Environmental awareness through art appreciation
by Brittney Anderson
Description and Rationale
In the Philippines there are some very beautiful places that reflect the culture of the people. But with all the big cities and growing population, things such as pollution and simply not taking care of the things around us could put the environment in danger. Being surrounded by the city may be one reason why people don’t take into consideration just how beautiful or how important the natural environment is. A place called Laguna de Bay is the largest lake in the Philippines. It is located in Luzon, eight miles south-east of Manila, flowing into the Pasig river. The CLEAR Network shows that it is a very important natural resource in the lives of many communities that live around it. If we do not take care of it, the people around it could be in danger. They depend on the lake for their water source and food (fish).
Do people know about the Philippines beautiful environment outside the city? Do they know how important it is? Could the facet that they don’t see these places be a reason why they don’t see a need to take care of them? If people did see the beauty in this country, would it help them to get more involved? Would it be possible to create artwork, showing places such as Laguna de Bay that would make people aware of its beauty and importance?
My plan for this project is to see if presenting artwork of the natural environment of the Philippines, in places such as Laguna de Bay, would raise awareness of the need to take care of our environment. I plan to visit an art gallery that has paintings such as these and see what effect they might have on people. I’m not really sure right now how it will all work but some ideas that I have would be to make some kind of brochure, showing some of the artwork and explaining the need to keep our environment clean. Maybe bringing up the topic of Laguna de Bay and the importance of the lake to the communities living around it and suggesting ways that they could help.
I am hoping that a way can be found to improve the environment by raising the awareness of people through artwork that shows the beauty and importance of places such as Laguna de Bay that people depend on for a living.
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Biology
Common Names and Synonyms
The milkfish is one of the many fish found in Laguna de Bay. It is also known as bangus, kakawag, and sabalo in the northern Philippines. Awa and bugi are names used in the southern Philippines. The scientific name of this fish is Chanos chanos.
Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Osteichthyes (bony fishes)
Order: Gonorhynchiformes (milkfish)
Family: Chanidae (freshwater)
Genus: Chanos (caudal fin)
Species: C. chanos (milkfish)
The milkfish is the only kind of fish that belongs to the family Chanidae. The name Chanos chanos was given to it in 1871.
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Morphology and Physical Description
Adult chanos are found to be around 75 cm and weigh from 4 to 14 kg. They have long, thin bodies. Their back and fins are olive colored and they have silver scales along their sides, but not on their belly. They have a small, low toothless mouth that doesn’t reach past the center of their eye. Chanos are known for having lots of bones. The internal anatomy of chanos is pretty much the same as any other bony fish. This includes the brain, esophagus, dorsal aorta (vessel that carries blood from heart to other organs located in the back), stomach, air bladder, spinal chord, kidney, urinary office, genital office, anus, gonad, intestine, pyloric cecum, gall bladder, liver, heart, gills, and olfactory bulb. The only thing that’s different is that they don’t have any teeth.
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Getting Food
Chanos are omnivores. They start eating about three days after hatching. By this time their esophagus and intestine are differentiated, and the eyes and mouth are completely open. At a young age they eat mostly copepods (6-legged crustatians) and diatoms (algae). Chanos cannot digest chlorella (green algae) because of its rigid cell wall. Later, they get their food by swimming through schools of fish and plankton. They feed around midday when it’s hotter and oxygen levels in the water are lower. They have small toothless mouths which is why they get their food by swimming through masses of fish and plankton. To protect them from what goes through their mouths they have fine, closely laid gill rakers. Adult chanos also feed on eggs and larvae. When these fish are captured and raised in culturing areas, they have to move the adults after the eggs are laid or they will start to eat them.
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Reproduction
There are no major differences between male and female chanos before they reach an age of sexual maturity. This is usually around five years. At this time the females will have a third opening in the anal region instead of just two. Chanos females can carry up to one million eggs for every kg of their body weight. The birthing period of Chanos is longer around the equator and get shorter the farther away you go. They usually reproduce near shores or in lakes. Chanos are able to reproduce many times in a single breeding season.
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Environmental Factors
Chanos are able to adapt themselves to extreme environments such as: temperature, low oxygen levels, solidity, ammonia, nitrate, crowding and even starvation. Their ability to adapt makes them good for culturing. These fish do better with warmer temperatures, but can live from 23-33 C. If the temperature gets below 8.5 or up to 42.7 C the younger fish will die. Larger adult fish are able to adapt to these situations better than younger fish but they all have the same ability to tolerate extreme environments.
They can also go back and forth to salt and fresh water. It is assumed that they spend most of their young lives in freshwater lakes that flow into the sea and then migrate to the ocean where they become sexually mature adults.
These fish can get diseases though, mostly from bacteria or parasitic infestations such as protozoa and worms. Most predators of chanos are also bony fishes. Many of these prey on the chanos when they are still larvae, but one that pres on it at an older stage is terapon jarbua.
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Origin and Distribution
Chanos are found mostly around the coasts of tropical islands such as the Philippines and Indonesia. These fish stay close to water that has warm currents flowing through and coral reefs, generally in shallow waters. They are not found around cold currents. They spend most of their lives in lakes that flow into the sea.
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Importance to People
Chanos are a very important source of food for the people in the Philippines. In Southeast Asia, it makes up about 60% of the fish production as over a quarter of a million tons are harvested regularly in just the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan alone.
To catch chanos people will catch them directly from the wild along the costs. It was found that it is better, however, to raise them in hatchery operations since the wild fish can have unknown diseases. When the eggs are laid in the hatchery operations, they feed on the natural things in the water until two weeks after hatching. Then they are fed artificial food. When the wild chanos were compared with the hatchery bred ones, they were about the same size and health. Since chanos is a commonly used resource, there is a high profit in fish farming.
Chanos are not often sold in places that do not produce them because they don’t like bothering with all of the small bones. But in a country such as the Philippines that has some of the highest production of the fish, it is a very important resource to the people.
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Survivability and Endangered Status
As mentioned before, these fish are very tolerable to extreme conditions with their ability to adapt themselves to these environments. This ability is probably one thing that helps them to live well and not become endangered. There are no protection laws about these fish but, because they are one of the most used fish for food in Southeast Asia, people are becoming aware of how much we are consuming and coming up with ways that we can keep them from becoming endangered. One way that we can do this is to reduce pollution. In Laguna de Bay, where chanos can be found, is becoming very polluted. If nothing is done to stop this then it is predicted that the lake will become biologically dead within five years. This could cause a decrease in the production of chanos in the Philippines.
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Potential Solutions
Possibility 1 -
I could paint two pictures of Laguna de Bay. On one I would show the lake in all its beauty, using bright colors, and showing all the life that’s in it. The second painting would be of the same scene as the first, only I would use dimmer, duller colors and no signs of life in it. I could then collect pieces of trash that could be found in a lake, and glue them onto the painting. This would show how there is so much life and beauty in this lake that we are destroying by our pollution. I could then present these to a school near the lake and explain to them the lake’s situation. Because they would be living around the lake and using it as one of their major resources I could explain to them that polluting the lake is not only taking away its beauty but it is destroying the very thing that they live off of.
Advantages:
1. Art is an effective way to get people’s attention.
2. It would help a younger generation to get involved.
3. It would make them interested because the conditions of the lake affect their personal lifestyle.
Disadvantages:
1. At the time it is Philippine summer so schools would not be in session.
2. The pictures would take me personally a long time to do.
3. It might not have the desired effect on the children.
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Possibility 2 -
I could put together a booklet showing artwork that has been done of Laguna de Bay. Along with the pictures, would be information about the lake, such as the reason why it is such an important resource. People use it for food, water and jobs as fishermen. Then it would explain the problem with pollution and how that would affect all the people living around it. I could then hand them out to people who are interested and explain the cause.
Advantages:
1. It would be professional artwork and could catch people’s attention.
2. It would be put in the hands of many people.
Disadvantages:
1. It might be hard to find lots of artists who would be willing to let me put pictures of their artwork into this booklet.
2. There might not be very many people who care.
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Possibility 3 -
I could go to the Angono art village where there are many different galleries. The village is near Laguna de Bay so some of the artists there do paintings of the lake. I could tell them of the problem with pollution and what it is doing to the lake, and express the need to raise awareness of this problem to the people. I will suggest that they use their gift of art to encourage people to help do something about it. I will also make a brochure containing information about the lake and give it to them to give them some ideas on how they can do this.
Advantages:
1. This would again be professional artwork and would draw more people’s attention to it.
2. Because the village is a place where many people go, either to look at the artwork or just to go around, many people would soon become aware of the issue.
3. The village is near Laguna de Bay so many of the artists get their inspiration from this lake. By explaining how pollution is destroying its beauty, they would want to get involved in saving it.
Disadvantages:
1. Although people may enjoy looking at the artwork, they may not be interested in the problem.
2. The artists may not be interested in trying to stop the pollution of the lake by painting pictures of it.
Action Step
I planned a day to go with my mom to the Angono art village. Before going I made a brochure to give to them. I put in it some information about the lake, the problem with pollution and some suggestions of how they could use their talent to make people aware of the problem. There, we found the Blanco Family Museum, an art gallery run by a family of artists of four generations. We were greeted by two of the third generation artists and then their uncle, Michael P. Blanco, gave us a tour of the gallery.
Mr. Blanco showed us the artwork done by himself, his siblings, his children and his parents and explained to us what they were of and what had inspired them for the painting. He told us that both his parents died this past year and showed us some of his father’s best artwork of cultural scenes and festivals. This is what most of the pictures
were of.
I thought it was really cool because they had some of the very first pictures done by some of the artists. Some of these were done when they were seven, four and three years old. They even had a few that were just colorful scribbles done when they were just a year old. We asked him why there were so many artists in this village and he told us that artists are encouraged to be there mainly because of the festivals. There are two special festivals held each year—one for fisherman and one for farmers. As artists they try to contribute to them and many of their paintings depict these festivals. Mr. Blanco also showed us some environmental art that they had done. They had one picture showing some common plants that can be used for medicine.
I asked Mr. Blanco if they had any pictures of Laguna de Bay and if he knew about the pollution there. He said he did know about it and they did have paintings of the lake. Most of the pictures with Laguna de Bay had to do with fishing and he explained how that is a very important part of the lake.
He told us that many years ago the lake was clear and you could clearly see all the fish in it. His parents used to take him and his siblings to the lake to let them paint there in that peaceful environment. He explained that they were concerned about the problem, but in truth it may be past the point of saving. One idea that he had thought of was to plant bamboo along the river where the waste comes from to act as a filter. I gave him my brochure and he seemed very interested in the ideas that I presented. I also gave him some extra copies and asked him if he could give them to any other artists he knows who might be interested. He teaches many art classes each week so he is happy to share the information with his students to inspire them to use their artistic abilities to help save our environment.
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Bibliography
Aquaculture Profile of Chanos chanos, K.J. Kuhlmann and B. Ueberschar. http://www.fishbase.org/Aquaculture/AquacultureProfileSummary.cfm?ID=80&GenusName=Chanos&SpeciesName=chanos
Colaborators for species, fishbase.org http://www.fishbase.org/Collaborators/CollaboratorsList.php?ID=80&Genus=Chanos&Species=chanos
Fisheries biology of milkfish, Luis Maria B. Garcia Aquaculture Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Tigbauan, Iloilo, Philippineshttp://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AC282E/AC282E04.htm
Greenmuseum.org, Martin Spray 2006. http://www.greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=267
Greenpeace, Calamba City Philippines. http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/photosvideos/photos/two-youths-assist-during-a-was?mode=send
Laguna de Bay, TrekLens.com http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Asia/Philippines/photo5870.htm
Michael P. Blanco, BlancoFamilyMuseum. –interveiw May 7, 2009
The Lake Towns of Laguna de Bay, Museum foundation of the Philippines inc. http://museumfoundationph.org/news/tag/laguna-de-bay
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