S p e c i a l r e p o r t
T h e tu n g o g ( C e rio p s ta g a l ) indu stry and p rosp ects for m an grove rehabilitation
B Y
Jurgenne H onculada Prim avera, PhD S e n io r S cie n tis t
A N D
Lilian de la Peña, MSc A sso cia te R esea rch er
SE A F D E C / A Q D Did you know that the red color of tuba,
the ferm ented coco nut drink daily im bibed by countless F ilipinos all over the islands, com es from a d ye obtained from the dried extract (called cutch) of m angrove bark?
The cutch from ta n g a l (a m angrove spe
cies w hose scientific nam e is C erio p s tagal), called tu n g o g or baluk, is tradi
tionally used for tu b a because it is ef
fective in retarding ferm entation. B ut because the supp ly h as been depleted d u e to e x c e s s iv e ta n g a l h a rv e stin g , tu n g o g n o w a d a y s is ro u tin e ly m ixed w ith cutch from R h izo p h o ra , another m angrove locally called bakhaw (hence the term bakhaw an or bakaw an to d e
note a m a n g ro v e area) alth o u gh tuba prepared using bakhaw extract can cause indigestion.
Uses
Tungog (from which k atun gga n , another term for m angrove is d erived) is also u s e d a s th e f e r m e n tin g a g e n t fo r bahalina, a special variety of tuba that gets m ellow er w ith age, unlike ordinary tuba. It is produced only in C ebu, B ohol, L eyte and Sam ar. Tuba is also com bined w ith a carbonated drink (R oyal Tru- O range) and beer into a cocktail called mestiza. Old w om en drink tuba m ixed with tso k o la te (m ade from ca ca o beans) every evening to ease tensed m uscles. T un gog is also believed to cure anem ia. B ecause of the great dem and for tu n g o g cutch, espe
cially in eastern V isayas, the region has to im port hundreds of tons o f cutch yearly from as far aw ay as Z am b oanga and Sabah in N orth B orneo.
An Indo-Pacific species, C erio p s tagal is w idely distributed from E ast A frica and M adagascar, throughout tropical A sia and
northern A ustralia to N orth C aledonia and M icro n esia in the South Pacific and to H ong K ong. It is called the yellow m an
grove because of its bright yellow -green leaves which may be dark green in shaded areas. It is a typical constituent of the inner (m iddle and landw ard) m angrove zone and form s pure stands of sm all trees (2 to 7
m eters high) in w ell-drained clay soil but gro w s as a short shrub ( 1 m eter tall) in poorly drained soils frequently inundated by tides.
A sid e from ferm enting tuba, cutch from tu n g o g is also used to color rice, to dye thick leather, cotton, nylon, mats, etc. and to prevent scales from form ing in w ater boilers. O ne hectare of w e ll-d ev e lo p e d m a n g ro v e forest can produce 17,700 kilos of dried tanbark.
The export o f m angrove tanbarks and cutch extract is an im portant industry in som e tropical countries but not in the P hilippines w here the barks are used locally to only a lim ited extent (B row n
& Fisher 1918).
Stripped of its bark, the ta n g a l tree provides hard, straight-grained, fine-tex
tured wood used as poles for baklad (fish corrals) and m aterial for furniture and house construction. T his species is also a favorite for C hristm as trees.
T he tu n gog industry: 1930s-1950s
The follow ing account of the industry w a s p ro v id e d by fo rm e r B o h o la n o tu n g o g gatherers, now 60-70 years old.
They started their trade at the age of 14- 15 years during the peak of the industry in the 1930s to the 1950s. A t this time, around 100 sailboats for tu n g o g gathering were based in four villag es in P angangan Islan d , B ohol.
Each sailboat had a keel 60-90 feet long, tw o m asts each m easuring 70 feet, a buw ang (opening) of 12 feet, and dagpak o f 8 feet. The largest sailb oat could load 6,000 kilos of dried tungog.
A m ong the crew, it w as the m aestro w ho directed the trip (e.g., the route to take, w here to sell and at w h at price) w hile the Mr. Juan de Jesus, a tuba gath erer of Ibajay,
Aklan has been planting and harvesting tangal trees for over 20 years now
6 SEAFDEC Asian Aquaculture Vol. XX No. 6 December 1998
tungog industry • primavera & de la peña
segu n d a m a estro supervised the crew and th e tu n g o g g a th e r e r s . T h e m a n u n o n g guarded the boat and kept w atch for bahura (coral reefs) w hich cou ld gro und the boat.
Financiers and the sharing system
A lthough there were m any boat ow ners in P angangan in the 1930s, only four people had enough capital to finance a trip. A boat ow ner and financier w ould usually com bine resources in a partner
ship called kom panya. From the gross incom e for each trip, the financier would deduct the capital plus 5-10% m onthly interest. The net income w as divided into three equal parts, one each for the fin
ancier, boat ow ner, and crew.
Sharing or p a rtid a w as according to the skills o f the crew. A crew m em ber w ho could untangle the boat’ s an chor from coral stones w as paid more incentives or p a b o r than one w ho could neither dive nor swim . D iving and sw im m ing skills were needed for the gath er
ing of sa m u n g (shells m ade into buttons for export), a side activity of the crew.
The cook and apprentices or those from farm ing villages usually did not get in
centives. One system of sharing am ong the crew fo llo w e d th is sch em e: one m a estro - one part and 10 p a b o r, one segu n d a m a estro - 1 part and 7 pa b or, one m a n u n on g (diver) - 1 part and 6 pabor, 20 m a n u n u n g o g (tu n g o g gath erer) - 1 part each, and one cook - 1 part.
H ow ever, a hardw orking gatherer could be given an incentive by the m aestro.
A nother system w as by percentage or p o rsien to . From the gross incom e w as de
ducted the capital including 5-10% m onthly interest. The net gain w as divided in two:
30% to the boat ow ner (20% to the ow ner and 10% to the m a estro) and 20% to the crew (5% to the m aestro, 2% to the segunda m a estro and 3% to all kasko leaders). Each kasko (or canoe for entering the m angroves) had 2 crew m em bers and a num ber of gath
erers.
The scale of a gathering operation or trip could be gauged by the food supply
(because it is difficult to retrieve figures for the operational costs). For exam ple, a trip to Z am boanga with 20 crew required 60 sacks of corn, 1 sack of m onggo, 2 sacks of sugar, 1 sack of salt and 300 liters of drink
ing water. Fish w as caught by crew m em bers (or purchased) during the journey.
Trips were undertaken in March to July (during the northw est m onsoon or am ihan) and the return during the h aba ga t or south
w est m onsoon to take ad vantage o f the wind. Trips lasted 4-5 m onths within the
country and longer to Borneo.
Places for collecting tu n g o g bark were D u m a ra n in P a la w a n , U lu ta n g a in Zam boanga, Surigao, C otabato, Tungkil Islan d near Jo lo , M indo ro, C am o te s, P o lilio Isla n d in L u z o n , K u d at and B anggi in N orth B orneo.
Philippine m angroves used to be divided into concessio ns by the B ureau o f F o r e s tr y . T w o f in a n c ie r s from Pangangan were granted concessions in Palaw an and P olilio Is. in L uzon. G ath
erers paid fees to these concessionaires.
In B orneo, gatherers paid 14 bundles of dried tu n g o g to a certain Datu M ustafa, governor of K udat, N orth B orneo. To enter B orneo how ever, they had to pay protection m oney (2 sacks of rice) to a M uslim leader in B alabac, Palaw an.
B ark rem oval
B ecause a D epartm ent of Forestry ordi
nance prohibited the sale of m angrove bark less than one-fourth to one-half of an inch thick, gatherers look for m an
g ro v e s w ith th ick er bark. T rees w ith th ic k b ark c o u ld be fo u n d o n ly in B a n g g i, N o rth B o r n e o . T h e re fo re , B anggi bark w as used as a sam ple for sh ow ing to prospective buyers but not for sale.
U nlik e oth er m a n g ro v e s such as p a g a tp a t, tu n g o g e a s ily d ie s w h en stripped of its bark. T here are tw o w ays of rem oving the bark: by kuyo for short m angroves (e .g., p a ra n g -p a ra n g) and by pa d y a g for tall m angroves (e.g., ta b y o g).
In the kuyo system , m ost of the bark is rem oved but the tree is left standing. In the padyag, the tree is first cut and then stripped of its bark.
Dried tu n g o g w ere classified as big or sm all. B und les of 20 pieces each were sold at P0 .10 for sm all pieces and P2.00 for big ones. The bundles were peddled by the crew by m eans of “suroy su ro y” in W aray speak
in g p la c e s , e .g ., T a c lo b a n , O rm o c , C albayog, C arigara, M aasin. Or dried bark w as sold w holesale by the financier m ostly to C hinese buyers in Cebu.
page 8 A tangal (Ceriops tagal) plantation in Aklan,
northern Panay with pen cil-like propagules dangling from tree branches.
Tungog o r the extract from d ried bark of tangal (shown above beside propagules) gives tuba its typical red color
SEAFDEC Asian Aquaculture Vol. XX No. 6 December 1998 7
special report
t u n g o g i n d u s t r y ... f r o m p 7
W hether as source of cutch for tuba or baklad poles or w ood for house construc
tion, tang a l is an im portant re fo re statio n species w hose products can be sold for cash or used for dom estic purposes by coastal fam ilies.
Its characteristics o f year-round repro
d u c tio n a n d r e la t i v e ly la r g e s iz e o f propagules m ake ta n g a l an ideal species for rehabilitating degraded areas. F low ers and fruits o f ta n g a l m ay be found throughout th e y e a r ; th e 15 -2 0 c e n tim e te r lo n g propagules look like pencils d angling from the parent tree (see photo). H ow ever, seed
lin gs should be planted in the inner m an
grove areas because m ortality rates are high in the seaw ard zone.
O ld tim er Juan de Jesus, a tu ba gath
erer from B gy. N aisud, Ibajay in northern A klan (see photo) has been planting ta n ga l for over 20 years now . B ecause of its popu
larity as h ousing m aterial, they say that a man needs to plant as m any ta n g a l trees as the num ber of his children m ultiplied by 4, representing the posts o f the future houses they w ill build. T he trees are harve stable in 5 years.
R E F E R E N C E S
Baconguis SR, Ociones FT, Panot IA, Lavega RM, Siapno FE, Cariño CR, Holgado DY and Reyes FM. A guidebook on the mangroves of Puerto Galera. ERDB-MAB Puerto Galera Ecosystems Special Report. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Ecosystem Research and De
velopment Bureau, Laguna. Philippines, 63 p.
Brown WH and Fischer AF. 1918. Philippine man
grove swamps. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bureau of Forestry Bull. No.
17. Bureau of Printing, Manila, 132 pp.
Melana EE and Dagalihog SD. 1993. Feasibility of tangal (Ceriops tagal) for enrichment planting of degraded mangrove stand. Ecosystems Research Digest 3 (2): 76-83.
Tomlinson PB. 1986. The botany of mangroves. Cam
bridge University Press, 413 p.
Yao CE. 1983. Tangal for the bahalina industry.
Canopy International June 1983: 9-10.
Z eller BM and M oore NG. C e rio p s ta g al var.
australis. Queensland Department of Primary In
dustries Leaflet No. 5: Know your mangroves.
Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, Aus
tralia, 2 p.
A Q D j o u r n a l p u b l … f r o m p 5
were conducted in 1994 and 1995. Shrimp sam p le s w ere taken from 23 g ro w -o u t ponds, 14 of which had disease outbreaks.
L u m in o u s b a c te ria l (L B ) lo a d of the shrim ps’ hp with [mean = 2.4 x 101 colony fo rm in g u n its (C F U )/h p ] and w ith o u t [mean = 0.3 x 101 CFU/hp] disease out
breaks were com parable during the first 15 days of culture (DOC). During disease out
breaks at 18 to 32 DOC, how ever, LB load of affected shrim ps (mean = 9.0 x 10 4 CFU/
hp) were higher than healthy shrimps (mean
= 7.0 x 101 C FU/hp). At 50 to 60 DOC, le v e ls o f LB w ere com parab le in older shrim ps with or w ithout disease. Total viable and presum ptive Vibrio counts were also com parable in both shrim p sam ples from 1 to 60 DOC. C haracterization of the 172 bacterial isolates collected show ed that m ost (90.12% ) were Vibrio species dom i
nated by V. harveyi (27.91 %), V. splen d idus II (1 3 .3 7 % ) an d V. p a r a h a e m o ly tic u s ( 10.46% ).
L io P o G D, Albright LJ, Michel C, Leano EM. 1998. Experim ental induction of le
s io n s in s n a k e h e a d s (O p h ic e p h a lu s s tr ia tu s) and catfish (C la ria s b a tra ch u s) with A erom onas hydrophila, A quaspirillum sp., P seudom onas sp. and S trep to co ccu s sp.
Journal o f A pplied Ichthyology 14 ( 1-2):
75-79.
A b stra ct. Iso late s o f A q u a sp irillu m sp., P seu d om on a s sp., and S tre p to c o c c u s sp.
recovered from epizootic ulcerative syn d ro m e ( E U S )-a f f e c te d s n a k e h e a d s (O p hicep ha lus stria tu s) in Thailand as well as an isolate of A erom onas hydrophila re
covered from EU S-affected snakeheads in the P h ilip p in es w ere ch aracterized and id e n tif ie d . E ach is o la te w a s in je c te d intram uscularly (IM ) into healthy catfish (C la ria s b a tra c h u s) and snakeheads (O . str ia tu s). R esults show ed in tests with C.
b a tr a c h u s th a t 24 h a fte r in je c tio n ,
A q u a s p ir illu m sp ., P s e u d o m o n a s sp ., S tre p to c o c c u s sp. and A. h yd ro p h ila in duced slight, slight, m oderate and severe derm om uscular necrotic lesio ns, resp ec
tiv e ly . A m o n g O. s t r i a t u s , o n ly A.
h y d r o p h ila in d u c e d s e v e r e le s io n s . S tre p to co cc u s sp. induced slight lesions 2 days post-injection which healed rapidly, w hile A q u a sp irillu m sp. and P seud om on a s sp. did not m anifest any derm al lesions.
Experim ents indicated that am ong the four E U S-associated test bacteria, A. hydrophila w as the m ost pathogenic, inducing severe d e r m o m u s c u la r n e c r o tic le s io n s in in tr a m u s c u la r ly in je c te d c a tf is h (C . b a tra c h u s) and snak eheads (O . s tr ia tu s).
D ifferen ces in the su sc e p tib ility o f O.
stria tu s and C. b a tra ch u s to A q u a spirillum sp., P seudom onas sp. and S tre p to co ccu s sp.
were evident. Furtherm ore, this is the first e v id e n c e o f th e a s s o c ia tio n b e tw e e n A qua spirillum sp. and diseased fish.
Focken U, G roth A, C oloso RM , Becker K. 1998. C ontribution of natural food and supplem ental feed to the g u t content of P en a eu s m onodon F abricius in a semi- intensive pond system in the Philippines.
A quaculture 1 6 4 (1-4): 105-116.
A bstract. Juvenile P en a eu s m onodon were stocked in grow -out ponds and fed a com pound diet at high rates for 19 w eeks un
der se m i-in te n siv e co n d itio n s. A t three stages of the rearing period (w eeks 6, 11 and 16), the gut content of the shrim p was analysed m icroscopically at every hour of the day. A dditionally, possible sources of natural food (la b la b, lum ut, zoobenthos, etc.) w ere analysed m icroscop ically and where possible for proxim ate com position.
A t w eek 6, the gut content consisted of 28.9% su p p le m e n ta l feed, 4 2.3% p lant materials (other than from the pelleted diet),
page 10
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