Dive safari planned to explore Sarangani Bay
ABOARD THE SCHOONER TARA, Japan (AFP) – The key to the survival of the world’s threatened coral reefs may lie in the waters surrounding a small volcanic island off the coast of Japan, scientists say.
The seabed of Shikine island is a “living laboratory” for researchers aboard the schooner Tara, a French-led scientific expedition, who are looking for clues to help protect coral from the damaging effects of climate change.
While coral reefs cover less than 0.2 percent of the ocean surface globally, they host some 30 percent of marine animal and plant species, serving as a source of food and offering protection from predators.
“Losing these reefs would be horrifying,” said Sylvain Agostini, an expedition coordinator and professor at Japan’s University of Tsukuba.
Shikine’s unique conditions – created by underwater volcanoes that flood some of its coves with CO2 and make it less alkaline – mimic what scientists say will be the impact of unchecked carbon emissions on the world’s oceans by 2100.
The build-up of CO2 due to greenhouse gas emissions or underwater volcanic activity raises the temperature and transforms the chemistry of ocean waters, in a process known as acidification.
Researchers say the waters in parts of Shikine, located 160 kilometers south of Tokyo, offer a glimpse of how marine life – including corals – can fare in less alkaline water.
Japan’s corals, the northernmost in the world, could offer important data to bolster knowledge about marine life, as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces a threat to its survival.
Last week, scientists said the famous reef was at serious risk from bleaching – a process in which stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food – due to warming sea temperatures.
They warned that coral bleached for two consecutive years at the World Heritage-listed site had “zero prospect” of recovery after researchers detected another round of mass bleaching after an earlier event in 2016.
Very troubling
“I’ve been studying corals for 20 years and what I’m seeing is a largescale decline,” Maggy Nugues, a senior lecturer at the prestigious French research institute Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, told AFP aboard the ship, which departed France in May, 2016.
“There is a 50 percent to 80 percent reduction in coral cover in the Caribbean and the Pacific – this is very troubling.”
Half a dozen researchers on the vessel want to see how an underwater ecosystem, including corals, plankton, seaweed, and fish, fares in Shikine’s seemingly inhospitable environment.
Early comparisons with another bay on Shikine that boasts vastly different conditions suggest corals do much better in more alkaline water.
“We’re hoping that these higher latitude zones can serve as a refuge,” Agostini said.
“But the question remains about the acidification of the oceans and it’s here, in Shikine, in these natural laboratories that we hope to find the answer,” he added.
Sarangani Bay comes to life as the Province of Sarangani and the Department of Tourism-Region 12 (DOT-12) hold the first Sarangani Dive Safari on April 29 to May 1.
Proclaimed by the Department Environment and Natural Resources as a Protected Seascape and listed as one of the country’s Key Marine Biodiversity Areas, it covers an area of 215,950 hectares and a 226.4-km coastline, covering the municipalities of Maitum, Kiamba, Maasim, Alabel, Malapatan, and Glan in Sarangani, and Gen. Santos City.
According to Sarangani governor Steve Chiongbian Solon, who is also a licensed scuba diver, the safari will unveil Sarangani Bay as a diving haven in Mindanao.
He said the underwater expedition will explore other areas in the Bay, in addition to the popular Tinoto dive spot at the Lemlunay Resort in Maasim town.
DOT Regional director Nelly Nita Dillera said diving will be a new addition to the sports and adventure tourism products of Region 12 which covers South Central Mindanao.
The Bay is home to yellow fin tuna, sperm whales, pilot whales, dolphins, clown fishes, lion fishes, sergeant fishes, sea turtles, and pomedentridae, and labridae species.
Whale sharks, Mameng and sea cows are also occasionally sighted.
Its coral resources covers more than 2,293 hectares spread in 20 coral reef areas with about 60 important live hard coral genera, 411 reef species in 46 families. Seagrass cover is placed at 912 hectares, with 11 species in the coastal towns.
Among the dive spots to be explored are the Isla Jardin Marine Protected Area which is considered to be in excellent condition, is the home to giant clams, the marine sanctuaries of Kamanga, Tuka, Kawas, Tambilil and Binuni, and Malapatan Fish Sanctuary.