunch and took some rest before touring the mangroves of different species.
According to the staff, there have around 30 species of mangroves in there where they are able to
produce 80,000 seedlings per year which is meant to supply and provide coastal areas with few to no
mangroves at all.

When we were back at the main gate, it was already night and thankfully the drivers were kind enough
to drive some of us to our residences.

This activity albeit seems to be rushed which resulted to some itenerary problem even before the actual
trip had still been a knowledgeable and effective way to immerse and introduce us to how and why
things are done the way we are taught. An exposure that everyone needs to be able to learn and realize
the essence of their chosen path.