Monitoring reefs goes hi-tech

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is now using state-of-the-art equipment to monitor the health of the coral reefs at three pilot sites and help further protect the marine ecosystems for the long run.

Scuba divers from the department’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) on Friday installed autonomous reef monitoring systems (ARMS) in underwater sites off Carabao Island in Cavite, Mactan Island in Cebu and Snake Island in Palawan, the DENR said.

The equipment installation was the culminating activity in the celebration of May as Month of the Ocean, BMB Director Theresa Mundita Lim said in a news statement.

Mimics corals 

The ARMS is a device made up mostly of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material that is secured to coral reefs with metal weights that mimic coral reefs and over time attract or collect small reef animals known as “cryptic reef biodiversity,” Lim said.

“ARMS installed in a specific area could provide a systematic and consistent method of monitoring marine life forms. They also provide data on how climate change impacts such as ocean warming and acidification affects them, or how marine ecosystems develop and maintain their resilience to these impacts,” Lim said.

Educational 

But she clarified the ARMS would initially be used for educational purposes only.

The devices will be left underwater and retrieved a year later, after which all organisms found on and in the units will be extracted and analyzed by biologists, she said.

“These will be presented to the community to give them an idea of the marine life in their vicinity, which hopefully will encourage them to help in the conservation and protection of our marine ecosystems,” Lim said.

After retrieval, the ARMS will be redeployed for further studies. The BMB is also planning to increase the number of ARMS units at specific sites to provide additional data for research purposes.

Members of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council, the local Bantay Dagat and students also took part in the activity.

The event was attended by representatives of partner agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, local government units and the Philippine Coast Guard in Palawan.

More than 800 ARMS have been installed to date by NOAA divers throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the DENR said.