Fishing ban around Snake Island in Palawan pushed

• Source: https://businessmirror.com.ph/fishing-ban-around-snake-island-in-palawan-pushed/
• Sunday, September 2, 2018

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

The Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) is pushing to declare a fishing ban in certain areas around Snake Island in Palawan to allow the marine ecosystem to recover and the important fish species to repopulate the area and replenish the fish stock.

The ERDB, an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), believes that declaring a fishing ban around the Snake Island is necessary even as an effort to rehabilitate the area hit by coral bleaching have shown an initial success.

The fishing ban “in identified areas” will save the coral reefs in the fringing and winding 7.5-hectare island, the ERDB believes.

Closed in 2012 from the public, the Snake Island is found in a cluster of islands around top tourist destinations El Nido and Puerto Princesa City.

Coral bleaching

The DENR has ordered the closure of Snake Island after finding evidence of coral bleaching—or the turning the color of corals to white as they lose the greenish-brownish color of organisms called Zooxanthellae of the Alveolata group that reside in coral surfaces.

These photosynthetic organisms are destroyed as a result of global warming, or the increase in temperature of oceans, sea-level rise and acidification, overfishing and destructive fishing, such as of dynamites.

After the 2012 closure, a 2016 review of DENR-ERDB discovered that significant portions of the reef have started to provide spaces for settlement of young coral colonies.

More bleaching effects

In May of the same year, another team of experts doing orientation and photo documentation on Snake Island, locally known as Kalumpang, in Honda Bay, Palawan, however, were alarmed by the massive coral bleaching in the area.

The massive coral bleaching was reported in a BusinessMirror exclusive in June 2016, when the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) revealed that as much as 90 percent of the corals in three different sites around Snake Island were severely affected.

Ironically, the discovery of the dying corals came after Snake Island was declared as the national marine research station of the DENR.

Specifically, the activity conducted from May 10 to 13, aimed to showcase the three major coastal ecosystems in the area, including coral reef, seagrass beds and mangroves.

The team—composed of representatives from the DENR-BMB through the Coastal and Marine Division, DENR-Palawan Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro), Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, Studio H2O and the UP Marine Science Institute—dived in the three sites around Snake Islands to take photos, but was surprised to see the bad condition of the corals.

The coral bleaching, according to the report, could be an effect of El Niño.

The same sites were assessed by another team from the DENR-ERDB just two weeks before the DENR-BMB team went to dive in the sites, and found the corals to be still in good condition.

Algal bloom

The ERDB’s findings, meanwhile, revealed that some parts have been found to have a high algal cover (algal bloom) which is known to hinder the recovery of affected corals.

According to ERDB experts, algal-feeding fish, such as the parrotfishes, siganids, acanthurids and wrasses, among others, were observed. But they must be constantly protected from fishing to increase their meager numbers.

The rapid succession of algae on reef structures might be caused by the reduced population of herbivors or plant-eating fish species, coupled with an influx of excess nutrients from nearby tributaries, according to Jose Isidro Michael Padin, ERDB supervising science research specialist.

Overfished

The assessment found out that exhaustive fishing in the area resulted in the decline of algae-feeding fish, leaving no natural control measure for the increasing algal bloom.

Delineating “no-fishing zones” on the island will help coral-reef rehabilitation, the ERDB expert concluded.

“In order to protect the island and to help in the recovery of the corals in the area, there is a need to delineate areas for fishing and nonfishing. This will allow the coral reefs to recover,” said ERDB Director Dr. Sofio B. Quintana in a statement released through Growth Publishing.

Padin explained that ERDB’s effort to restore corals on Snake Island is worth it.

“Hard corals can survive a bleaching event and return to their normal state unless the unfavorable conditions continue for a prolonged period,” he said. Sea star infestation

According to the ERDB, another factor which can hinder the recovery of the coral reef is the growing population of sea stars.

Sea stars belong to a species which feed on healthy coral polyps leading to the bleaching of some Acroporid corals. The outbreak of sea stars may be caused by increased nutrients in the water or the removal of its predators, or both.

The ERDB research team is continuously monitoring the sea stars’ population and is looking at the possibility of resorting to necessary control methods, such as manual removal or induced death.

Preliminary findings of the ERDB team have been presented in January to concerned stakeholders, which included the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), DENR-City Environment and Natural Resources Office of Puerto Princesa City, DENR-Penro Palawan, Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), Puerto Princesa City Tourism Office, and the Puerto Princesa City Environment and Natural Resource Office. Science-based solutions

Among the solutions proposed were science-based coral transplantation, restocking of herbivorous fingerlings and the continuous monitoring of water and other marine resources of the island.

A fishing moratorium to increase fish population on Snake Island has been raised. This is also seen as a long-term solution for the reported decline of fish stocks in Honda Bay.

Quintana gave assurance that ERDB will continue to provide science-based information in order to help protect the natural beauty of Snake Island.

Popular tourist spot

Snake Island has been among the most popular tourist spots in El Nido due to its S-shaped sandbar, where adventurers walk on low tide, as they appear to “walk on water.”

The sandbar connects Snake Island to other islands in Palawan.

Snake Island has been envisioned to become an exhibition area for three ecosystems—coral reef, sea grass beds (from monocotyledon plant group of grasses, lilies and palms that form underwater meadows) and mangroves.

With the DENR’s rehabilitation, the Snake Island has been replanted with 17 hectares of nine species of mangroves.

Fishery stocks, including caesionid (dalagang bukid) and jacks (talakitok), have been restored as surface fishes, and groupers (lapu-lapu), acanthurids (labahita), siganids (danggit) and damsel fish (palata) as bottom dwellers.

The rehabilitation of Snake Island is part of a larger program of the DENR to restore the health of natural resources in degraded ecotourism sites, including the entire El Nido.

The DENR also ordered in April the closure of almost 80 establishments in El Nido that were violating the 30-meter “no-store” area from shoreline policy.