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Philippines

PTA hits fertilizer dumping in Tubbataha
Source: Manila Bulletin
Author: -
Date: 2007-12-01
 
"I would like to urge the DENR and the BFAR not to allow and stop the dumping of tons of fertilizers into Philippine waters, especially the Sulu Sea..."

"...Tubbataha is one of the world’s top dive destinations, a veritable magnet for the foreign diving market. Their intentions may be good with all these motherhood statements on providing solutions to global warming but in my book the ends can never justify the means," admonished Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) General Manager Robert Dean Barbers on the controversial "Fertilization of the Sulu Sea" where it was already reported that the company was able to dump a ton of the substance.

Tubbataha reef is a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site and a especially critical biodiversity area in the Sulu Sea. The reef is also home to some of the Philippines’ richest fishing grounds and rated as one of the world’s top dive sites and the Philippines’ best.

"If they truly believe in the effectivity of the method, why don’t they do it in their waters? Allowing the experimentation of this speculative and unproven process to take place in the Philippines is like giving permission for them to drop nuclear bombs on our reefs. While the so-called growth of phytoplankton may boost fish stocks the same process may also encourage algal blooms, result to red tide and eventually release more CO2 in the long-run. I love the Philippines. I will not stand by and let anybody treat it like one big petri dish," warned Barbers.

The PTA chief adds that the damaging effects of over-fertilization may spread through both Sulu and Celebes Seas on which tens of millions of lives depend.

‘’We will be putting their lives at risk for an unsure quick-fix," he says.

Research shows that urea and nitrogen runoffs from agricultural lands have historically been known to cause toxic algal blooms such as red tide.

Additionally complex factors such as temperature and chemical reactions can complicate everything from the size of the algal bloom; if it grows too large it might intrude into shallow waters and choke off light-dependent animals like corals, to the ecosystem’s species composition; too much planktivores will upset the natural balance in the food chain.



[ Tubbataha Reef Wiki ]
 

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