CEBU has a shell species that produces a toxin, which was developed by a Filipino-American chemist and is now being used as a painkiller in the US, said a marine key biodiversity manager of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Dr. Vincent Hilomen, of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of DENR, said this slow-moving conus species does not outswim the fish it intends to eat.
“But they have this arsenal of chemicals, they shoot their prey and the prey is paralyzed,” he said, calling the chemicals conotoxins.
Hilomen said that Filipino-American chemist Dr. Baldomero Olivera, with the help of Dr. Lourdes J. Cruz, a biochemist, developed the toxic peptides from the venom of fish-hunting conus marine snails in the University of Utah.
Studies
Cruz’s studies made possible the characterization of over 50 biologically active peptides from the snail’s venom, which contributed to the development of conotoxin, which is being used to control muscles and pain.
“We had not really benefited from this, ang US ang nag benefit,” said Hilomen.
Hilomen was in Cebu recently for the signing of an agreement by 17 local government units (LGUs) around the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS) with a non-government conservation organization.
Rare Philippines, a conservation organization led by its vice president Raquel Sanchez Tirona, organized 17 coastal city and municipality mayors from two provinces on the sea coast of Tañon Strait to sign a memorandum of agreement with them in a bid to improve their municipal fisheries and strengthen local marine protected areas to recover from years of overfishing.
Rehabilitation
Ten of them are mayors of Cebu towns of Alegria, Aloguinsan, Badian, Bantayan, Ginatilan, Moalboal, Samboan, Sta. Fe, San Remigio and Santander.
Bantayan Mayor Art Despi said this “kaingin attitude” in the sea resulted in the depletion of their sea resources.
“They need to have a change of mindset. Gone are the days of abundance, now is scarcity, so we start rehabilitation,” said Despi.
As to Mayor Mariano Martinez of San Remegio, where 16 ofv 27 barangays are on the coast of Tañon Strait, he said the poorest of the poor in the town are the fisherfolk.
“Kung way (If there’s no) conservation efforts papha gyud sila (they will suffer),” Martinez said.
Martinez is eyeing fish sanctuaries for fishing communities, as they are the most affected by this depletion of fishes.
TSPS is the only Nipas (National Integrated Protected Areas System) in the country because the four others are under LGU-based management, said Hilomen.
There is a policy gap in managing these protected areas, he said.
“Sometimes the LGU will have their own policy that is not 100 percent in agreement with the national,” said Hilomen.
Inventory
He said that this project harmonizes the policies to create an enabling framework for the conservation of marine biodiversity.
“It’s for this reason we need to conserve marine biodiversity, which is to preserve and conserve our natural resources, a valuable source of food and organic chemicals,” Hilomen said.
“One of the things that we want to see over the long term is actually to make a marine resource inventory for the entire country because this is our heritage. This is our resource and there is so much that we don’t know about it,” he added.