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Sunday, March 07, 2004
Mercado: Marine policy gaps
By Juan L. Mercado
Election fever is inching up. So is the thermometer, as the searing months of summer approach.
Sweltering crowds, we`re told, were entertained by Candidate Fernando Poe crooning a few bars of Frank Sinatra’s signature song “My Way.” Mababaw ang kaligayahan.
In any case, FPJ warbled his way out of giving a coherent explanation for his proposed programs--if any. That’s his campaign’s standard copout.
Thoughtful citizens, however, fret over issues that can leave us, including “Da King” and his ilk, dead. What, for example, will warmer weather do to our plundered seas?
Will blistering heat compounded by human waste and chemical sludge, relentlessly dumped into our seas, trigger a repeat of the economically disastrous 1998 “bleaching” coral reef infection?
As “El Nino” warmed the water, that little-understood contagion erupted, first in Northern Luzon, moved clockwise to West Palawan, parts of the Visayas, then Mindanao. Fish and plants died as bleached white reefs died.
Reefs are “rainforests of the seas.” They’re among the most biologically rich and productive ecosystems in existence. They support over a third of the world’s marine fish species, plus over 800 kinds of reef-building corals.
The new UN Environment Programme (Unep) report, “From Ocean to Aquarium,” reveals that the global trade, in just marine ornamentals, now runs between $200-$300 million yearly. About 140 species of stony coral and 61 of soft coral are marketed.
A kilo of live coral for aquaria, belonging to an estimated two million hobbyists, may fetch anywhere between $2 to $4. Used as construction filler, the same volume sells for two cents. “Aquaria trade is low volume but high value,” the Unep study notes.
But only four percent of our reefs remain excellent condition, the update of the 1997 “Inventory of the Coral Resources of the Philippines” reveals. The rest were pillaged by cyanide poisoning, dynamite fishing, reckless use – and bleaching. There is no position to stand yet another battering.
Scientists J. H. Primavera and J.E.D. Gomez found that degradation of reefs and vital shallow-water ecosystems, like mangroves, continues unchecked. Reefs remain “killing zones.”
Degraded reefs in Panay Gulf and the Bohol Sea now yield four to five metric tons per square kilometer yearly--compared to its original potential of 15 metric tons.
A new methodology crafted by Silliman University’s Angel Alcala and G.R. Russ of Australia’s James Cook University reveals losses may be running as high as 167,000 metric tons – from a potential of 350,000. Translated into pesos, that runs up to a hefty P1.67 billion loss.
This estimate is “consistent with anecdotal evidence and patterns observed elsewhere in Asia, like Sabah, they write in Asian Fisheries.
“Coral reef bleaching is one of the lesser-understood threats,” Silliman’s marine ecologist Laurie Raymundo notes. Reefs lose chlorophyll, turn pale or completely white, then die. Clearly, pollution, sediment, changes in salinity or heat interlock and stress the reefs. But linkages remain unclear.
And population daily builds up. Today, 39 out of every 100 live within a hundred kilometers from the coast. That increases the load from growing numbers of tourists to waste.
Thus, scientists keep a leery eye on the thermometer. Last year, a weak “El Nino” petered out early in the Philippines. But 2003’s summer proved the hottest in Europe in five centuries notes a Berne University analysis of temperatures dating back to 1500s.
“Winters have also been warmer,” writes Climatologist Jurg Luterbacher in the latest issue of the journal Science. “Since 1977…there has been exceptionally strong unprecedented warming, with average temperature rising at the rate of about 0.36 degrees per decade.”
Policy makers must grapple with a multi-pronged dilemma: How to reverse extensive ecological damage, conserve species and habitats while reinforcing economic incentives for a legitimate business that supports thousands of small fishermen – even as the weather changes.
This task demands more than just warbling Frank Sinatra tunes. In addition to policy reforms, it requires a broad range of strategies, from marine reserves, temporary closures, size limits to greater support for research and continuing education.
“The purchasing power that hobbyists possess is undoubtedly the single most important market force in the marine aquarium industry,” Unep report points out.
“If sufficient numbers of customers are informed fish or corals have been harvested using sustainable techniques, this will have important repercussions on fishing methods, also in source countries” like the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pacific Island countries.
“In Southeast Asian countries, steps need to be taken to reform policies, strengthen institutions, mount education campaigns and develop pro-active programs to encourage both collectors and harvesters to use non-destructive methods,” it adds.
History tells us that, “90 per cent of the history of life has taken place in the seas.” And the coasts are the natural crossroads between man and the sea. It is there where the limits of the ocean become most apparent.
But are FPJ and other would-be-leaders listening at all?
(March 7, 2004 issue)
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