By Henrylito D. Tacio
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) urges every Filipinos to help save the country’s remaining coral reefs, which have been touted as “rainforests of the sea.” “We must act now to save our remaining coral reefs, before it’s too late,” the DENR said in a statement published in its website. It added that these are threatened by human activities and climate change. Among the cited major causes of coral reef destruction in the Philippines are destructive fishing, overfishing, sedimentation, ill-planned coastal development, and rapid population growth. Davao Gulf, which cuts into the island of Mindanao from Philippine Sea, is not spared from destruction. With an area of 308,000 hectares, the World Wildlife Fund considers Davao Gulf as one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world. Diverse coral reefs, different mangrove species, cetaceans and a host of invertebrates contribute to the natural diversity of the gulf. Take the case of the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte. “A dive into the depths of Samal reef gardens will reveal colorful underwater vistas with its treasure of tropical marine life,” commented Darrell Blatchley, an American who had plunged into the bottom of the sea. “Unfortunately, some of those colorful corals are not in good shape.” A study done by the Regional Fishermen’s Training Center in Panabo City showed that most of the shallow or inshore coral reefs in Davao Gulf “were totally damaged because they were exposed to greater pressure.” “Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, housing tens of thousands of marine species,” the DENR said. “Reefs buffer shorelines from waves and storms that cause flooding and erosion, support commercial and subsistence fisheries, and are home to a thriving recreation and tourism industry.” In Southeast Asia, the Philippine coral reef system is said to be second largest — after Indonesia. It covers around 240 million hectares of water and is home to some 468 species of scleractinian corals, over 50 soft corals, 1,755 reef-associated fishes, 648 mollusks, and 27 marine mammals. According to Angel C. Alcala, former DENR head, there are three major types of coral reefs. 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). The corals most people have seen are actually 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.” Science says 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. The ecologically-fragile coral reef ecosystem is called as “Eden beneath the waves.” Eden refers to the Biblical paradise mentioned in the Holy Bible where the first human beings — Adam and Eve — lived. Although they occupy just 0.17% of the ocean floor, coral reefs are home to perhaps one-quarter of all marine species. “Essential life-support systems” necessary for human survival is how the World Conservation Union describes them. The Philippines is home to Palawan’s Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, which was declared as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and a Wetland of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention. The country is also home to the Apo Reef Natural Park in Occidental Mindoro, considered the second largest contiguous coral reef system in the world, next to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. These two world-renowned reefs, along with the other coral reefs in the country’s 240 million hectares of water, and the biodiversity that thrives within them, provide food security to Filipinos, who source 80 percent of their protein requirement from the oceans. “Despite considerable improvements in coral reef management, the country’s coral reefs remain under threat,” said Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In the late 1970s, the East-West Center in Hawaii sounded the alarm. The Inventory of the Coral Resources of the Philippines found only about 5% of the reefs to be in excellent condition, with over 75% coral cover (both hard and soft). A 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). “Nowhere else in the world are coral reefs abused as much as the reefs in the Philippines,” deplored marine scientist Don E. McAllister, who once studied the cost of coral reef destruction in the country. The Philippine government, however, made and introduced many laws in an attempt to protect the natural environment on the islands and in the national territorial waters. But the government cannot do it alone; help from individuals are also needed to save the reefs from total annihilation. “We are the stewards of our nation’s resources,” said Rafael D. Guerrero III, former executive director of the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development, “we should take care of our national heritage so that future generations can enjoy them. Let’s do our best to save our coral reefs. Our children’s children will thank us for the effort.”
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