Manila Bay still very productive, say experts

Apart from discarded plastic bags and waste materials, what else is there in the “dying” waters of Manila Bay?

Believe it or not, bisugo, sapsap and shrimp, among others.

According to the environmentalist group Greenpeace, these and other marine life can be found in the bay waters off Cavite, Bataan and “relatively all coastal cities and towns,” contrary to the public perception that there was no more life left in the body of water.

“Even if we’re killing Manila Bay, it’s still very productive,” Vince Cinches, the group’s ocean campaigner, said.

According to data obtained by Greenpeace from the Management for the Seas of East Asia and the Manila Bay Environmental Management Project a few years ago, in the fish category, hasa-hasa has a relative abundance of 13.59 percent.

This is followed by bisugo (9.39 percent), bagaong (8 percent) and lapad (7.96 percent). Banak or talilong is at 4.12 percent, followed by kalaso (3.76 percent), sapsap (3.54 percent), asohos (3.37 percent), kabasi (3.03 percent) and others, 43.23 percent.

Among the invertebrates, squid (species Loligo edulis) has the highest relative abundance at 47.45 percent, followed by crab (Portunus pelagicus species at 11.43 percent) and shrimp-suahe (10.19 percent).

Relative species abundance refers to how common or rare a species is relative to other species in a defined location, Cinches said.

Although the sea organisms may be thought of as regular food on the table, Dr. Gil Jacinto of the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute said they were not “the best.”

“Are there fish (and others) in Manila Bay? Yes. Are they the best species we had (compared to) 20-30 years ago? No,” he said in a press conference on the M/Y Esperanza which has been making the rounds of bodies of water in Asia since May as part of Greenpeace’s efforts to call the attention of stakeholders to the problems besetting the ocean.

A sample of Manila Bay waters taken one to two kilometers away from the shoreline showed that the body of water contained diverse microorganisms and many smaller plankton. This, Jacinto said, was indicative of a “stressed body of water.”

While “stressed environments” enable the growth of certain organisms, he said these organisms were still “not the best food for people.”

Dr. Romy Quijano of the Philippine General Hospital said these were “likely to be contaminated” by certain chemicals like mercury and cadmium, among others.