Can we be proud to show off our beaches and coastal waters to foreigners? Do we feel safe to bathe in these waters without getting ear infection? Can we still tell our visitors that our seas are teeming with sea life? Can we still claim that we are the center of the center of marine biodiversity?
These are the questions that came to my mind as I listened to the report of a group of scientists from the California Academy of Sciences yesterday at the University of the Philippines, Diliman campus.
This group conducted research for one month in the coastal areas in Batangas and in Taal Lake, the areas frequently visited by tourists. They reported their preliminary findings before a mixed crowd of government officials, local government leaders, students and professors in the University of the Philippines led by the new UP President Alfredo Pascual.
In the early 1990s, I did some field work in that coastal area of Batangas trying to set up marine reserves with HARIBON. I remember we were partly successful but we were not able to establish a marine reserve at Tingloy, where the mayor was involved in destructive fishing.
The reports of our visiting scientists confirmed what I have been saying for some time in this column: our coastal areas are in bad condition.
One member of the team showed underwater pictures of a reef that looked like a snow-covered area. In reality, the whitish appearance was due to the coral colonies that lost their living polyps so that the coral skeletons were exposed.
The cause was high water temperatures due to El Niño. Of course, the coral bleaching was not due directly to humans. But it is probable that human activities lowered the resistance of corals to high temperatures so they easily succumbed to heated water.
Two members of the team reported that there were practically no fish in the deeper water, but lots of plastic bags and other materials that were obviously dumped in the sea. These materials could rot in the water, reducing oxygen supply or shielding corals from sunlight, resulting in their death.
If the team conducted chemical tests of the water, they would have found high concentrations of pollutants like nitrates and phosphates, which contributed to the death of corals shown in the underwater pictures.
Untreated effluents from toilets and washrooms are common in the country.
The visiting team also showed many species of small invertebrates, some of them were most likely new species. This was one of the good findings of the research team.
The team found that Lake Taal is also polluted. This could have contributed to the fishkills in the lake, although it is clear that the primary cause was insufficient dissolved oxygen in the water brought about by the high water temperatures and the overstocking of the fish pens and fish cages.
Our government officials appear to be unable to keep our coastal areas clean and productive. I have heard some of them say that the people do not cooperate. This may be true. But what else can they do?