Scientists bat for wider coverage of marine protected areas

MALOLOS, Philippines – As the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Central Luzon establishes needed support to help marginalized fisher folk in coastal villages of Manila Bay, scientists are raising the need to safeguard marine resources of the country.

Wilfredo Cruz, BFAR’s officer-in-charge director for Central Luzon, said that among the interventions is the construction of a fish processing center located inside the Technology Outreach Station for Brackish Water Development in Hagonoy town. The bureau is also overseeing the continuous reforestation of mangrove forest cover, providing identified beneficiaries with livelihood support and different provincial governments with sea craft to help protect coastline resources.

Meanwhile, national scientists and academicians of the National Academy of Science and Technology Philippines (NAST PHL) Gavino Trono, Angel Alcala and Edgardo Gomez noted that less than 10 percent of the 25,000 square kilometers of Philippine coral reefs are in good health.

In an NAST PHL Bulletin, the scientists said Philippine coral reefs provide many ecosystem functions, including an estimated 20 percent contribution to the total capture of fish species, and are “home to more than 500 species of corals, about 600 species of macrobenthic algae and about 2,000 to 3,000 marine fish species that contribute to the mega-biodiversity status of the country.”

As the corals have also become a tourist attraction, the scientists are recommending that the government expand the coverage of Marine Protected Areas and that 10 percent of total coral reefs in the Philippines be declared “no-take MPAs” in the next five years.

They said that under present conditions of degraded reefs, the fish biomass is only 20 metric tons per square kilometer compared to about 100 MT/sq km in the 1930s and 1940s.

“Under such conditions, small-scale fishers cannot be expected to have substantial fish catches. Catch rates of hook and line fishers at the present time in coastal areas without MPAs average 0.5 kilograms/person/hour. This contrasts with catch per unit effort of 1.0 to 1.5, or even more, kg/person/hour in areas immediately outside the boundaries of no-take MPAs,” the researchers said.

They added that fully protected no-take MPAs are a popular and widely accepted strategy for marine resource protection and management.

“No-take MPAs build up large biomass and large fish abundance over decades of full protection. Our experience shows that fish biomass in MPAs such as Sumilon and Apo islands reach 100 to 160 MT/sq km, approximating those of pristine reefs in the early 1900s,” they added. 

The researchers said that for many areas in the Philippines, fish abundance and biomass are low, and there is a need to set up no-take MPAs or networks of them to build up large biomass and abundance of fish that can cause the export of adult fish outside the MPAs for fishers to eventually catch. 

“Only five percent of the 25,000 sq km of Philippine coral reefs (1,250 sq km) have varying levels of protection from fishing. The biomass and abundance of fish in the 1,600 MPAs in the country at present is mostly unknown, except those in the Visayas, where only about 30 percent of the 564 MPAs have relatively moderate to high fish biomass and fish abundance,” they said, noting those with fairly high biomass are most probably exporting adult fish and helping increase the catch in depleted areas.

The researchers said the ideal is to establish at least 20 percent of 5,000 sq km of fully protected areas over time to maintain the integrity of the country’s coral reef ecosystem and attain full potential for reef fishery production and biodiversity conservation.

They said the national and local government must invest in the establishment of no-take MPAs and networks of marine protected areas to avert a “fishery crisis” in the long term.