Djoma de Guzman is a multi-awarded fishfarmer, small-scale category, in his country-of-birth, the Philippines. For 16 years, he dabbled in the marine culture of oysters, estuarine groupers, mangrove snappers, sea perch/'baramundi', cherry tilapia, yellow-spot siganid and a Philippine staple fish: the milkfish or 'bangus'. Educated as a professional social/organizational psychologist, Djoma would juggle his time between the university, human resource management consulting and fishfarming.
Since migrating to British Columbia, Canada in 2005, Djoma spends more time in 'anything fish'. He found work as a fishmonger in a 30-year-old, closed family-owned fish processing, distribution and retailing company. He has since joined the seafood department of the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket. Serving a broad spectrum of customers, he is surprised by the insufficient level of consumers' education about seafood, especially the farm fishing industry. This state of affairs leads many people to miss on the healthful and nutritious benefits of eating fish.
Djoma has made it his personal mission to present to the consumers a broader knowledge about food fishes and the people behind the fish we eat. His passion is driving him to publish the BCfishmonger blogsite to inform consumers about fish and how to become a responsible and conscientious partner in promoting a sustainable supply and use of fishery resources.
"Get it straight from the horse's mouth!" While visiting Singapore in 1981, Djoma noticed large quantities of estuarine grouper fingerlings being imported into the country. He learned about a growing industry of floating cage farming of finfishes. He traced the reputed source of the practice, a fishery professor in the University Sains Malaysia. He sought audience with Dr. Chua Teng who was then based in Penang, Malaysia to get it straight from the originator on how to culture groupers. Thus started the journey of going to the original sources of 'fish and anything fish.' And here in Canada, Djoma resumes the practice of going to the original source and write a more balanced set of knowledge about the fish industry and let the consumers decide what is good for them.
In the process of publishing assorted articles in this site, Djoma plans to produce video documentaries about, "Fish and the People Who Nurture the Fish" that can be used as distributed learning objects in schools and in the home kitchens.
