THE Jintotolo Channel, connecting the Visayan Sea and Sibuyan Sea, is an important shipping route between Luzon and the Visayas. It is also a rich fishing ground that has made Roxas City, located south of the channel, the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. However, there's an emerging seafood capital north of the channel where you can get the freshest seafood from the local market and have them cooked while enjoying kilometers of empty white sand beaches. This is the town of Balud, on the southern tip of Masbate.

Named after 'balud,' the wild doves that once populated the area, the place started as a settlement for fishermen from neighboring Panay Island. They brought their families, cleared the forest, planted coconut palms and crops, and continued to enjoy its rich fishing ground. The settlement soon became a barrio, and in 1949, it became an independent municipality now called Balud.