(First of Two Parts)
Almost a decade ago, a group came to the town of Malita, Davao Occidental in southern Philippines. Their purpose: to survey the coral reefs and marine creatures in and around the secluded Tubalan Cove for the implementation of a private (tourism industry) and public (local community and local government unit) coastal resources rehabilitation project. For four days, the survey team assessed the coastal ecosystem.
After surfacing from the last dive on the fourth day, some residents came and inquired of what the group had seen. “Is our place beautiful? Did you like the corals?” were some of the questions they asked.
The residents wanted to know for their future livelihoods are at stake. “Those who live beside, work, and rely upon coral reefs to feed their families and provide income understand more than anybody else the importance of their corals and fisheries and are very keen to know what condition they are in,” wrote Andrew MacDonald and Jane Widdison in their report obtained by this author.
The divers answered affirmatively. “We had discovered that almost the entire sea bed within the cove provides a protective habitat to a spectacular and extremely large colony of one species of fragile cabbage corals,” MacDonald and Widdison wrote.
In other words, the presence of the ancient cabbage coral colony alone makes Tubalan Cove as “one of the most special and unique places in the world for marine biologists and recreational divers alike.”
The survey team found that almost the entire sea bed within the cove can provide a protective habitat to a spectacular and extremely large colony of one species of fragile cabbage corals.
“This is unique,” MacDonald and Widdison wrote. “We have only seen one species dominate an individual offshore reef before, but have never seen any other ancient coral colonies like this which cover such a large area. It appears that this colony covers an area of several hundred hectares and it is likely that these corals have taken centuries to form like this.”
Because these types of coral reefs grow in low-light conditions and in places where the water is calm, they are extremely fragile and highly prone to pollution and sedimentation.
“The corals are very varied and colorful – a mixture of soft and hard corals – just what dive tourists like to see,” the two divers said in their report. “The corals are better in condition and coverage the closer you are to the open sea.”
In general, the fringing coastal corals around much of the edges of the cove are healthy and undamaged, and have very good coverage.
There’s even more: “Diving amongst the corals of Tubalan cove offers great opportunities for macro (small marine creature) spotting and photography as good as anywhere in the world,” the two divers reported. “We saw several species of small animals that are highly prized by dive photographers.”
In addition, the underwater topography is also “quite beautiful” and “lends itself to open coral vista views and photography” – especially towards the open end of the cove where the water clarity is good.
The two divers reported of five to six fantastic dives sites “within easy reach of the cove,” and “each with something different to offer.”
The Philippines is actually part of the Coral Triangle, a collective term for the marine area located in the western Pacific Ocean. It also includes the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Solomon Islands.
“Named for its staggering number of corals (nearly 600 different species of reef-building corals alone), the region nurtures six of the world’s seven marine turtle species and more than 2000 species of reef fish,” notes the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Eden beneath the waves
Although coral reefs – touted as the marine equivalent of tropical rainforests – occupy just 0.17% of the ocean floor, they are home to perhaps one-quarter of all marine species living in this world. “Essential life-support systems” necessary for human survival is how the World Conservation Union describes them.
Unfortunately, those coral reefs teeming in the waters of Coral Triangle may soon vanish without a trace just like what happened to those aircraft and surface vessels ships that disappeared under mysterious circumstances when passing the Bermuda Triangle in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean.
“This magnificent area, often called the ‘Amazon of the Seas,’ contains nearly 30% of the world’s coral reefs and 75 percent of all known coral species,” said SusenoSukoyono, executive chair of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security.
But that’s not all. The region is home to more than 3,000 species of fish – “twice the number found anywhere else in the world,” to quote the words of Sukoyono.
The Washington-based World Resources Institute predicted that by 2050, 90% of regional reefs would be threatened by 2050. “So scary I don’t want to believe it,” said leading Indonesian coral reef scientist Jamaluddin Jompa. “It will be the end of the Coral Triangle story if it ever comes true.”
Vanishing corals
The truth is, it is already happening in the Philippines, whose coral reef area – estimated at 26,000 square kilometers – is the second largest in Southeast Asia. The Inventory of the Coral Resources of the Philippines in the 1970s found only about 5% of the reefs to be in excellent condition, with over 75% coral cover (both hard and soft).
Another study conducted in 1997 showed only 4% of reefs in excellent condition (75% hard or soft coral cover), 28% in good condition (50-75% coral cover), 42% in fair condition (25-50% coral cover), and 27% in poor condition (less than 25% coral cover).
The cabbage coral reefs discovered by MacDonald and Widdison are located in an area that is part of the Davao Gulf, a key biodiversity area in the Philippines. The WWF considers Davao Gulf as one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world. It is the feeding ground for 11 species of cetaceans, which include sperm whales, killer whales, and bottle-nose dolphins. Not only that, it also serves as the nursing ground for endangered marine turtles.
The regional office of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), a line agency of the Department of Agriculture, listed Davao Gulf as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world.
Unfortunately, over 80% of Davao Gulf’s coral reefs are already degraded, the regional technical director of the environment department reported in 2006. “The coral reefs in almost all areas of Davao Gulf are in bad condition,” the official said.
Only one-fourth of the coral cover was live, manta tow surveys covering 33.8 kilometers of reefs in the gulf showed. Of the 19 areas surveyed, only the corals in Tubalan were in very good condition. Areas with poor values of 10% and below were found in Agdao, Malita and Valez (Toril) in Davao City.
The coastlines of the cities of Panabo and Tagum – which contain “the most-dense concentrations of fish larvae in the entire gulf” – fare no better. “The coral reefs, which used to be extremely rich, are already buried,” reported Harry D. Morris, a British-Filipino marine biologist. “What’s left behind are mostly coral skeletons and small patches still struggling to survive.”
Types of corals
There are three major types of coral reefs, according to Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. These are fringing type (those found on the edges of islands and which constitutes 30% of the country’s coral reefs); the barrier type (best exemplified by the Dajanon Reef of Central Visayas); and the atoll (of which the Tubbataha and Cagayan Reef in the Sulu Sea are ideal examples).
Unknowingly, corals are the dried and bleached skeletons of soft-bodied animals that live in the warm, sunlit waters of tropical seas and look more like plants and rocks than animals.
The main part of the real coral is the polyp – the extraordinary flower-like animal with a tube-like body and finger-like tentacles. “Coral polyps get nutrition in two ways,” explains Lindsay Bennett, author of globetrotter island guide, Philippines. “They catch their food by means of stinging tentacles that paralyze any suitable prey – microscopic creatures called zooplankton – and also engage in a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae that live within the polyp structure.”
Coral polyps reproduce in two ways: asexually (by the division of existing individual polyps) and asexually (by combining egg and sperm from two different polyps). “This results in a free-swimming polyp that will be carried by ocean currents to find a new colony and commence a new reef,” Bennet writes. — (To be concluded)
