“The rape of the ocean” was the statement used to describe the crime that decimated an entire “reef complex” — almost twice as big as Manila – off the coast of Cotabato province when poachers harvested 134 bundles, or 21,169 pieces, of “sea fan” black corals and 15 bundles, or 196 kilograms, of “sea whip” black corals.
According to the report, which appeared in Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea off Cotabato are supposed to be unexplored reef areas.
“But with this collection, we can see that they have also been disturbed,” Ludivina Labe, a senior marine biologist of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), was quoted as saying. “It’s like a forest that has been cut down.”
On land the ecosystem that supports the greatest number of plant and animal species is the tropical rainforest. In the sea, it’s the coral reefs.
But unlike their counterparts, coral reefs have not been given much importance by people since they could not be seen.
“When trees are cut and human beings are affected as a result of flashfloods, people rallied against deforestation,” explained Dr. Bernhard Riegel, associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute in the United States.
“But like forests, coral reefs are also suffering the same magnitude of destruction.”
“One of the greatest natural treasures, (coral reefs) are habitats for rare species, including some 488 species of corals, 971 species of benthic algae, and 2,000 species of fish,” explains Dr. Miguel D. Fortes, a professor at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines.
“A single reef may contain 3,000 species of corals, fish, and shellfish.”
Not only coral reefs serve as home to marine fish species, they also supply compounds for medicines.
The Aids drug AZT is based on chemicals extracted from a reef sponge while more than half of all new cancer drug research focuses on marine organisms.
No wonder, they are sometimes considered the medicine cabinets of the 21st century.
According to Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, there are three major types of coral reefs in the Philippines.
These are the fringing type (those found on the edges of islands and which constitutes 30 percent of the country’s coral reefs), the barrier type (best exemplified by the Danajon Reef), and the atoll (of which the Tubbataha and Cagayan Reefs in the Sulu Sea are ideal examples).
One square kilometer of healthy coral reef can generate about US$50,000 annually from fishing and tourism. “As a whole, Philippine coral reefs contribute at least US$1.4 billion annually to the economy,” states the report, From Ridge to Reef: Sustaining Nature for Life.
The Philippines has 27,000 square kilometers of coral reef area within a 15- to 30-meter depth, one of the largest in the world. Two-thirds of these are in Palawan and the Sulu Archipelago.
There are about 400 species of reef-forming corals in the country, comparable with those found in Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
“Almost 55 percent of the fish consumed by Filipinos depends on coral reefs; 10 to 15 percent of the total marine fisheries production comes from the coral reefs,” reports Dr. Fortes. A Filipino consumes almost 30 kilograms of seafood per year.
“About 62 percent of the population lives in the coastal zone,” says the Philippine Environment Monitor published by the World Bank.
The Philippines has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, with an average annual rate of increase of 2.75 percent during the last century.
“The rapidly rising population has overwhelmed the fisheries that have traditionally supported the country, bringing grinding poverty and malnutrition to many coastal communities,” wrote Joan Castro and Leona D’Agnes in a report circulated by the Washington, D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Don McAllister, president of the Ottawa-based Ocean Voice International, echoes this concern when he observed, “More than half the children in coastal populations suffer from malnutrition.
This and the poverty associated with the reef destruction lead to illness, stress on the nation’s health care systems and migration of people to slums in the cities.”
Nowhere else in the world are coral reefs abused as much as the reefs in the Philippines. In 2002, some of the top leading marine scientists ranked the country as the number one (according to the degree of threat) among the world’s top ten coral reef hotspots.
The identified hotspots contain just 24 per cent of the world’s coral reefs, or 0.017 percent of the oceans.
The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, compiled by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), reported that 97 percent of reefs in the Philippines are under threat from destructive fishing techniques, including cyanide poisoning, over-fishing, or from deforestation and urbanization that result in harmful sediment spilling into the sea.
Corals are also illegally gathered and sold as part of the international trade of reef products.
The Fisheries Code of 1998, which bans gathering and selling corals, punishes violators with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine from P2,000 to P20,000.
A survey released by Reef Check, an international organization assessing the health of reefs in 82 countries, confirmed the UNEP report. “Despite its high biodiversity, the Philippines’ reefs are very badly damaged.
It’s one of the worst damaged in the world, on the average,” says George Hodgson, founder of the California-based organization.
Rapid population growth and the increasing human pressure on coastal resources have resulted in the massive degradation of the coral reefs.
“If asked what the major problem of coral reefs is, my reply would be, ‘The pressure of human populations,’” said marine scientist Dr. Edgardo D. Gomez.
Robert Ginsburg, a specialist on coral reefs working with the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, said human beings have a lot to do with the rapid destruction of reefs.
“In areas where people are using the reefs or where there is a large population, there are significant declines in coral reefs,” he pointed out.
“Life in the Philippines is never far from the sea,” wrote Joan Castro and Leona D’Agnes in a new report. “Every Filipino lives within 45 miles of the coast, and every day, more than 4,500 new residents are born.”
The Philippine government has 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.”
