ENVIRONMENTALISTS and dive enthusiasts cried foul after an unidentified shipping firm reportedly conducted salvaging operations on the wreckage of the MV Doña Marilyn, which has become a famous dive site in Malapascua Island in Daanbantayan.
They claimed that removing the remnants of the vessel could create a negative environmental and economical impact on the island in northern Cebu, a well-known haven for scuba divers.
Upon learning about the matter, Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot condemned the salvaging of MV Doña Marilyn, saying it was done without the town officials’ knowledge.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 is investigating to identify who’s behind the salvage operations.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Cebu Station is also checking whether the salvaging ship secured a permit from their office before conducting their operations.
In an interview yesterday, Anna Oposa, executive director of Save Philippine Seas, said the salvaging reportedly occurred last week when divers going to the site saw a ship removing pieces of the wreckage.
MV Doña Marilyn, a passenger ship under the defunct Sulpicio Lines Inc., sank in 1988 while traveling from Manila to Tacloban during typhoon Unsang.
More than 300 people were killed while 147 others survived the sinking.
Although it was known for its tragic past, the vessel has become a haven for wreckage divers.
It has also become a biodiversity area due to the presence of various corals and marine wildlife living there.
“Since it sank, the wreck has become an artificial reef and attracted marine life,” Oposa told SunStar Cebu yesterday.
The vessel is one of four wrecks divers visit in Malapascua.
Oposa said this was not the first time a firm tried to salvage the vessel.
In 2004, a metal company attempted to remove the wreckage from the area but it was stopped after the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) ordered them not to do so.
The late PTA general manager and senator Robert Dean Barbers opposed the salvaging, saying it would be detrimental to the tourism industry.
Gideon Esmero of the DENR 7’s Conservation and Development Division told SunStar Cebu that the ill-fated vessel is considered a successful artificial coral area due to the presence of various flora and fauna such as black corals, which are considered endangered species.
The wreckage is also home to various species of fish such as the marble electric ray, blue spotted rays, bow and eagle rays, devil rays and white tip sharks.
Esmero said that while there are only a few studies conducted on the biodiversity within the MV Doña Marilyn, if such species of flora and fauna now live there, that means the coral recruitment in the wreckage was successful.
Based on feedback from the diving community, Esmero said they found that the area’s substrate or bed is generally dominated by sand, which could prevent successful coral growth.
“The wreckage has become a substrate to help facilitate coral growth in the area,” he said.
If the wreckage is removed from the area, Esmero said it will be big loss to the biodiversity there.
In a separate interview, Vince Cinches of Greenpeace Philippines said that removing the wreckage of the vessel will also create economic impacts, especially for residents of Malapascua who depend on tourists for a living.
“For a community highly reliant on diving for revenues, if you are going to take out one dive site, it will most likely shorten the stay of divers in the island and will concentrate pressures on a few sites only,” he said
In a statement, Mayor Loot condemned the salvaging of the MV Doña Marilyn, saying it will be detrimental to the town’s tourism industry.
“No salvaging of sunken ships or similar activities within the area of responsibility of Daanbantayan can be undertaken by any person or entity without securing the required mayor’s permit, which unfortunately we will never issue because it is detrimental and destructive to the environment as well as to the growing tourism industry of the town,” he said. (JKV)