Rich marine biodiversity sustains S. Leyte fisherfolk
PINTUYAN, Southern Leyte—the day hasn’t dawned yet but 45-year-old Ery Cordova already paddles his fishing boat, not to catch fish but to look for their water’s constant visitors—the whale sharks. When he spots a sliver of whale sharks, he paddles back to their community in Barangay Sonok so that tourists and tour guides are alerted and organize a fleet of bancas to the site.
For the last 18 years, whale shark watching in this town has sustained tourism—with visitors mostly coming from Europe—and provided alternative livelihood to the fisherfolk like Cordova.
As a spotter for whale sharks, he earns P300 for three hours while the tourists are interacting with other sea creatures.
Fisherfolk in the community formed themselves into an association in 2005, the Kapulungan sa Son-okanon Alang sa Kalamboam (Association of Sok-okanon for Progress). They assigned members as spotters and tour guides to support the thenfledgling whale shark watching tourism.
Cordova said that based on a tagging on whale sharks done by the nongovernment Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (Lamave) before the devastation of Supertyphoon Odette (international code Rai) occurred, over 400 whale sharks were monitored to have frequently come to the waters here.
“The income as a spotter is not stable but this brings money to our family. We can no longer rely on our coconut because everything was destroyed by Odette. We have not even received planting materials for the replacement of our felled coconuts,” he said.
Cordova says he now relies on his small vegetable garden and fishing on the municipal waters of Pintuyan for the food of the family.
Protecting the biodiversity
SOUTHERN Leyte Second District Rep. Christopherson Yap knows by heart the rich biodiversity of the waters of Panaon Island, the southernmost part of Southern Leyte that covers the towns of Pintuyan, Liloan, San Francisco and San Ricardo.
When the sessions in Congress are on break, Yap would roam around the different municipalities and huddle with fishermen, many of whom he addresses on a first name basis.
“I grew up seeing them. The waters here were my playground where I would swim or dive. I have seen those whale sharks, sea turtles, colorful fishes and those large corals,” he said.
Yap and Southern Leyte First District Rep. Luz Mercado filed separate bills that seek to declare Panaon Island as a protected seascape under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-nipas) Act, and enhance efforts to safeguard the island’s coral reefs and threatened and endangered species.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, also filed Senate Bill 1690 for the inclusion of Panaon Island as a marine protected area under E-nipas Act.
In filing SB 1690, titled “Panaon Island Protected Seascape Act of 2023,” Villar said that despite the presence of extensive coral reefs and vibrant fish communities, the biomass of commercially important species shows signs of overfishing and other human-induced environmental threats.
The Sangguniang Bayan of the four municipalities earlier this year passed their respective resolutions expressing support for the establishment of Panaon Island as a protected seascape under the E-nipas law.
The four municipalities have their own local ordinances designating part of their respective municipal waters as protected area.
Yap said declaring Panaon Island as a marine protected area will ensure that the future generations will still be able to enjoy the diverse marine flora and fauna that are still present today.
He said that once the bill is passed into law, there will be a special body to protect the area which will deter commercial vessels from encroaching in municipal waters and keep its prized reefs from destruction.
The international advocacy group Oceana, in a study, said the coral reefs in Panaon Island are among the priority reefs that will highly likely withstand the devastating impacts of climate change.
In a position paper submitted to Congress, Oceana said that Panaon Island is one of the 50 priority reefs globally identified by a group of scientists in a study commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In 2020, the international advocacy group Oceana partnered with the province of Southern Leyte, Southern Leyte State University and the four municipalities on Panaon Island in the conduct of an expedition around it to assess its coastal habitats and fisheries.
“Our studies show that coral reefs around the island had some of the highest live hard coral cover in the country, with greater than 44 percent hard coral cover while none were found to have less than 22 percent hard coral cover,” Oceana said.
The group said reef-associated fish communities at the different reef areas around Panaon Island were found to have “moderate richness and very high abundance.”
During the expedition, Oceana also noted a total of 19 mangrove species including two species listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of vulnerable and near-threatened species.
“As for seagrasses, there were eight seagrass species, which constitutes 42 percent of the seagrass species found in the Philippines,” the group added.
“With the establishment of Panaon Island as a 61,251-hectare marine protected area, the Philippines can contribute to the international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, Paris Agreement and other multilateral environmental agreements. At present, the Philippines’s marine protected areas constitute 3.1 million hectares, which is only 1.4 percent of our territorial waters under national law,” Oceana said.