Alternative livelihood eyed for illegal fishers

CEBU, Philippines — Providing alternative livelihood opportunities for fishermen using illegal means to catch fish in the Mactan Channel is one way the Lapu-Lapu City government is eyeing to put a stop to illegal fishing in the area.

During a recent Coral Rehabilitation and Marine Sanctuary Relaunch, Mayor Junard  Ahong  Chan announced plans on introducing coral regeneration to the fishermen.

 What the city government will do is to call all the illegal fisherfolk to give them alternative livelihood that is what we did right now,  Chan said.

Rather than engaging in illegal activities in the sea, which can cause harm to coral reefs and to the people, the plan includes a new method called  Rock Propagation  that offers numerous advantages for both marine life and the community living in Lapu-Lapu City.

Chan said that there is a huge return of investment, particularly for the next generation, if the government takes the lead in teaching and leading fishermen to plant corals and seaweeds.

This initiative is in partnership with the Special Projects Head of SharePro, Inc., led by Vice President David Gotianun, who introduced and demonstrated rock propagation as one of the solutions to attain a rich marine biodiversity in the city.

Through rock propagation, rescued corals from damaged coral reef will be regenerated and placed on rocks. With this, corals can continue to grow on rocks even months and years later.

Gotianun stated that rocks already attract marine life as they also become shelter to marine species.

 When you install rocks in an area, the fish starts to have a home temporarily and once the corals starts growing, that becomes now the permanent homes of the fish,  he said.

For the rock propagation method, Gotianun explained that it requires stability to survive as corals are too sensitive.

 We started propagating rocks through stability. If you have stability, corals were able to survive. The team constantly monitored this for months,  he said.

Gotianun said the result of their monitoring was successful as they observed corals that started to grow. Since then, a lot of fish have been found in the area.

He emphasized that coral reefs are an important part of marine biodiversity as they give and sustain life underwater. He added that they house 25 percent of marine life yet only cover one percent of the ocean floor.

 Although coral reefs only covers one percent of the ocean floor, it actually provides a lot of marine life advantages. they are also oxygen factories that sustain life on earth. Corals actually provide more than 50 percent the oxygen on land,  he added.

The initiative and monitoring were done after the onslaught of Typhoon Odette, as it washed away almost all corals in the ocean.

Through this, a safer alternative livelihood will be provided to the Oponganons, especially those who are involved in illegal fishing.

 We are really looking forward to be able to teach other people how to do this methodology, how to grow the methodology and be able to scale it to make this a normal activity so then we can sustain the natural beauty underwater,  he said.   Donna Rose Egos, CNU Intern/ATO