Coast Guard raises awareness in marine environment protection

Accidental oil spills remain the country’s number one pollutant of the marine environment, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported yesterday.

In a seminar on marine environmental protection and oil spill response conducted yesterday, the PCG said some 36 percent of oil spills occur during loading and discharging operations of oil from 1974 to 2002.

Collisions involving oil-carrying vessels accounts for 23 percent of oil spills. Only two percent resulted from fires or explosions.

The seminar was held in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with representatives from different oil and shipping companies, local government units and non-government organizations in attendance. The seminar also discussed measures to be adopted in order to prevent the occurrence of oil spills.

Yesterday’s seminar is part of the five-year human resource development project between JICA and PCG under JICA’s Technical Cooperation Program scheme, according to PCG spokesman LCdr. Joseph Coyme.

The project aims to enhance the capabilities of PCG’s personnel through local training and capability building, Coyme added.

Other JICA projects include counterpart training in Japan and joint anti-terrorism and search and rescue exercises.

The PCG discussed the effects of oil spills on coastal activities, which affect tourism and economic survival of coastal villages.

Some of the biological effects on marine organisms are the suffocation of marine mammals with birds at high risk, the suffocation of mangroves through their roots, and the destruction of marine habitats and nesting sites.

The effect on the local people are the tainting of fish, contamination of fishing equipment and the stoppage of their fishing activities.

The PCG said the major sources of oil spill are ships, offshore drilling sites, refineries and oil depots.

Oil spills occur when there are collisions or grounding of ships, leakage from land installation, overflow from transferring, hull failure and busted hoses and pipelines.

One of the worst oil spills in the country took place near Semirara Island in Antique, where seaweed farms and mangroves were destroyed.

The PCG said the oil spill reached some five kilometers of the Semirara shoreline, contaminating 56 hectares of mangroves. – Nestor Etolle