In the Murillo Velarde Map of 1734 this 'ensenada' 'inlet' was called 'Ensenada de Naga' 'Naga Bay'. In a latter Velarde/Bagay Map 1744-49, it was simply attached to name of the town at mouth of the bay,

Siruma Siruma, officially the Municipality of Siruma ( bcl, Banwaan kan Siruma; tl, Bayan ng Siruma), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 19,419 people. History ...

. San Miguel Bay is a large bay in the

Bicol Peninsula Bicol, known formally as the Bicol Region or colloquially as Bicolandia ( bcl, Rehiyon kan Bikol; Rinconada Bikol: ''Rehiyon ka Bikol''; Waray Sorsogon, Masbateño: ''Rehiyon san Bikol''; tl, Rehiyon ng Bikol), is an administrative region of ...

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

island in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It encompasses the provinces of

Camarines Norte Camarines Norte ( bcl, Amihanan na Camarines; fil, Hilagang Camarines), officially the Province of Camarines Norte, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. Its capital is Daet, Camarin ...

and

Camarines Sur Camarines Sur ( bcl, Habagatan na Camarines; tl, Timog Camarines), officially the Province of Camarines Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region on Luzon. Its capital is Pili and the province borders Camarines Norte and ...

. The province of Camarines Norte is to the west and Camarines Sur is to the south and east of the bay. The coastline consists of numerous sandy beaches and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

forests. Ninety-five percent of the seabed in the bay is covered by sandy and silt soils. The remaining five percent is covered by coral reefs, these are mostly located in the northwest and northeast of the bay.

Seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

and

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

beds line the shorelines of the islands at the exit to the

Philippine Sea The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), the largest in the world, occupying an estimated surface area of . The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea. Its ...

. San Miguel Bay has a total annual fish production of about 20,000 t was recorded from the Bay. About 64% of this was contributed by some 5,100 small-scale fishermen, while the rest was landed by 95 commercial trawlers of varying sizes. Economic analysis revealed the existence of strong competition among the different fishing sectors over the use of the Bay's resources and income is unevenly distributed in favor of the commercial trawlers, which employ only 7% of the total number of fishermen in the area. Ownership and earning of the trawlers were concentrated in 35 families, while the small-scale fishing gears were distributed evenly among 2,000 families. . San Miguel Bay is a major fishing ground on the Pacific coast of the Philippines. The Bay is exploited by trawler operators and small-scale fishermen competing for the same resources. By the early 1970s competition among increasing numbers of small-scale fishermen operating within San Miguel Bay already had led to a decline in catch per effort. As competition from trawlers began to increase, the perceived impact on the stock became an issue of growing concern among the thousands of small-scale fishermen affected. At the same time, the first of the world-wide energy crises struck, leading to major increases in the cost of operation. The close of the decade saw the small-scale fishermen of San Miguel Bay caught between declining catches and increasing costs.

References

Bays of the Philippines Landforms of Camarines Norte Landforms of Camarines Sur {{BicolR-geo-stub