The sinarapan is the world's smallest commercially harvested fish located in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. They are endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to the Bicol Region

Bicol Region

The Bicol Region or Bicolandia is one of the 17 regions of the Philippines. Its regional center is Legazpi City...

, specifically in Lake Buhi

Lake Buhi

Lake Buhi is a lake found in Buhi, Camarines Sur, Philippines.It has an area of 18 square kilometres and has an average depth of 8 meters. The lake lies in the valley formed by two ancient volcanoes, Mt. Asog and Mt. Malinao. It was created in 1641, when an earthquake caused a side of Mt. Asog to...

, Lake Bato

Lake Bato

Lake Bato is a freshwater lake and the 7th largest in the Philippines. It is located in the town of Bato, approximately 9 km southwest of Iriga City, Camarines Sur Province, Southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It has extensive marshes and swamp forests. The lake drains into a tributary of the...

, Bicol River

Bicol River

Bicol River is the eight largest river in the Philippines in terms of drainage basin size with an estimated catchment area of 3,770 km². The river drains the southwestern part of the island of Luzon and passes through Camarines Sur, Albay, and Camarines Norte provinces in the Bicol Region.The...

 and other bodies of water in Camarines Sur

Camarines Sur

Camarines Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in Luzon. Its capital is Pili and the province borders Camarines Norte and Quezon to the north, and Albay to the south...

 province

Provinces of the Philippines

The Provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 80 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are autonomous from any provincial...

.

Sinarapan are a type of goby

Goby

The gobies form the family Gobiidae, which is one of the largest families of fish, with more than 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most are relatively small, typically less than 10 cm in length...

 and they are transparent, except for the black eyes. The fish have an average length of 12.5 millimeters. Males are smaller than females.

Today, the sinarapan are threatened with extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

due to overfishing. In Africa however, Sinarapan can also be found plentifully in Ghana in the Volta River. It is harvested in commercial quantities and is source of livelihood to many fisher folks who live along the banks of the river. It is fancifully referred to as one-mouth-thousand (implying that one mouth can carry about one thousand of sinarapan at a time due to their tininess). To many Ghanaians, sinarapan is a delicacy and it goes very well with a local dish called abolo.