‘Arms’ to study status of reefs

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) last week deployed state-of-the-art monitoring equipment to determine the overall health and changing status of reefs in three pilot sites, and help improve the protection of all coral reefs in the country.

Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) director Theresa Mundita Lim said divers from the DENR installed one unit each of the autonomous reef monitoring system (ARMS) in underwater sites off Carabao island in Cavite, Mactan island in Cebu and Snake island in Palawan to culminate the celebration of May as Month of the Ocean.

Lim said ARMS is a device that mimics coral reefs and, over time, attracts or collects small reef animals referred to as cryptic reef biodiversity.

“A group of ARMS installed in a specific area could provide a systematic and consistent method of monitoring marine life forms. They also provide data on how climate change impacts such as ocean warming and acidification affects them, or how marine ecosystems develop and maintain their resilience to these impacts,” Lim explained.

The BMB chief clarified that the ARMS will be used initially for educational purposes only. The units will be left underwater and retrieved a year later, after which all organisms found on or within the unit will be extracted and analyzed.

“These will be presented to the community to give them an idea about the marine life in their vicinity which will, hopefully, encourage them to help in the conservation and protection of our marine ecosystems,” she said.

After retrieval, the ARMS will be redeployed. The BMB is also planning to increase the number of ARMS units to provide additional data for research.

The BMB explained to the local community the purpose and objective of the ARMS installation on conservation of marine ecosystems. Members of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council, the local bantay-dagat and students took part in the program.

BMB divers were assisted by representatives of the US Agency for International Development, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the respective local government units, as well as the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and Philippine Coast Guard in Palawan.