MANILA, Philippines — It’s time to protect Verde Island Passage (VIP) in Mabini, Batangas or else it might face the same fate of Boracay Island, which was shutdown for six months due to uncontrolled mass tourism.
READ: After Boracay, Panglao faces shutdown, too
This was what Terrence Gosliner, Board Director of SEA Institute, said as there are too many resorts that is hurting the VIP.
“This place is saturated with resorts. It is maxed out in terms of capacity and its ability to accommodate dive resorts so I think we don’t want to have another Boracay here in Mabini and Anilao Dive Area,” Gosliner told INQUIRER.net in an interview on March 18.
The VIP is a 1.14-million hectare strait within the Mindoro-Calavite-Tablas triangle which covers Batangas, Marinduque, Romblon, and Occidental and Oriental Mindoro.
So how should Filipinos take care of the VIP that scientists declared as “center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity?”
More marine protected areas
To ensure the protection of the island, experts called for establishing more marine protected areas (MPAs) in the VIP.
Gosliner said this recommendation is needed because more people are using too much of the resources in the island.
“One of my most pressing recommendations is we need more marine protected areas. There’s just too many people loving this resource and using it,” he said.
Joal Ascalon, executive director of the Sea Institute in VIP, said the Island may be able to regenerate itself amid pollution but warned that it could have a “tipping point.”
“It is getting a lot of stress, a lot of wastewater and solid waste despite that it is able to regenerate itself, it is able to sustain the balance in a way. But we don’t know, every system has a tipping point and push it further in the edge and it collapses,” Ascalon said.
Even fisherman Reynaldo Manalo, affirmed the recommendation to create more marine protected areas even if it would restrict some fishing grounds.
“Ako po ang isa sa nag-push na maging MPA ang lugar na ito. Kung hindi idedeklara na MPA itong area patuloy na magiging fishing ground ito,” Manalo said.
“Kahit mabawasan yung mapangisdaan may mapapangisdaan naman kami na iba,” he added.
DAY’S CATCH A boy on Verde Island spends his free time catching fish. —CLIFFORD NUÑEZ
Improve education, awareness on VIP
Despite the resources that VIP has to offer, Gosliner lamented that some Filipinos were still unaware of the island’s importance and how to protect it.
“I think there is growing awareness about the importance of Verde Island Passage and how important it is, but not on the tips of everybody’s tongue,” he said.
Ascalon echoed Gosliner’s sentiments saying they are focusing on sharing to the youth on why the island is unique.
“We focus on the youth to start sharing the importance and problems [of the Verde Island] with the younger generation they are the ones are going to inherit it,” he said.
Ascalon noted that the area of Batangas and Mindoro near the VIP has a lot of coastline and different ecosystems.
Scientists said they found existing marine animals such as manta rays and whalesharks in the island.
Meanwhile, Meg Burke, director of Science Integration and Operations at California Academy Sciences in San Francisco, said Filipinos must learn that corals are living animals, which had a lot of benefits in fighting against super typhoons.
“All of these super typhoons happening, if you have healthy reef and healthy mangroves, then the storm damage will be less because the coral reef and mangroves stop a lot of storm surge,” Burke said.
Burke also stressed the importance of recognizing corals as living animals because this will convince people to reconsider their views on illegal fishing activities.
“Once people understand that a coral is a living animal, then they get concerned that dynamite fishing is so bad, or why dropping a boat anchor is bad,” she said.
Plastics, solid waste management
One of the main pollutants of the Island is plastic, but for Ascalon, he said the public should also focus on addressing issues such as sewage, wastewater and climate change.
“We need to make sure that we don’t lose focus on other areas like sewage, wastewater, climate change and amount of energy, amount of fossil fuels, we use up,” the scientist said.
Gosliner also noted that the Island faced pollution such as plastic and sedimentation from road building and construction that are not carefully monitored.
Just last week, a footage from an environmental group in the Philippines showed the sad truth that even marine life in VIP was polluted with plastics such as sachets of seasoning and condiments.
READ: PH marine life center not spared from plastic
To battle the plastic waste, some of the communities are doing their share to reduce and reuse the garbage that pollutes the coastlines and the waters of VIP.
Caroline Beloso, president of Samahan ng mga Mangingisda, said they recycle the plastics picked up from the VIP’s coastlines and turn it into bags.
“Mga bags na yari sa plastic then yung mga katsa bag gumagawa rin po kami [These bags are made of plastic and we also make bags out of muslin–a light cotton-weaved cloth material],” she said.
“Malaking tulong sa amin lalo na sa mga basura yung mga bata na napupulot yung mga plastic kasi nilalagay nila sa mga bote ngayon [These recyclable materials the children pick up are of great help to us because they put these inside bottles],” Beloso added.
Manalo and other fishermen are also helping out in cleaning the coastlines and picking up trashes that pollute the marine sanctuary of VIP especially during stormy weather.
“Tinatrabaho namin yan, ‘pag panahon ng tag-bagyuhan, yung mga basura dun sa laot mga plastic sako babagsak yan sa pampang,” he said.
(We are working very hard on this, because when the storm season begins, the garbage materials in the ocean are being washed ashore.)
The fishermen pick up trashes almost three times a year and would collect almost 10 sacks of plastic and old clothes, Manalo said.
Worst case scenario
If Filipinos could not act on continuous pollution in the VIP, the Philippines would lose its stunning and resourceful reefs, experts warned.
“Worst case scenario is before the end of my lifetime, there may not be any beautiful reefs. Even, in the Philippines which has the best reefs,” Burke said.
Manalo lamented that kinds of fishes and other marine creatures are getting less.
“Yung dating maganda noon yung maraming isda, yung unti unti kong nakikita na sadyang humihina [The beauty of seeing a lot of fish is eventually becoming just a memory, they are getting scarce],” he said.
Ascalon warned that the livelihood of Filipinos will be at stake if the island could be damaged.
“If we lose the VIP, we directly lose the livelihood of Filipinos, whether the fisherman, the communities of the coastline depend on the VIP. The long-term impact on biodiversity, it will affect fish catch. It will affect our diets ,what we will eat in decades to come, it is like a mother reef,” he said. /jpv