Benham Rise: New ecological frontier
By Jonathan L. Mayuga
Published in the Business Mirror, May 22, 2016
First of two parts
SCIENTISTS from
government agencies and the private sector are scheduled to hold next
week an interagency oceanographic exploration in the Benham Rise Region
(BRR)—the country’s newest territory 250 kilometers off Aurora and
Isabela provinces—in order to further explore the Benham Bank, and
discover its secrets.
Experts and other stakeholders are
pooling their resources for the exploration, with the hope of coming up
with an informed decision on how to best manage the new Philippine
territory, which is bigger than Luzon, Samar and Leyte combined. The
shallowest portion of the underground at the Benham Bank is estimated to
be 35 meters from the surface. It is believed to be rich in oil,
natural gas and other minerals, such as manganese.
This will be the fourth official
oceanographic exploration to be conducted in the area, after the
territorial claim by the Philippines was approved by the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) in April 2012. The Unclos, an
international agreement in which the Philippines is a party, defines the
limits of territorial seas of countries where they can exploit marine
resources.
Oil and gas
Since 2013 various government agencies
have been visiting the BRR to explore the territory and possibly exploit
its natural wealth. As early as 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE),
through its Oil Industry Management Bureau, wanted it explored for oil,
excited of its potential economic benefits. The militant group
Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas
(Pamalakaya-Pilipinas), meanwhile, welcomed the government’s opening of
the Benham Rise to fishermen, but warned that any attempt to exploit the
rich fishing ground will be met with strong resistance.
“Any attempt to exploit and destroy the
abundant waters of Benham Rise, like rampant exploration of oil and gas
perpetrated by foreign and local large oil firms, is a big no for the
fishers,” Salvador France, Pamalakaya vice chairman, told the
BusinessMirror in an e-mail message.
Commercial fishing
Fishermen in Aurora province have been
reporting that they were also seeing foreign poachers and fishing
fleets, usually owned by Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, roaming around
the area.
Pamalakaya criticized the government for
neglecting to prevent foreign poachers from exploiting the waters that
are supposedly for the Filipino fishermen.
“The government and concerned agencies
should block the entry of any foreign-owned fishing fleets to give way
to small fishermen and other local fish producers to promote domestic
consumption.”
“We welcome the government’s eagerness to
open up and explore the abundance of the Benham Rise, but we hope that
its real score is not to peddle it to corporate giants who blatantly
destroy our natural resources for their profit at the expense of
people’s livelihood and environmental degradation,” France said.
Fishing ground
Research teams from the Department of
Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) have
been visiting the BRR for years as part of their efforts to determine
the territory’s potential to boost fisheries production.
Being a traditional fishing ground and a
spawning area for commercially viable fish, environmental groups see the
need to come up with a sustainable management framework for the BRR to
give stakeholders strong participation. More than oil, natural gas and
other mineral resources, the country’s top fishery official sees the BRR
as a major fishing ground that needs to be protected.
Preliminary research conducted by
scientists as early as 2013 revealed that the Benham Bank is a spawning
ground of assorted fish, including the Pacific Bluefin tuna.
“Two weeks ago, our research vessel [MV DA-BFAR]
set sail for the Benham Rise. Next week the DA-BFAR team will go back
to the area with scientists from UP Marine Science Institute [UP MSI],”
Director Asis G. Perez, head of the DA-BFAR, told the BusinessMirror in a
telephone interview on Tuesday.
Unexplored
Speaking mostly in Filipino, Perez said
the vastly unexplored region, with experts managing to get only a
glimpse of what the new territory has to offer during previous
explorations, has the potential of increasing the country’s annual
fisheries production.
He said it needed to be further explored
to be able to come up with a science-based management framework that
will ensure sustainability of fish production, particularly tuna. This
week, he said, the plan is to get more valuable information, hopefully, a
clearer picture of what needs to be done by the government.
“What we were able to know so far is very
little compared to what we need to learn. We will continue our
exploration to get a complete picture of the Benham Rise. From there, we
will be able to craft a suitable management framework for the benefit
of our fishermen,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
Benefits
As early as 2013, fish aggregating devices have been put up on the Benham Rise, Perez said.
Fishermen are now enjoying increased
productivity by using ropes and biomass like coconut leaves to attract
schools of fish, and eventually larger fish with high commercial value,
he said.
Schooling or shoaling, the process of
attracting small fishes, will attract bigger fish in one area, such as
tuna, which demand or domestic consumption and export is huge, will make
fishing a breeze, he said.
“So far, we have anecdotal reports that
fishermen from Aurora and nearby areas are now benefiting from these
fish-aggregating device we have put up,” he said.
Hot spot
Environmentalists pushing for sustainable
management of the Benham Rise also warned that the area is an emerging
fisheries hot spot owing to poachers from neighboring countries, unless a
more stringent protection mechanism is adopted.
Participants of a multistakeholder forum
cosponsored by not-for-profit Oceana Philippines at the University of
the Philippines last month resounded the call for its protection and
conservation against overfishing and other destructive fishing methods.
For environmental advocates, exploring
new ecological frontiers within the country’s territory offers an
opportunity to craft a management framework before losing the natural
resources from overexploitation and unbriddled development that will
potentially harm the network of marine ecosystem in the vast territory,
conservation-advocacy group Oceana Philippines Vice President Gloria
Estenzo-Ramos told the BusinessMirror in an interview on Tuesday.
“For us, of course, we see an
opportunity of leaning toward ocean conservation. This is a new
territory, and there is no management framework yet for the Benham Rise.
Exploring the Benham Rise, will help the government and other
stakeholders to come up with an idea on how it is best protected,” she
said.
In May 2014 scientists from the UP MSI
were able to reach the bottom of the Benham Bank, the shallowest portion
of the Benham Rise, and were able to take photographs and videos of
what is beneath its pristine blue waters.
Using a not-so-high-tech gadget, such as a
waterproof digital camera, scientists were able to document and record
the exciting new discoveries in the Benham Bank, which is now being eyed
to be declared as a “no-take zone.”
To be Concluded
