Hope in Tubbataha -1

I FIRST saw the shark pass about 25 feet directly below me, seemingly minding its own business as it moved slowly toward the drop-off. After several days in Tubbataha, a spectacular coral reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea, seeing a shark was no longer an unusual thing. In fact, I was averaging two shark sightings every dive! But this was different somehow. The shark suddenly corkscrewed and headed straight for me and my dive buddy, Allison.

At first I was amused that the shark actually took interest in us as most of the sharks we saw were shy. But this little ol’ shark just kept coming closer… and closer. My amusement began turning into apprehension. Images were flashing through my mind… I could see Inquirer’s headlines now… "Makati executive loses leg to shark!" Tabloid fodder.

KAILA Ledesma views her acropora

coral constituents in the clear

waters of the lagoon.

Ok, so it wasn’t that big a shark. A four-footer at the most. It wouldn’t take my whole leg; maybe just my foot. But try staring at a black-tip shark eye to eye with just five feet of water between you and those teeth, and I guess even Maximus the gladiator would skip a beat.

The shark just stopped and stared. I was hiding behind this huge wooden slate where we were writing down research notes. Allison, brave woman, took out this itty-bitty slate pencil and pointed it at the shark as if to say, "Come any closer and you’re dead meat!" The shark probably realized we wouldn’t let it take my foot without a fight, so just as sudden as he came, he disappeared.

I muttered an expletive as the shark swam off. It was really more comical than anything.

I didn’t know what to expect after volunteering to join a World Wildlife Fund research expedition to Tubbataha Reefs. And this was just one of the stories that the reef unfolded for us during that weeklong expedition.

I guess I’ve always been a little masochistic. The last time I visited Tubbataha was in 1987 aboard the dive tour boat Tristar B. At that time, I took a leave from my job in Makati and worked as a dive guide. Fourteen years later, I was back under similar circumstances. This time it was to do marine research work for WWF, which has adopted Tubbataha as a major conservation project.

Jewel

Tubbataha Reef is in the middle of open sea about 100 km from Puerto Princesa, Palawan. It is a 16-km long geological and biological wonder that many divers worldwide have called, "The Jewel of the Sulu Sea." Tubbataha is composed of two atolls that rose up from the sea floor millions of years ago. The waters surrounding it are hundreds of fathoms deep. All that appears above water are two islands with thousands of bird inhabitants. Underwater, it has sheer drop-offs, schools of fish, sharks, dolphins and turtles. It is a diving paradise in every sense of the word. During the 1980s, fishermen from all over began exploiting the area. The use of dynamite and cyanide was reportedly widespread, to the chagrin of environmentalists. Even the Taiwanese had discovered the lush fishing grounds of Tubbataha and foreign fishing vessels began frequenting the area.

In 1988 Tubbataha was declared the country’s first national marine park. Although the park was now officially under the government’s wing, funds were sorely needed to manage and protect the park. In 1993, UNESCO declared the reef a World Natural Heritage Site and NGOs scrambled to save what was left. WWF has been helping to manage the park since 1997. Today, there are park rangers living in a concrete structure built on a sand bar in the middle of the 16-km long park. Fishing in whatever form is prohibited. The two islands are off limits to visitors to protect the birds and the sea turtles that nest there. WWF has laid out anchor buoys for the dive boats. The whole program has met some success; in fact, Asiaweek Magazine adjudged Tubbataha as the best marine park in Asia for 2000. But there are still occasional park violations and it has been a long and hard struggle to maintain the park.

Being part of the media, I often thought, what’s the use of drumming up awareness about our delicate ecosystem if the common Filipino can’t really do much to reverse the environment’s degradation? Is there really anything constructive a typical recreational diver can do to help the environment? It was with this cynical thought that I answered the call for volunteers by Dindo Mejia, WWF’s project director for Tubbataha. I wanted to see for myself if people could make a difference in helping the environment.

Before going on the expedition, Dindo gathered the volunteer divers for two days of orientation and training at Punta Fuego in Batangas. We learned how to distinguish between branching, encrusting, massive and sub-massive corals. To think that before that, all I knew was "hard coral" and "soft coral." We also took our first lessons in identifying the different reef fishes.

To give you an idea of how difficult this is, note that Tubbataha has close to 400 species of fish and 300 species of coral, excluding sponges, sea grass, algae and sea mammals. There’s just so much life down there. For the coral, what is important was to identify key species that are known to be "reef builders." For fish, we concentrated on those "indicator" species. Examples of indicator species are sharks. These top predators rely on small fishes that in turn rely on even tinier fishes for food. Many of these smaller fishes feed on plankton, algae, and other smaller life forms. Take away the corals where some of these life forms live and this causes a major break that may affect the whole food chain right up to the sharks.

Research

I’m a business graduate for goodness’ sake. What am I doing distinguishing acroporas from pocilloporas (types of coral)? And what does this information have to do with preserving Tubbataha Reef ? Every year, the foundation spends millions of pesos to maintain the park. WWF needs data to prove that its efforts are bearing fruit. Research is needed to find out what conservation methods work and what don’t.

Why is it so important to protect Tubbataha? Scientists believe that much of the fish in the area (Palawan and Visayas) actually depend on Tubbataha as a source of food and shelter.

The seven-day expedition began with an 11-hour boat ride from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan. WWF’s research vessel is a locally built "basnig" named the Minerva. A basnig is essentially a giant bangka, complete with outriggers. But the Minerva is no ordinary bangka. It is loaded with a generator, a compressor (for the diving tanks), a global positioning system device (GPS), solar panels for electricity, and high band radios. It even has a TV. It has two toilets, a shower, a kitchen-dining room and sleeping quarters with bunk beds. Many of us though preferred sleeping outside on the deck or on the roof for a panoramic view of the moon and stars. It was a home away from home, if you didn’t mind the occasional violent rocking as the boat made its way from Puerto to Tubbataha. On the Minerva was a boat crew of about six plus eight research divers.

Tubbataha above water is just as breathtaking. As you enter the reef area in the early morning, you see a streak of light green in the distance set against the deep blue ocean. Tubbataha is like an oasis in the middle of the vast dark desert-like sea. Besides the reef and its two islands, not a single speck of land can be seen. Tom Hanks would have felt at home here.

The expedition staff had to search for the dive spots where permanent markers had been installed since 1997. Sometimes the research site was along a vertical wall. If you look down while floating at 35 feet, you see nothing but blue water.