![]() In 1998, Mayor Yap began cracking down on illegal fishing, particularly around the Mantalip Reef. For the next two decades, he would drive fisheries management innovation, marine protection, and pride for nature in Bindoy. Mayor Yap was determined to close the gap. With the increase in population and decline in fish catch, you cannot meet demand and supply, so we decided to focus more on environmental protection.”Īt the root of the destructive fishing norm was a huge disconnect between people and nature - between fishers and their reefs, mangroves and seabeds. If we don’t take care of our marine resources, of course there will be a decline in fish catch. “Almost 60 percent of our people are dependent on fish. “Our food is very dependent on the catch of the fishermen,” he says. The reef had been pummeled by illegal fishing for years, and he was concerned about the impact on local food and job security. Left unchecked, illegal and destructive fishing could gradually but irrevocably damage Bindoy’s ocean ecosystems and drain them of their productivity.īy 1998, Mayor Valente Yap knew he had to do something. Dynamite fishing was bad enough for the reef, but it was only one weapon in an arsenal of destructive techniques that illegal fishers used in the area, including poison, trawl nets, and muroami - the use of ropes and rocks to pound coral, drive out fish, and herd them into a waiting net. When single blasts become repeated offenses in the same reef, recovery becomes much harder to accomplish. Furthermore, the removal of the targeted herbivorous fish is likely to reduce the resilience of the reefs to climate change and other impacts, further hampering recovery.” A 2006 study of dynamite fishing by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, detailed its impact: “The detonation of homemade bombs not only kills fish but also shatters the coral skeletons, creating expanses of unstable coral rubble. Though the practice is illegal, it’s still in use throughout Southeast Asia. ![]()
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