Re: Aquatic Survival - June Issue input
Coral Forest (coral at igc.apc.org)
Mon, 13 May 1996 11:08:18 -0800
Kicking the Cyanide Habit in the Philippines
by Christopher McLeod
We waded ashore on the tiny island of San Salvador in the
Philippines. It was late afternoon and the fishing boats were returning
with their catch. Lined along the beach was an odd site: dozens of live
fish in plastic bags. Pink ones, orange ones, red ones, each staring out
from its solitary polyethylene prison, on their way to New York, Tokyo or
Hong Kong aquariums. The good news was that these fish were caught using
nets, not cyanide.
The use of sodium cyanide to catch fish in the Philippines was
banned by the Department of Natural Resources, but that has not stopped its
use. Though cyanide is a lethal poison, it is much like a drug. Shadowy
dealers push it and fishermen get addicted to it. In the short term, at
least, it seems to make the catching of saltwater tropical fish for the
aquarium trade a relatively easy job. In the long term, like most drugs, it
kills. And trying to get dozens of your neighbors to stop using cyanide is
a tough job.
Fisherman Noel Abulag lives beneath tropical palms on the sandy
shore of San Salvador island, off the west coast of Luzon. Three years ago,
he teamed up with the Haribon Foundation, a respected environmental
organization in the Philippines, and started the slow, 18-month process of
community education and organization to try to get all of the fishermen of
San Salvador island to kick the cyanide habit.
"We observed that little by little the coral was dying and there
were fewer fish," says Abulag. "We didn't understand the effect of the
cyanide. We only knew it was easy. There was no alternative. Now we know it
was a big mistake."
It is a lot harder to catch a wild fish with a net, especially if
you dive as they do at San Salvador, without scuba tanks and regulators.
Instead, divers hold onto a 300-foot-long plastic tube that is connected to
an air compressor on a boat. The compressor pumps air down through the
tubing to depths of 150 feet. Imagine holding your life supply of air in
one hand and a net in the other, with hand-made wooden fins on your feet,
as you try to net a wary clownfish that will get you 8 pesos. Squirting
cyanide from a bottle to stun the fish seemed a lot easier.
But in addition to coral dying and 90% of the fish going belly up
before getting to an aquarium, the cyanide poisons fishermen too. Burns and
skin rashes are common. And storing cyanide in a village full of children
is a prescription for tragedy - and many have occurred.
One by one, Abulag, age 27, was able to convince three dozen men to
switch to nets. Presenting basic ecological education about how coral reefs
provide spawning grounds for fish along with information about how cyanide
kills, Abulag and biologists from Haribon worked individually and in
village meetings to convince the fishermen to change their methods. The
economics favored net fishing. It costs 200 pesos for one yard of net,
which lasts one year. In contrast, 1-2 kilos of cyanide were costing the
fishermen 120-240 pesos per month, and though more fish can be brought in
using cyanide, the toxic affects were becoming obvious, as was the impact
of overfishing. The fish were disappearing.
The final step in Abulag's organizing process was a municipal
ordinance to create a marine sanctuary in which no fishing of any kind was
allowed. The sanctuary provides a spawning ground for the fish and coral to
reproduce and replenish the seas.
Diving in the sanctuary is not allowed except for research, however
we were allowed to snorkel there to witness both the condition of the area
around the sanctuary and the teeming life within it. Approaching the
boundary of the sanctuary the numbers of colorful fish increased, the water
grew clearer, and the devastated craters where dynamite fishermen had once
dropped their explosives for a quick haul became fewer. Within the
sanctuary, the full splendor of what the Philippine coral reefs were once
like became apparent in the bittersweet underwater light. Stunning
diversity, amazing colors, a true coral forest.
The biological effects of banning cyanide and creating a sanctuary
are now obvious. According to Maximo Kalaw, Jr., president of Haribon and a
member of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, there are now
three times the fish in sanctuary areas as there were before the creation
of protected zones. Ironically, this is drawing other fishermen from
surrounding areas, some with dynamite. Lack of enforcement funds means
sanctuaries lack adequate policing.
One fisherman told CORAL FOREST that Coast Guard personnel had on
several occasions asked him for protection money, figuring he was either a
cyanide or dynamite fisherman (both illegal). He told them he was not. They
asked for a "donation to the Coast Guard fiesta." The fisherman declined.
They then hassled him about his boat registration and said "That other guy
is giving us a case of beer, what are you giving us?" The unspoken threat
is that a bag of contraband cyanide may be dropped into his boat, and he
could be arrested.
Noel Abulag says that in the old days, dynamite fishing was rampant
around San Salvador, with 9-10 explosions per day. When you are diving to
catch aquarium fish and dynamite explodes nearby, he says, "it is like a
hammer hitting the back of your head or your chest. Now the Coast Guard is
patrolling so it's less, maybe 60 to 70% of what it was."
Enforcement of "No Fishing" restrictions in the marine sanctuaries
is largely up to the local fishermen, who patrol the area with their boats
and keep a watchful eye whether they are on the water or on the shore. In
Batangas, airhorns are kept ready to warn boats away from the waters of the
sanctuary, and villagers asked us for old still cameras so that they can
document trespassing.
Early one morning, as we waited for Abulag to take us out on his
boat to show us the process of net fishing, there was tension in the air.
He kept glancing out toward the water at every boat that passed by. It
looked like he was expecting trouble, and he was.
A boat with rifle-toting Coast Guard officers pulled into shore. An
investigator from the Coast Guard office at Subic Bay appeared to question
Abulag about remarks he had allegedly made on a television show regarding
corruption in the Coast Guard. A fisherman's voice on the nationally
broadcast show "Wake Up" accused Coast Guard personnel of taking bribes as
protection money from dynamite fishermen, and Abulag's face was shown over
the comment. He denied making the comment and said he was always very
careful about what he said, particularly on television.
Abulag's is dangerous work. Cyanide is imported for mining and
military uses. Much of what is diverted to fishermen comes through the
military, as do the blasting caps used by dynamite fishermen. According to
Kalaw of Haribon, sixty-four environmental activists in the Philippines
have been killed in the last five years. At least three of these were
working with Haribon. Fourteen cases are being investigated by a task force
of Philippine environmental organizations that plan to create a memorial to
the dead activists and to seek financial support for their families.
One of those killed was organizing fishermen to quit cyanide and
watch over their sanctuary in Zambales, on the west coast of Luzon. "They
walked in while he was having dinner with his wife and children and shot
him," says Kalaw. "We believe the aquarium traders, the middle men, had him
liquidated."
Abulag is cautious - he has a wife and small child - but his
activism continues. Now that he has stopped local cyanide use and created a
sanctuary, he has turned his attention to two new endeavors. He is working
to block construction of a huge coal-fired power plant which is proposed on
the mainland at Masinloc, just a couple of miles from the sanctuary at San
Salvador island. And he has joined with fisherfolk from other cyanide-free
areas to organize a cooperative to sell aquarium fish directly to
exporters, and thus avoid the middlemen who profit from peddling cyanide.
To Maximo Kalaw, men like Noel Abulag are the essential front-line
warriors in the struggle for sustainability. "Noel is a true hero," says
Kalaw.
Filmmaker Christopher McLeod accompanied his wife, CORAL FOREST director
Jessica Abbe, on a 1994 research trip to the Philippines.
# # #
4 photos illustrate the 2 cyanide articles:
Noel Abulag at the helm
Fish bound for overseas aquariums
A warning to would-be intruders
Net fisherman after a dive
Photo credit: all photos by Christopher McLeod
>If you would like to input an article, letter to the editor, or brief
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>
>"Aquatic Survival" is a hard copy Bulletin mailed to dues paying members of
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>
>You don't have to be an ACN member to volunteer an article for Bulletin.
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>
>Submit material by email, fax or post to the address below.
>
>... Rob
>
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