With the Philippines being an archipelago of 7,641 islands many in close proximity to each other it is no surprise that boats are a important part of day to day life here. Much of the nations supplies are shipped in from around the world in modern ships but on a more local level traditionally built boats are the source of life. From fishing to tourism and inter island travel the Bangka boats are used everywhere, (also known as banca, panga,panca) they all share a similar construction. Originally they would have used dug out tree trunks but these days they are built with a timber skeleton frame with a plywood covering, one feature that has remained a constant is the outriggers which are giant bits of bamboo.
For fishing small boats with one or two passengers are used adopting a single line method of fishing which although not massively efficient it has a relatively low impact on fish stocks, in some areas two boats will string a net between themselves which generates a larger catch.
Moalboal fishermen.
Both these methods are sustainable within moderation, but the Philippines has a big problem going forward, in recent years the Chinese have slowly tried and been successful in encroaching on Philippine waters taking massive stocks of fish at a unsustainable level, the future is not looking good. Any how that's a different story I may go into another time.
This one I saw on on the beach in southern Leyte shows the complete shape, I loved how the owner had built his house in the background with a balcony in the shape of a boat it would seem even when on dry land he wanted to feel like he was in the sea.
Back to Bangka boats, as mentioned they come in all sorts of sizes and for me my use of them is primarily diving, almost all dive centres use them generally with a passenger capacity between 12 and 20, they are great boats to dive from as they sit very shallow in the water which is good in a area with coral reefs only a couple of meters under the surface. The other big bonus is that due to the out riggers they are very stable, essentially a crude trimaran, some of the larger ones have cabins on board for longer day trips.
Day dive boat.
But most are small open boats that make short trips out to dive sites returning to base in between dives.
Diving Moalboal - Cebu dive centre.
Last spring I spent a week staying on the largest Bangka I have seen, this one had slightly different construction due to it's size, instead of bamboo out riggers they were hulls that had storage areas in them. This was a liveaboard dive trip to Tubbataha reef a open ocean Unesco world heritage site. A stunning destination a divers bucket list trip, along with 10 others we dived 5 times every day, eating sleeping and sometimes drinking a little rum.
M/Y Sakura - Tubbataha reef.
Hope you enjoyed my little introduction on boats in the Philippines, if you ever find yourself here you will find it hard to go anywhere without encountering a boat journey, it's a great way to travel around and with so many islands in close proximity inter island trips are short and great fun.
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