Mayor Albert Ator of Siaton has admitted that he is aware of reported rifts between some resort owners, coastal communities and village officials in his town such that there are no cohesive and collaborated efforts for a sustainable program on marine resources protection and conservation in that southern town.
The absence of a partnership between these stakeholders, not to mention the animosity, fear, misunderstandings and opposite vested interests among them have compromised the sustainability of efforts to establish a marine protected area or areas in Siaton, which have plenty of coral reefs where tourists snorkel and dive for free.
Mayor Ator’s reaction came as resort owners, private individuals and local fishermen pitched in to continuously work to prevent an outbreak of the deadly Crown of Thorns starfish in Siit, Siaton.
For many weeks, a private resort owner paid more than P40,000 total as incentive for fishermen to sustain the collection of this particular predator starfish that eats up and devastates coral formations. A fisherman is paid P3 per starfish collected, the free dives usually held during night time when the Crown of Thorns appear as opposed to during daytime.
It took about three weeks before the provincial government of Negros Oriental, through the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the local government of Siaton, and the barangay council of Siit, to get involved. By then, around 14,000 Crown of Thorns starfish, most of them in juvenile and mid-juvenile stage, had been collected in the Siit area.
According to the mayor, he recently sent another team of divers, this time funded by the Siaton local government, to inspect the Crown of Thorns starfish-ridden coral areas in Siaton. The team reported that the number of starfish there had already seemingly reduced, with the mayor expressing confidence the outbreak would just disappear as these coral predators are “seasonal”.
Mayor Ator has announced he will be calling for a conference among resort owners, fishermen, coastal communities and coastal village officials to thresh out the problems besieging them.
The Siaton LGU, he said, is also willing to give incentives to the fishermen and divers to continue collecting the Crown of Thorns starfish after knowing that it was a private resort owner that was paying them instead.