LGU has friendly way to protect marine life

PALOMPON, LEYTE, Philippines — The local government of Palompon utilizes an environment friendly strategy to protect marine life.

Using “payao,” an artificial coral reef, Mayor Ramon Oñate believes that fishermen frequenting the area between the mainland and Kalanggaman Island which is also the dwelling place of the bottle nose dolphins will be taken care of.

“Dolphin accidentally caught in fishing nets will be lessen because the long-stretch nets of “famu”(a kind of fishing strategy) can’t be put in place with the presence of these payaos,” he said to this reporter in an interview today (April 29). It was known that the distance from one payao to another is one kilometer.

Kalanggaman Island is 15 kilometers away, thus the LGU is setting up 15 payaos to cover the distance.

The mayor also discloses the other benefits fisherfolks enjoyed with this set-up. “Our people can now fish in safer waters since these (payaos) provide shelter for marine life. “More payaos, more fishes to harvest, even in a daily basis.”

With today’s addition of 15, Palompon has now a total of 21 payaos distributed in different coastal barangays. Oñate clarified to this reporter that the LGU is willing to add more, but residents should signify first their intention.

“If the residents are interested, we (LGU) are assured that the payaos will be taken care of.” It was already revealed by the mayor that each payao cost P30,000 each, hence the program approach is necessary to avoid wasting resources. — (FREEMAN)