ONE BRIGHT and warm Tuesday morning, while vacationing for a few
days in Tinambac, I decided to check out the oncoming traffic of nighttime
fishers who I heard, were having such a hard time with their mini-basnig
ventures. While waiting for them to come ashore, I started walking
along the narrow Balonbon beach sand, from the jeepney terminal area
traversing all the way to the northern tip just below the Medicare
building. The early morning walk was supposed to be leisurely, but
not to be. About 80% of that short beach trail was occupied by the
town mayor's baladan (fish drying beds) and littered with common domestic
trash. It was a disgusting sight, to say the least, but town's folk
say, "much ado about nothing". Perhaps that attitude explains why
the other people walking with me seemed indifferent or perhaps oblivious
with what I though was an "obstacle course" having to jump and zigzag
at times. Over there, the esteros, rivers, beaches, and the bay are
common trash dumping grounds - organic and inorganic types.
In time, the baby basnigs finally pulled in. Queuing through their
prized catch the night before, composed mostly of a mixed bag of small
golodan (small shrimp), occasional osbon (medium sized-shrimp), and
just scrap - small lifeless fishes. The quality of their catches gave
me the impression that local fishermen were indeed sailing in troubled
waters. When queried, the boat operators simply shrugged their shoulders
in quiet acquiescence to the glaring fact that fishing industry in
Tinambac has dwindled to its lowest.
Actually, in the last few years I've been coming home for visits,
a pattern has emerged noticeably clear that the availability of fresh
big fishes has become a rarity. Occasionally, one might come along
but that is more of an exception than the rule. For the most part,
local vendors were making money off of fish varieties brought from
Calabanga or Naga. The town's fishermen's total fish production can
hardly support the local market demand for fish.
Such is a sad commentary of their predicament because Tinambac once
pride itself as a major supplier of fresh fish and other fish products.
For generations, San Miguel Bay has been the source of life for at
least 500 fishing families in the coastal villages of Bagacay, Buenavista,
Cagliliog and Sogod of Tinambac town and the neighboring municipalities
of Calabanga, Siruma and Libmanan of Camarines Sur.
Today, the coastal town, 37 kilometers northwest of Naga City, no
longer enjoys the marine abundance of yore. San Miguel Bay, with its
sea grass and mangroves, used to serve as a spawning ground and shelter
for all kinds of marine species is now slowly dying, if not near death.
The fact that montaha is now offered for sale is an indicator of the
dismal condition of the bay's fishing grounds. It also explains why
galunggong now sells at P80 a kilo, freshly caught tanguinge at P200,
and lapu-lapu at P250. Even more dismal is the fact that tanguinge
and lapu-lapu, are no longer viable options in Tinambac.
Culprits
The San Miguel Bay situation can be attributed to a variety of reasons
and equally shared by the coastal towns surrounding the bay. Topping
the list is environmental pollution from indiscriminate dumping of
trash; run-off pollutants from land including fertilizers, pesticides,
synthetic organic chemicals, DDT and untreated sewage. The indiscriminate
cutting of trees particularly in Tinambac resulted in more flooding
of the Lupi and Himoragat Rivers thereby increasing siltation in the
bay. Continuing land conversions; and increased ocean water levels
due to global warming. Unregulated access and use resulted in the
disappearing mangroves in the Caaluan, Mananao and Bagacay areas.
Worst of all, the unabated bottom trawling that went on for decades
resulted in untold bottom ocean destruction.
Trawlers from Bagacay, Calabanga, Tinambac, and other coastal towns
had long abused the bay to the point that fishes being caught are
so inferior and of decreased variety. This is a real travesty but
long coming given the historical malfeasance of the Bay's fishing
industry. Many, including Tinambac's incumbent mayor made a living
out of this once highly profitable trade. The fact is, fishermen trawl
pretty much wherever and whenever they want because there are very
few government restrictions in place and even if there were, nothing
would stop them anyway as a matter of practice.
Impact of Bottom Trawling
When farmers or ranchers want to clear an area of unwanted brush,
small trees, or other vegetation, they sometimes attach a heavy chain
between a pair of tractors or bulldozers. Dragged over the ground,
the chain pretty much eliminates everything including plants, ground-
nesting birds and burrowing animals.
That, in essence, is what has happens to the ocean floor when fishing
vessels engage in bottom trawling. Large quantities of seafood are
gathered up in weighted nets, but in the process a significant area
of marine habitat are damaged or destroyed when heavy equipment scours
the seabed.
The damage left behind by trawling is immense. Many of us retain
in our mind's eye the storybook picture we had as kids of the bottom
of the ocean as one vast wet sandy desert. The truth is that the bottom
of the ocean is a complex series of ecosystems, made up of mud, sea
grass beds, coral reefs, rocky reefs and cobbles. Each seabed type
supports a different community of sea life, and provides protection
from predators, food and a safe place to raise young seedlings.
Bottom trawling rips all that up. The nets with their weighted lines
take everything in their paths, dragging the ocean floor crush, bury
and expose any remaining wildlife. By leveling the ocean floor the
food chain is disturbed, hiding places are removed and conditions
favorable to faster growing species take over.
Bottom trawling also causes abnormally high nutrient levels in the
ocean by stirring up the sediment. Most continental shelf environments
typically get half their nutrients from the steady influx of organic
material decaying in the sediment. But by stirring up the sediment,
bottom trawling releases a huge pulse of nitrogen and other nutrients
into the water. Marine biologists estimate that re-suspending as little
as a tenth of an inch of sediment could more than triple nutrient
levels in the seawater. Higher nutrient levels could increase noxious
phytoplankton such as those in red tides, notorious for causing mass
fish kills, and shift the balance of plankton populations, which in
turn could shift the balance of the fish and other marine life that
feed on them.
Years of unregulated bottom trawling on San Miguel Bay eventually
lead to the collapse of Tinambac's fisheries. As preferred fishes
become fewer, fishermen turn to marine species that were formerly
not considered marketable, further depleting the ocean. Cruzan (crab)
and montaha were once considered "trash" and promptly thrown out or
given away, but are now treasured for their newfound values.
Philippine Environmental Laws
But, are Philippine waters really that vulnerable and unprotected
by environmental laws? Or, are environmental laws just not being enforced?
Both statements, I submit, are accepted truisms not only in Bicol
but in many areas of the Philippines as well. Environmental laws are
there but by not being enforced, in essence, leave the waters vulnerable
and unprotected.
The Philippines is abundant in environmental laws, presidential
decrees, and letters of instructions for the authorities to turn to
if they are serious in addressing these environmental issues. The
Philippine Fisheries Act of 1998 (Republic Act No. 8550) integrated
all these laws relevant to the development, management and conservation
of the fisheries and aquatic resources of the country. Even the Philippine
Constitution and the Local Government Code of 1991 have numerous articles
pertaining thereto.
The case in San Miguel Bay is a tale of too many fishermen jockeying
for too little availability of fish. Widespread poverty in the country
drives many to try their luck with the opportunities presented by
endless bodies of water surrounding the archipelago. The "frontier
mentality" that nobody owns the oceans leaves the door open for further
abuse.
Coastal fishing communities around San Miguel Bay comprised of smaller,
owner-operated boats who don't have the luxury of leaving the area
for new opportunities elsewhere. They depend on the continued abundance
of traditional fishing grounds for their livelihoods and way of life,
and they are the first to pay for industrial-scale over fishing. Factory
trawler operations eliminate opportunities for smaller, independent
boat owners and undermine traditional fishing economies that the Philippine
Constitution seeks to protect.
Solutions - Bigger Picture
Managing San Miguel Bay or other fisheries of the country so that
they return to health and can be harvested sustainably will not be
easy. Seafloor recovery could take centuries. Many seafloor inhabitants
are slow growing and long lived and are therefore slow to repopulate
and rebuild their structures in areas that have been disturbed. Some
species of sponges can reach 50 years old, some clams can live for
more than 200 years and individual corals have been estimated to live
500 years or more. Some tube-dwelling species can only rebuild homes
during an early stage in their development and are therefore left
permanently exposed by trawl gear.
Fishing is changing the world's oceans in ways scientists cannot
fully understand. All that can be said is that we may only learn about
the nature and extent of the damage after it is too late to do anything
to stop it. The writing on the wall has been ignored for too long,
particularly in San Miguel Bay.
To compensate for humanity's enormous lack of understanding of marine
systems, fishing must be based on the precautionary approach. A precautionary
approach to fisheries means that the health of ecosystems and species
must be granted the benefit of the doubt, rather than placing the
burden on the environment to show signs of crisis before corrective
action is taken. This approach, among other things, shifts the burden
of proof onto the fishing industry and institutions responsible for
fisheries management to demonstrate that fishing operations pose minimal
risk of serious harm to the ocean environment before those operations
can go forward.
Through its ratification of the U.N. Treaty for the Conservation
and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish
Stocks in July 1996, the Philippines acknowledges that dramatic changes
are needed to protect marine fisheries and ecosystems. Though not
without limitations, the treaty sets in place new and important obligations,
principles and precedents for fisheries conservation in international
law. If implemented, these measures would improve the management of
fish stocks and associated species, and the protection of marine and
coastal habitats.
A Practical Solution for San Miguel Bay -The Maqueda Bay Model
A few years ago, Maqueda Bay was a depleted fishing ground in Catbalogan,
Western Samar. Fishing giants from Mindanao and Visayas frolicked
in the rich marine life, used dynamites and trolleys for volume catch,
cut down mangroves and used the unsuspecting residents as cheap labor
in all these.
Today, Maqueda Bay proudly stands-out as one of Samar's most successful
community projects.
Six marine protected areas have been declared marine sanctuaries;
48 hectares of mangrove areas have been reforested; 66 fisherfolk
families have adopted mussel and seaweed farming technologies; 40
farmers have replicated multi-crop farming.
Most significantly, the community residents are involved in all
these projects. Standard Chartered Bank, the oldest foreign established
bank in the Philippines, came to the rescue of saving Maqueda Bay
when it adopted Barangay Cabuwagan, a fishing village of 85 poor households.
By donating over a million pesos in 1998, Standard Chartered Bank
through the Makati Garden Club's "Festival of Trees" fund-raising
project, Barangay Cabuwagan is now a thriving village of 132 households
overseeing community projects like a fishing cooperative, backyard
cutflower raising, fingerling propagation in mangrove areas, and mangrove
nurseries.
Can this model be replicated in Tinambac? Probably, but for it to
succeed would require a leader that understands the implications and
enormity of the problem of San Miguel Bay and have the ability to
market the idea to cause oriented groups such as the Makati Garden
Club.
Undoubtedly, the viability of a multi-approach solution to the Bay's
problem hinges on the political will of local government officials,
realizing that there are other smaller solutions to the overall problem.
Clearly, however, local officials have a duty to protect the environment
and the livelihood of the poor fisherfolks of Tinambac. One of the
things they can do to protect the coastal waters of the endangered
San Miguel Bay, is to enact fishery ordinances (if they have not done
so) and implement these in their areas.
One of the challenges of course is the lack of police and Coast
Guard personnel manning coastal waters, thus encouraging illegal fishermen
to continue their destructive forms of catching fish. Illegal fishers,
who are mostly protected by influential and rich people, are not arrested,
or if they are arrested, the local courts will most likely dismiss
the criminal charges against them due to lack of evidence. Policemen
lack the knowledge and technical expertise on environmental laws so
they don't even bother addressing these issues much less arrest offenders.
If and when they are ordered to arrest illegal fishers, they will
likely fail to gather enough and vital pieces of evidence to build
up a strong case because of these inadequacies. Thus, the temptation
is very strong not to mention that it will be more profitable for
the raiding lawmen to settle on the high seas with a hefty bribe than
try to prosecute them.
LGUs can also wage an information campaign to increase the environmental
awareness of fishermen, residents and officials in coastal villages.
They can effectively do this by utilizing the experts from the Department
of Agriculture (the Fisheries Department is now under DAR).
Workshops can also be held to raise community awareness on the importance
of sustainable protection and management of mangroves and other coastal
resources. While aquaculture is one of the approaches being employed
to provide alternative sources of income to poor fishermen, it has
its own limitations and could further endanger the ecological balance
in the area.
Implement a waste collection program and prohibit/penalize illegal
dumping.
And lastly, work on improving the lot of every Tinambaqueño including
the provision of basic services such as potable water and effective
sewage treatment. By remaining poor, local town folks are left with
very little choices, least of which is to protect the environment.
(Kaiba News and
Features)
