DENR creates task force to monitor coral bleaching

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Friday ordered the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau to create a task force that will monitor and document coral bleaching in the country. The DENR made this directive following scientists and divers’ reports of a massive bleaching of coral reefs in the country due to warmer-than-usual ocean water temperature. “Coral bleaching is among the many impacts of climate change that the country is expected to experience," DENR Secretary Ramon Paje said in a statement. He said archipelagic Philippines bears the brunt of some negative impacts of climate change even though the “national emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming is very little." Apart from monitoring coral bleaching, the task force is also expected to provide technical assistance to the local government units on how to minimize coral stress such as pollution control and solid-waste management of coastal communities, Paje said. The task force would have to come up with recommendations on how to manage marine-protected areas and to restore and restock coral reefs, the DENR chief added. According to Miledel Christine Quibilan of the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute in her paper “Coral Bleaching Watch Philippines 2010," areas confirmed to be undergoing coral bleaching include some towns in Batangas, Quezon, and Oriental Mindoro. Coral bleaching is also reported in some areas in Ilocos, Pangasinan, Zambales, Iloilo, Bohol, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Davao, Quibilan noted. The worst bleaching observed is in northern Palawan, particularly in Calamianes, Taytay, and El Nido, Quibilan added. Coral reefs in the country are estimated to cover some 27,000 square kilometers, nurturing around 430 species of coral fauna. Recent studies also indicate that at least 3,000 species of fish plus thousands of other marine plants and animals are found thriving in the country’s coastal and marine habitats. —JE/OMG, GMANews.TV