Cyanide detection tests may yet save the seas

The Philippine live reef fish trade has earned for the country an average of P67 million annually in export revenues over the past four years. It is a booming enterprise that rakes in good money for both fishermen and businessmen. Sadly, it is an ailing industry. There is actually more pain than gain here as coral reef colonies — considered the rainforests of the ocean — are being destroyed with the use of sodium cyanide which stuns the fish for easy harvests. This broad spectrum poison is also used in mining.

Worried about and spurred by the fast deteriorating condition of the country’s marine environment, the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the International Marinelife Alliance (IMA) put in place a joint campaign designed to protect the seas from too much human-induced stresses.

The agreement signed in 1986 called for a comprehensive cyanide fishing reform program with the following major components: cyanide detection tests (CDT) of live food fish for export, training in the use of coral-friendly harvest methods (examples are hook-and-line for food fish and barrier net for aquarium fish), education and information campaign about the hazards of cyanide and dynamite fishing and developing livelihood alternatives and aquatic-based enterprises.

In the area of cyanide detection tests (CDT), IMA runs six laboratories strategically located in the heart of the cyanide problem. The central office operates in Pasay City in Metro Manila. Satellite labs are located in Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Cebu City, Palo in Leyte, Davao City and Zamboanga City.

The CDT initiative has produced 48,000 results from tests by IMA personnel over the last six years, 75 percent of them on food fish (groupers). Three years ago, about 80 percent of the tests proved positive for cyanide. Today, test results proved to be encouraging: only a little over 20 percent are cyanide positive.

IMA is positive that with the hand over of the project and the CDT laboratories to BFAR as stipulated in the agreement, BFAR’s efforts with its many components and programs can help turn things around even more for the beleaguered marine resources.

In a joint statement, BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento and IMA president Vaughan Pratt both hailed the importance of CDT and its contribution to the cyanide-free live food fish and pet fish trade and the urgency of keeping the sea unsullied and sustainable for the coming generations of stakeholders. Sarmiento pledges continuing commitment to the goals of the CDT campaign while Pratt assures the agency of IMA’s all-out support.

Under the watch of BFAR and IMA, not only has cyanide fishing been checked, BFAR personnel have also gained expertise in the technology transfer and management savvy for the smooth transition. CDT came at a time when the fishing grounds were being devastated annually by cyanide fishing and the seabeds were continuously being littered with dead corals.

Over 6,000 fisher-divers are squirting annually an estimated 150,000 kilograms of dissolved cyanide on reef resources. So massive was the destruction that only six percent — roughly 1,980 square kilometers — remains in healthy condition. The remaining areas are in various stages of degradation.

CDT is capable of detecting very low levels of cyanide ions in fish tissues and organs. The result serves as a technical tool to identify cyanide-laced live food fish and provide hard evidence to law enforcers and the courts with which to prosecute violators of the anti-cyanide fishing provisions embodied in Republic Act 8550 known as "The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998." The CDT facilities have been instrumental in assisting the government in policy formulation and enforcement of the law.

Training workshops on monitoring, inspection and sampling of live reef fish for fish wardens and local government officials are regularly conducted. This capacity building measures improve the quality of samples collected during random inspection of fishing vessels and holding cages. These also familiarize selected training participants with cyanide testing procedures which improves enforcement efficiency.

Along the way, the CDT certification program was put in place. Endorsed by local and international agencies, it assures importing countries that live food fishes coming from exporting sources that the fishes are certified "cyanide-free" and caught in a manner that is coral-friendly.

The CDT certification program has been hailed by the Presidential Commission on Anti-Illegal Fishing Marine Conservation, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and the International Coral Reef Initiative. The Asian Development Bank incorporated the program in its Fisheries Management Program.

The Philippines, the birthplace of cyanide fishing, is making up for its sins: What some erring compatriots had put asunder, others are putting together and doing it well. Ours is the only country with an ongoing Destructive Fishing Reform Program. The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs of the US Department of State had acknowledged that the Philippines has the only effective program to combat cyanide fishing and provides a model for other exporting countries.

Over the years, the Philippine experience has shown that cyanide fishing can be reduced with a combination of correct policies and the right laws, cyanide testing, tight enforcement work coupled with enhanced information dissemination. As important are sustainable live reef fish and livelihood alternatives that transform local fishermen into frontline stewards, protectors and managers of marine bounty.

The success of the Philippine model led to its replication in other countries of the Asia-Pacific region similarly afflicted by the marine menace that came from our shores. — PAJ News & Features