DENR installs marine life monitoring device

CEBU, Philippines - A device that monitors marine life forms was installed off Mactan Island yesterday.

The Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) was provided by NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) of the US through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Cebu, particularly the marine protected area off Cordova town, is one of the four recipient areas for this marine biodiversity data gathering drive.

Other areas are Camiguin, Snake Island in Palawan and Corregidor Island.

DENR-7 Regional Executive Director Isabelo Montejo led the deployment of one unit of ARMS.

Montejo said the island, as one of the richest reefs in the country, is selected as it may have certain species waiting to be discovered.

“There are other marine organisms that are not usually visible to the human eye and could not be detected through line or point intercepts, photo-transect, fish visual census and reef check,” Montejo said.

The ARMS unit was lowered at a depth of 10 to 15 meters within a marine protected area in Barangay Alegria in Cordova.

Its deployment is aimed at understanding more the coral reef biodiversity with focus on the cryptobiont communities or those understudied species, including invertebrates, algae and microbes.

Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) Director Theresa Mundita Lim said that the ARMS is a device made up mostly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material with metal weights that can mimic coral reefs and, over time, attracts or collects small reef animals referred to as cryptic reef biodiversity.

“A group of ARMS installed in a specific area could provide a systematic and consistent method of monitoring marine life forms. They also provide data on how climate change impacts such as ocean warming and acidification affects them, or how marine ecosystems develop and maintain their resilience to these impacts,” Lim explained.

Lim said added that ARMS has a tool for systematic and consistent observation of coral reefs.

The BMB chief clarified that the ARMS will be used initially for educational purposes only. The units will be left underwater and retrieved a year later for study.

“These will be presented to the community to give them an idea about the marine life in their vicinity which will, hopefully, encourage them to help in the conservation and protection of our marine ecosystems,” she said.

“After retrieval, the ARMS will be redeployed for further studies. The BMB is also planning to increase the number of ARMS units in specific sites to provide additional data for research purposes,” Montejo added.

The ARMS device, which was first used in Hawaii and in Puerto Rico that paved the way for the discovery and detection of some cryptic alien species, is one of the components of the Sustainable Coral Reef Ecosystem Management Program (SCREMP).

In order to minimize the adverse impacts to the coral reef habitat, the ARMS equipment is carefully lowered to the bottom using a buoyed drop line.

To install an ARMS unit, a stainless steel stake is driven through each corner hole of the base plate.

If possible, stakes should be installed perpendicular to the substrate to facilitate ARMS removal at a later date by simply lifting it vertically off the stakes.

The country is known as the “world’s center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity” as it is home to about 468 species of scleractinian corals, more than 50 soft corals, at least 1,755 reef-associated fishes, 648 mollusks, and 27 marine mammals.

More than 800 ARMS have been deployed to date by NOAA divers throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. —/LPM (FREEMAN)