Visayas Oil Spill

ILOILO CITY—Marine scientists have recorded a 65 percent drop in fish supply from the waters of Guimaras following last year’s massive oil spill that ravaged the island-province.

Dr. Wilfredo Campos, president of the Philippine Association of Marine Science (PAMS), said the studies that were conducted starting two weeks after the oil spill in August 2006 until this year showed a marked decline in fish population in the waters of Guimaras.

The findings of a research team headed by Campos was presented during the 9th National Symposium in Marine Science of the PAMS held in Iloilo City last week.

The studies showed a drop in fish density, biomass and diversity compared to the figures recorded in the same areas in 2001.

The fish density in Guimaras waters dropped from 1.5 grams per square meter in 2001, to 0.8 g in 2006 while biomass dropped from 26.5 g per sqm in 2001 to 9.3 in 2006. The fish diversity, or the presence of different species of fish, also went down from 48.2 in 2001 to 35.8 in 2006.

Fish density refers to the number of fish in the area while biomass refers to the weight of a fish.

Campos said the low figures were consistent in the 500-square-meter monitoring stations located in six sites in Barangay Tando and at the Taklong Island National Marine Reserve, both in Nueva Valencia town.

The areas were among the hardest hit by the oil spill after the MT Solar I sank 13 nautical miles off Guimaras on Aug. 11, 2006, spilling almost two million liters of bunker fuel into the sea and triggering one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.

The findings scientifically validate the observations and complaints of fishermen and residents in the affected areas that their fish catch has substantially decreased following the oil spill.

Records made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as well as mangrove experts also show at least 600 mature mangrove trees in Guimaras are dying. Mangroves serve as breeding and feeding grounds of fish.

Scientists have earlier said that the long-term and full impact of the oil spill on marine life in Guimaras would only be known after many years, and continuous monitoring is needed in Guimaras.

Campos said the oil spill could be the main reason for the drastic drop in fish volume in the affected areas.

But he said they had expected the impact on fish supply to be short-term because the mature ones could have had evaded the oil spill by swimming away from the affected areas.

“This could also be caused by other factors that we need to study further because the low figures are still there a year and a half after the oil spill,” Campos said in an interview.

He said other reasons for the low fish supply could include unregulated fishing, dynamite and other illegal forms of fishing.