Poachers ‘rape’ seas off Cotabato
Philip C. Tubeza Philippine Daily Inquirer 25 May 11;
MANILA, Philippines—The crime was described as “the rape of the ocean.”
Poachers decimated an entire “reef complex”—almost twice as big as Manila—off the coast of Cotabato province when they harvested more than 21,000 pieces of black coral and killed 161 endangered turtles and other marine life, officials said Tuesday.
One of the turtles killed was a male aged 80 to 100 years old.
Bureau of Customs officials intercepted the contraband two weeks ago and recovered 134 bundles, or 21,169 pieces, of “sea fan” black corals and 15 bundles, or 196 kilograms, of “sea whip” black corals.
“The Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea off Cotabato are supposed to be unexplored reef areas but with this collection, we can see that they have also been disturbed,” said Ludivina Labe, a senior marine biologist of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
“It’s like a forest that has been cut down,” Labe said. “One reef complex was decimated.”
Labe spoke with reporters during the turnover of the seized black corals, dead sea turtles and 7,300 pieces of sea shells to officials of BFAR and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at the port of Manila.
2 container vans
Customs Police Director Nestorio Gualberto said wildlife trader Exequiel Navarro, consignee of the contraband, appeared at his office on Tuesday and indicated that he was prepared to identify the financier of the project and the people who harvested the corals.
Gualberto said the contraband was concealed in two container vans and declared as rubber.
Only two or three colonies of black corals—each represented by a piece of black coral—are found in one hectare of sea bed, Labe explained.
With 21,169 black coral pieces recovered, this could mean that the area harvested could be as big as 7,000 hectares, or an area almost twice the size of the city of Manila.
“These web-like colonial organisms are not lush or bushy. They’re found on reef walls or reef slopes. One piece is equal to one colony,” Labe said.
“One piece of black coral is not just one organism. There are thousands of other organisms who live there,” she added.
P35-M contraband
Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the DENR-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said one of the turtles killed measured 40 inches and was aged “80 to 100 years old.”
“There were also small ones who were only juveniles or just 4 years old,” Lim said.
“This is saddening because we have reduced this illegal trade and now we catch something as big as this,” she added.
Environment officials said some of the contraband could be given to marine biology schools while the black coral, although already dead, could be returned later to the sea.
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said the seized goods had a market value of “at least P35 million.”
The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the “economic cost over a 25-year period of destroying one kilometer of coral reef is somewhere” between $137,000 and $1,200,000.
“It took 25 years or even more for these corals to grow like this. They grow only one centimeter a month,” Labe said.
Exotic jewelry
The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora has banned the harvesting of black coral but the practice continues.
“(The illicit trade) is being fueled by the demand of the multibillion-dollar marine ornamental industry for exotic decorative species and the increasing popularity of coral-accented jewelry and fashion accessories,” Alvarez said.
“While the Bureau of Customs does not have the means to serve as a first line of defense against the so-called plunderers of the marine ecosystem, we are determined to play the role of a deterrent by making it unprofitable for illegal wildlife traders to move their prohibited cargoes through our air and sea ports,” he said.
“Nobody should profit from the rape of the ocean,” Alvarez added.
The Fisheries Code of 1998, which bans gathering and selling corals, punishes violators with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine from P2,000 to P20,000.
More black corals seized
Latest shipment consigned to fictitious Cebu junk shop
Jocelyn R. Uy Philippine Daily Inquirer 26 May 11;
MANILA, Philippines—Weeks after the Bureau of Customs foiled a plot to smuggle out of the country over P35 million worth of endangered turtles and other marine life, another illicit shipment containing sacks of rare black sea corals was intercepted in Cebu province.
Customs officials suspect that the P15 million worth of black sea corals shipped from Manila and seized in Cebu on May 19 had something to do with their earlier catch of dead rare sea turtles, black corals and sea shells from Cotabato.
In a report to Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, Customs Police Director Nestorio Gualberto said his team was investigating the possible connection of the Cebu shipment to the Cotabato seizure, touted as the bureau’s biggest of its kind.
Experts believe that about 7,000 hectares of a “reef complex” were destroyed when poachers harvested 161 sea turtles and over 21,000 sea shells and black corals off the waters of Cotabato province.
Customs police discovered the most recent illegal shipment of black corals on board the MV Lorcon Manila owned by Lorenzo Shipping Corp. following a tip that it was being transported as “scrap metal,” Gualberto said.
A check of the shipment in coordination with Dang Go, sales coordinator of the shipping firm, upon its arrival in Cebu last week showed that the cargo contained an assortment of sea corals, he said.
At least 168 sacks containing 375 pieces of the endangered marine species, identified by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) as “black sea fan” corals, were accounted for, he said.
Fictitious junk shop
The shipment was consigned to a “Cebu Junk Shop,” which turned out to be fictitious.
The law prohibits any person or corporation to gather, possess, sell or export ordinary, precious and semiprecious corals whether in raw or in processed form. The penalties range from six months to two years in prison and a fine of as much as P500,000.
Black corals are among the species protected by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Reacting to the seizures, President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, on Wednesday said: “We have a problem in protecting our archipelagic waters. That is a concern for us.”
Lacierda said the government was taking steps to beef up sea patrols. He said the government was acquiring more boats as part of the modernization of the military, including a Hamilton class cutter.
Consignee charged
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje on Wednesday directed wildlife experts to identify and prosecute those behind the Cotabato shipment.
Exequiel Navarro, consignee of the seized contraband, has been charged with violation of the Fisheries Code.
Paje said he had instructed lawyers to determine if Navarro could also be charged with violation of the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, which punishes the destruction of endangered species. The penalty is a maximum jail term of 12 years and a fine of up to P1 million.
“We shall certainly act with dispatch to make sure that the suspects face the punishment to the fullest extent,” Paje said in a statement.
Navarro has indicated that he could identify the financier of the harvest of corals, and the people behind the smuggling.
With reports from Leila Salaverria and Norman Bordadora
Philippines outraged at coral reef plunder
Yahoo News 25 May 11;
MANILA (AFP) – The Philippine government expressed outrage on Wednesday at the plunder of corals and turtles that may have destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of precious reefs.
President Benigno Aquino's spokesman also vowed to step up marine patrols following this month's seizure at Manila's port of 158 stuffed sea turtles and about 124,000 pieces of coral, which were valued at about $80,000.
"(We are) appalled because the plundering of our marine resources shows much remains to be done to safeguard our marine biodiversity," spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
"The monetary value of the black coral and sea turtles confiscated in the Port of Manila is tiny compared to the ecological devastation they represent -- hundreds, possibly thousands, of hectares of coral reefs and all the ecological complexity they represent, either killed or seriously damaged," Lacierda said.
The corals and turtles were apparently stolen from the pristine waters of the Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea off the main southern island of Mindanao, according to Lacierda.
"It is our duty to safeguard these areas," he said, adding that the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard would step up patrols to protect the nation's coastline from such plunder as they acquired more modern vessels.
The dead turtles and corals, as well as 209 boxes of shells, were misdeclared as "rubber" and hidden inside two huge containers that had been shipped from the southern Philippine city of Cotabato.
Customs officials said they were still tracking down the owner of the shipment, who could face up to four years in jail.
It is illegal in the Philippines to gather and sell endangered coral, although other countries allow it to be traded.
