Balayan Bay is a large bay of
Luzon
Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...
Island in the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. It is part of the
Verde Island Passage and its entire shore is in the province of
Batangas. The bay is between wide. It is separated from the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
to the west by the
Calatagan Peninsula, which has
Cape Santiago as its southern point. The
Calumpan Peninsula forms the bay's eastern side, that separates it from
Batangas Bay.
The name comes from the Sri-Visayan word ''ba-i'' or ''balai'', meaning "house". Together with the
Tagalog suffix “''-an''”, Balayan thus means "a group of houses" or "settlement".
The following municipalities line the bay from west to east:
Calatagan,
Balayan
Balayan, officially the Municipality of Balayan (), is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 95,913 people.
The town ...
,
Calaca,
Lemery,
Taal,
San Luis,
Bauan, and
Mabini.
Together with the Verde Island Passage, the bay was once known for its abundant fish biodiversity and yields (that were up to six times higher there compared to other similar fishing grounds in the Philippines). But in the early 2000s, a drop in fish catch was noticed. In particular,
sardine
Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious etymology says it com ...
,
anchovy, and
round scad stocks were declining as a result of overfishing. By 2014, the decline was so severe that it led to seasonal fishing closures.
References
External links
*
Bays of the Philippines
Landforms of Batangas
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