Pinoys urged to help save coral reefs

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) urged Filipinos to take action and do their share to help save what remains of the country’s coral reefs.

Concerted effort, the agency noted, is necessary to ensure the survival of the “rainforests of the sea,” which are threatened by human activities and climate change.

“We must act now to save our remaining coral reefs before it’s too late,” DENR said in a statement issued yesterday, as the nation celebrates Month of the Ocean this May.

According to the DENR, major causes of coral reef destruction include destructive fishing, overfishing, sedimentation, illplanned coastal development and rapid population growth.

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, housing tens of thousands of marine species. Reefs buffer shorelines from waves and storms that cause flooding and erosion, support commercial and subsistence fisheries and are home to a thriving recreation and tourism industry.

The DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) has lined up this month a number of activities aimed at raising awareness on the importance of coral reefs and the effects of reef destruction on food security and marine biodiversity.

The highlight of the celebration is the retrieval of three Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) deployed last year in the waters of Carabao Island in Cavite, Mactan Island in Cebu and Snake Island in Palawan.

Donated by the US government through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the ARMS units are designed to monitor the overall health conditions of coral reefs and can yield data on impacts of climate change within a marine ecosystem.