Fish sanctuary in Quezon soon to be haven for divers

One of three fish sanctuaries established by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the province of Quezon is ready to become a tourist haven next year following the issuance last year by the municipal government of Sariaya of a municipal ordinance pegging the rates for different activities within the sanctuary. The ordinance takes effect by summer 2002.

Sariaya officials – in cooperation with the Fisheries Resources Management Program (under the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) – have set up a 15-hectare fish sanctuary, where at present no extractive fishing or commercial activity is allowed.

The ordinance pegs the rates to be paid for various activities within the 15-hectare sanctuary on Tayabas Bay to ensure that the municipality will recover, through time, its investments in the sanctuary.

Members and officers of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) led by Roman Floresca (of this paper) were treated last Nov. 16 by FRMP field officials to the coastal municipality nearest the sanctuary and ferried the journalists and their children (amid turbulent water) to the sanctuary surrounded by buoys to mark its boundaries from the open seas.

Protected by the sanctuary are vast coral reefs, which have served as breeding grounds and protective cover of fish and other marine life.

FRMP Fishery Technologists Ernesto Amores said the sanctuary was selected based on a detailed survey of the seabed made in 1998 by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, which then found the live coral cover in the area at 65 percent (while the balance is dead or destroyed through destructive fishing practices).

Under the ordinance, which takes effect next summer, hook and line within the sanctuary will be charged P2 per hour, mariculture (within the buffer zone) is P2 per hour; scuba and snorkeling outside the buffer zone is P150 per person per hour and within the buffer zone, the rate for scuba diving and snorkeling is P300 per person per hour.

Municipal officials are now holding dialogues with the numerous resort operators in Sariaya to ask them to include the fish sanctuary as a tourist attraction in their operations so as to help raise funds for the municipality.