‘Poor man’s fish faces extinction with experiment vs global warming’

The dumping of tons of urea in the Sulu Sea as part of an ocean nourishment experiment to stimulate growth of plankton to address global warming, may likely cause the extinction of galunggong (mackerel scad), an organization of fisherfolk theorized yesterday.

Pepe Tachuling, spokesman for the fishermen’s organization Tambuyog, told reporters during a press briefing in Quezon City that too much sea nutrients might choke to death the fries of galunggong that abound in the area.

“Galunggong fries thrive in areas with poor nutrients. An abundant supply of urea will kill them,” Tachulling said.

Tambuyog is among the civil society groups protesting the release of urea in the Sulu Sea by Ocean Nourishment Corp. (ONC) as a solution to climate change.

The experiment is focused on the idea of fertilizing the sea with urea to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton that will absorb ozone-damaging carbon from the atmosphere.

The concern of civil society, however, was only based on speculations that too much urea in the sea will disturb the marine ecosystem and trigger production of nitrous oxide and methane which, in turn, will produce algal bloom commonly know as red tide.

An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments.

Neth Dano of the Third World network said that aside from disturbing the marine ecosystem, the dumping of urea also threatens the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, which was declared by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

Several environment activist groups have called on the government to conduct an investigation into the project, which is reportedly carried out in collaboration with the University of the Philippines in the Visayas.

The UP Visayas, however, in an official statement, denied its role in the ocean nourishment program aside from claiming that it has not endorsed any proposal by any entity to conduct carbon sequestration project.

The sea nourishment program involved the dumping of 500 tons of urea in the Philippines, specifically the northeastern portion of Sulu Sea near the provinces of Antique and Panay Island.

If carried out, the group warned ecological damage would not only be limited to the Sulu Sea but will most likely also spill over to Boracay beach in Aklan.

They could not however speculate on the extent and nature of the damage if such experiment is completed.