FROM BOMBED OUT TO BUMPER HARVEST
Suzannah Evans
Lanuza Bay is a shallow crescent of beach and forest off the northeastern shore of Mindanao, the Philippines’ second-largest island. A few dozen villages line the shores and islands in the bay, nestled among the coconut trees. The residents of Lanuza Bay keep their dugout and outrigger canoes on the beaches, making it clear that this is a fishing community. For the Filipinos living here, the ocean is the source of food, jobs and life.
But in the last couple of decades, fish have become harder and
harder to come by in Lanuza Bay. This is the sad result of years of
overfishing and destructive fishing, including blast and cyanide fishing
that resulted in a quick payoff but long-term damage to Lanuza’s coral
reefs.
Blast fishing was common practice across the Philippines’ 7,000 islands
for years. Fishers would craft an improvised bomb out of a Coke or rum
bottle and fertilizer and chuck it into the reef. The resulting sound
waves stun the fish, which floated to the surface for easy harvest. But
the blasts also decimiated the reefs, which take years to recover. Since
the reefs are the source of food and protection for the fish, it meant
that the fish populations began a steady decline.
Photo by Suzannah Evans
This kind of fishing has been outlawed, but it was hard to
enforce a ban in the Philippines’ small coastal communities. In the last
two years, however, a few communities in Lanuza have partnered with
Rare Conservation, a U.S.-based group, and redoubled their efforts to
end blast fishing by enacting round-the-clock enforcement of the local
fish sanctuary. These small no-take zones provide a kind of protected
“fish bank” where fish can reproduce and grow, bolstering the overall
population.
It’s working, too: fishermen who reported catching just one to two kilos
of fish a day ten years ago can now bring home four to six kilos a day,
enough to feed their families and send some to market. Fishers and
their families now volunteer as part of the enforcement team in the
no-take zone. The volunteers even include fishers who may have used
dynamite fishing themselves, says Pedro Trinidad Jr., mayor of a Lanuza
Bay town. “Illegal fishers are now stewards of the sea,” he says.