I FIND it easier to think of Negros Occidental without sugar than to be a province without fish. Maybe it’s time for all Negrenses to have another think coming. A recent UP Diliman study said the Negros Island Region is experiencing a dwindling of fish catches.
We are not just talking dynamite fishing or hulbot-hulbots (Danish seine) as the culprits. This time, the we can rightly blame climate change.
Last year, Governors Alfredo Marañón Jr. of Negros Occidental, Rizalina Seachon- Leanete of Masbate, Arthur Defensor of Iloilo, Gov. Hilario Davide III of Cebu, and some of the mayors of the 23 towns and cities called for declaration of the Visayan Sea as a protected area.
The Visayan governors signed a petition stating that “realizing that after decades of abuse and neglect, the marine resources of the Philippines in general and the Visayan Sea in particular have been severely degraded and are now on the brink of collapse.”
The governors’ petition in effect brings a drastic step further the BFAR three-month commercial fishing ban for sardines, mackerel, and herring in the Visayan Sea to allow fish stocks to recover in the spawning season. Data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources bared that 10 of the country’s 13 fishing grounds, including Visayan Sea, “are overfished.”
Overfishing, over-exploitation and pollution are putting tremendous strain on our coastal resources, resulting in the loss of fishery habitats, water quality, and various types of marine life from corals to seagrasses to fishes.
But this measure might even be not enough. Remelyn I. de Ramos of the Marine Sciences Institute of UP Diliman warned that overfishing will be exacerbated by the dire consequences of climate change like typhoons, and the expected prolonged drought due to the impact of both the El Niño and La Niña.
Recently, Pope Francis called the Catholics faithful to mark Sept. 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The papal call is most timely in confronting the Visayan fishing crisis.
The day of prayer, Pope Francis emphasized, is to give individuals and communities an opportunity to implore God’s help in protecting creation and an opportunity to ask God’s forgiveness “for sins committed against the world in which we live.”
In fact, the newest papal encyclical Laudato Si (On Care of our Common Home) touched on climate change as representing a principal challenge facing humanity. He encyclical warned that the “worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries” and that “many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing, and forestry.”
It surprises me that the priority it seems of our Bacolod Diocese is not on climate change and its dire effect on our food security, but on Small Town Lottery. STL is a gunô compared to the barracuda of climate change.
I have yet to hear homilies in our parish touching on climate change. What gives? Are our Catholic pastors even aware of the impact of climate change in our day-to-day lives?
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)