Nesting population and egg production are used as indicators to assess the status and population abundance of marine turtles. Data gathered by the PAWB-Pawikan Conservation Project (PCP) in collaboration with DENR Regional Office, LGUs, non-government organizations and resort owners show an increase in the number of Olive Ridley complete nests and eggs produced in Morong and Bagac in Bataan and in San Antonio, Zambales from August 2004 to February 2009.

In Region XI, critically endangered hawksbill turtles have been observed to nest in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplaya, Davao City and in other areas. A 5-year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) covering the period from 2004 to 2009 has been forged between and among the DENR, the Mayor of Davao City and Davao Light and Power Company, Inc. for the conservation of marine turtles and dugongs (Dugong dugon).
Another well-known marine turtle nesting area is the Philippines Turtle Islands (also known as the Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary or TIWS) and the Sabah Turtle Islands, which together, have been declared as the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA). TIHPA is the first transfrontier protected area for marine turtles in world and is composed of six islands administered by the Philippines and three islands administered by Sabah. It is a major nesting area for green sea turtles in Southeast Asia. Hawksbill turtles also nest in the area.

From 1984 to 2007, the DENR-PAWB Pawikan Conservation Project (PCP) recorded egg production and number of complete nestings at the Baguan Island Marine Turtle Sanctuary (BIMTS). Fluctuations in egg production and number of complete nests have been noted due to changes in weather patterns brought about by the El Nino or La Nina phenomenon, and predation by monitor lizards (Varanus sp.).

Another major threat to marine turtles is large-scale illegal harvest of eggs and collection for ornamental trade. Sixty percent of the turtle eggs produced in TIWS except Baguan Island (which produces more than 50%) are still being collected for trade. Prior to the passage of RA 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001, collection of turtle eggs in designated islands of the Turtle Islands was regulated through a DENR permit system that allowed collection during the open season from April to December. Only 60% of the eggs were collected, the rest were conserved. After the passage of the Wildlife Act, the collection of sea turtles or any of its derivatives, including eggs, was prohibited. This has resulted to conflicts within and among stakeholders since egg collection is a source of livelihood and accounts for about 35% of the overall income sources in the area (Cola 1999 as cited in BFAR-NFRDI and DENR-PAWB, 2005). A proposal for a phase-out on the collection of turtle eggs and phase-in of alternative livelihood projects in TIWS under a Memorandum of Agreement among stakeholders has been finalized and is pending approval.

Marine turtles are also threatened by coastal development and fisheries practices, including foreign fishers poaching and targeting marine turtles within Philippine waters. Developmental and foraging habitats of marine turtles are being proposed for declaration as Critical Habitats pursuant to Republic Act 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001. Fishery impact on marine turtles is also a major issue. From a perception survey conducted by the DA-BFAR, gillnet, fish corral and set net are the fishing gears that are most likely to catch marine turtles (DA-BFAR, 2007). Actual reports gathered by the PAWB-PCP throughout the country through its tagging program reveal that fish corral, gillnet and hook and line are the fishing gears that capture most turtles.

The Sulu Sea is a favorite poaching area of foreign fishers targeting marine turtles. In the last decade, over a thousand foreigners (over 600 are Chinese) have been arrested and charged for poaching in the waters of Palawan alone (WWF-Philippines, 2008). Recent reports show a substantial number of green turtles killed by 19 Chinese fishers in TIWS in September 2007 and 101 hawksbill turtles killed by 13 Vietnamese fishers in Linapacan, Palawan in August 2008. This practice has generated national and international attention and has increased vigilance in law enforcement in these areas.

Article Source – Philippine Clearing House Mechanism for Biodiversity

Objectives

To conserve the endangered marine turtles (E.O. No. 542, June 26, 1979) and sea cows of dugongs (DAO No. 55, October 21, 1991)

Specific Objectives:

1. Enforce existing marine turtle and dugong laws, rules and regulations
2. Conduct scientific investigations relevant to the formulation of updated policies
3. Conduct information campaigns and extension services
4. Conduct habitat surveys and monitoring
5. Coordinate with international and local agencies/organizations involved in the conservation of marine turtles and dugong.

Project Components

o Resource Management and Protection Program – Establishment of marine turtle sanctuaries/critical habitats and hatcheries; technical assistance in the regulation of dugong and marine turtle and its by-products

o Research and Investigation Program – Conduct of habitat surveys, population studies, hatchery operations, and other researches on marine turtles and dugongs, monitors and evaluates reports of Field Action Officers (FAOs) and NGOs

o Information, Education and Extension Services Program – Disseminate relevant information and create awareness and consciousness among diverse audiences about marine turtle and dugong conservation, development of information packages (multi-media)

International Agreements on Marine Turtle and Dugong

o Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of Malaysia on the Establishment of the
TURTLE ISLANDS HERITAGE PROTECTED AREA, signed on May 31, 1996

o Memorandum of Understanding on ASEAN Sea Turtle Conservation and Protection. The member countries of ASEAN signed the MoU on September 12, 1997.

o Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and their Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia. The MoU was established on June 23, 2001 and signed by the Philippines on the same date.

o Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs (Dugong dugon) and their Habitats throughout their Range. The MoU was established on October 31, 2007 and was signed by the Philippines on August 19, 2008

Article Source – Protected Areas of Wildlife Bureau – Philippines

At the rate marine protected areas (MPAs) are being established and managed in the country, it would take at least 100 years for the Philippines to be able to effectively protect even a tenth of its 27,000 km 2 of coral reefs. But coral reef protection could be accelerated if more and larger MPAs would be established, organized into networks and provided with necessary support systems.

Improving MPA management through networking and ecosystem-based approaches was the main focus of a four-day workshop organized recently by the Philippine Environmental Governance (EcoGov) Project in Cebu City. About 40 representatives from the academe, national government agencies, local governments and non-government organizations from various parts of the country, attended the workshop.

“There is a growing recognition that an integrated approach to managing MPAs is needed,” said Dr. Perry Alino of the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute, one of the workshop organizers. He explained that MPA networks provide the greatest potential to achieve the goal of the Philippine Marine Sanctuary Strategy – which is to put under full protection 10 percent of the country’s coral reefs by Year 2020.

Coral reefs are an important coastal ecosystem. They provide food, habitat and protection to many species of fish, which in turn, provide sustenance to majority of Filipinos. Only 5 percent of Philippine coral reefs are in excellent condition today; over 75 percent are overfished. If there are more effectively managed reefs in a greater area of MPA networks, the number of healthy reefs would increase and more fish could be expected.

Alino said there are over 500 MPAs all over the country established through local community initiatives, but most are 10 hectares or less and not well-managed. Experience shows that at least 20 hectares would be needed for an MPA to have considerable impact on the coral reef ecosystem and adjacent areas.

Workshop participants agreed that in addition to creating more and larger MPAs, encouraging formation of networks have to be created, and forming of MPA networks encouraged allowing them to pool their resources together and make cooperative arrangements. They also agreed on the monitoring and evaluation approaches of MPAs, discussed decision support tools and incentives that foster proposed coordinating mechanisms and support systems that enable synergy of MPA networks at the local, provincial and national levels.

“With MPA networks and local government support, such as favorable ordinances and budget plus providing decision support tools, management and sustainability of MPAs would improve,” Alino said.

PAs are areas within municipal waters, which the local community and the local government opt to fully protect. Generally a no-take area, harmful extractive activities is not allowed (except friendly activities like eco-tourism) to allow the enhancement of marine life and its ecosystems, such as coral reefs. Inside an MPA, marine organisms are able to grow in size and number, providing a “spillover” effect and replenishing the adjacent municipal waters where local communities can fish.

Article Source: Philippine Environmental Governance Project

About 4 hours away from Manila is the sleepy fishing village of Nagbalayong in the town of Morong on the Bataan Peninsula. Along a patch of sandy coastal road a tiny place fenced with aged bamboo and a driftwood sign with the name Pawikan Conservation Center written on it greeted us. The coastline where Pawikan Conservation Centre sits is home to the original nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtle species. We were greeted by Mr Manolo Ibias one of the center’s leaders, who is a former poacher himself but now one of the staunchest defenders of the pawikans. We were then introduced to a gathering of some of the volunteers having after dinner rounds of local whiskey mixed with congenial and spirited conversations about the challenges of turtle conservation, community development and environmental protection. And thus, counting the hours away before we would join them doing night patrolling the beaches, we listened to their stories.

The Pawikan
Photo by Racaza

Called as Pawikans in most local dialects in the Philippines, the marine turtles are reptiles related to snakes, lizards and dinosaurs. Being cold-blooded creatures, their body temperatures fluctuate with the environment and they have a pair of lungs that need to breathe every few minutes while swimming unknown distances in the vast seas. Marine turtles have powerful flippers which help the pawikans navigate but cannot retract into their protective shells called carapace which sets them apart from their freshwater relatives that can easily hide their heads and legs inside their bony shells.

Most marine turtles (especially the male ones) spend their entire lives at sea while the females come to their nesting beach during the coldest months of the year to lay their eggs (which look and feel like soft and leathery ping-pong balls). If the clutch of eggs is lucky enough not to be eaten by many predatory animals like lizards, crabs or taken by poachers, these eggs will hatch after 40-60 days depending on the temperature of the sand. The volunteers and Department of Environment Natural Resources (DENR) regularly patrol the beaches at night (as this is the time when turtles lay their eggs) to gather them and bring them to the centre’s hatchery where they are more protected until they hatch and are subsequently released back into the sea.

Turtle eggs being buried in sand at the Bantay Pawikan Hatchery
Photo by Dave Ryan

During the Pawikan Festival which is usually held every end of November, involves the release of these super cute baby turtles racing into the sea where they will feed, grow and explore the vast oceans only to return one day back to the beaches where they were hatched when they are ready to lat their own eggs. However, this would have been a perfect scenario if not for the years and years of poaching and gathering of eggs and killing these gentle creatures for meat as a staple for the people of these coastal villages – not only in Nagbalayong in Morong, Bataan but all throughout the world. Likewise, the shells and skins have been used for many illegal by-products like combs, guitars and other ornaments. It is no secret as well that a lot of the Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Chinese regularly poach in Philippine waters and they do so with so much impunity. Sadly, such activities have received a lukewarm response from the Philippine government like the case a few years ago where a boatload of Chinese fishermen were caught entering Philippine waters illegally and fishing in the protected and UNESCO World Heritage area – the Tubbataha Reef. Because of severe pressure from powerful Beijing, these criminals were released with nary a punishment or even an outcry. Next time you sit down in a restaurant in Hong Kong or wherever around the world- remember that the turtle soup or the sharks fin soup that you are having for dinner meant that you are part and complicit in the tacit rape and murder not only of Philippine seas but our Mother Nature as well. With the survival of these creatures already challenged with a lot of these turtles falling prey to birds, crabs, sharks and many other natural predators, the thought of someone having turtle eggs for their misconceived aphrodisiac is just totally sickening.

Bantay Pawikan Inc.
Photo by Dave Ryan

Because of this only 1-3% of baby turtles ever reach maturity. Since 1999 when a Bataan community organization called Bantay Pawikan Inc. (a duly registered people’s organization) was initiated in the town of Morong with just 28 men composed of former egg poachers and sellers, over 40,000 turtles were successfully released into the sea. The program was met with opposition at first, with the local community thinking that this was one of Manila’s antics of taking over their community. Gradually, people were able to realize that this was a valid initiative and that the turtles are one of the major lynchpins in the entire ecological cycle. Soon enough, with the help of the provincial government of Bataan (which I say is doing an awesome job initiating environmentally friendly tourism projects) as well as the United Nations, Pawikan Conservation Unit of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, other communities and groups in neighboring towns followed suit and replicated the conservation efforts.

Today, many challenges remain, though never insurmountable. The group still needs a regular veterinarian, and the costs of medicines for rescued turtles as well as maintenance of the center which could use a facelift. There is also a need for increased support to the communities through better access to livelihood programs and better education for its populace. I hope that by raising awareness about the plight of these marine turtles as well as the communities that protect them, everyone could take positive action and help out in preserving not only the pawikans, or our national marine heritage, but our environment as well.

A very sick turtle which is a recent rescue
Photo by Dave Ryan

How to Help

Share this webpage around. Blog it. Link back. Volunteer. If you are a company, you may want to include Bantay Pawikan in your Corporate Social Responsibility projects. Donate in cash or in kind.

Donations

You may deposit it through this bank account-
Landbank of the Philippines- Balanga City (Bataan) Branch
Bank Account Name : Bantay Pawikan Inc. Livelihood Project
Address: Purok VI-Aplaya, Nagbalayong, Morong Bataan
Account Number : 0441-1942-26

More Information

Bantay Pawikan Inc. – (Nida- +63.928.7185721/ Manolo- +63.906.6155546) bantay_pawikan@yahoo.com ; or if you wish to visit the centre and don’t know how, the lovely folks at Bataan Tourism can certainly help you (+6347.2374476/+6347.2374785) – tourism_bataan@yahoo.com.

- From Tourism Philippines by Ryan Buaron

The increase in temperature is already is causing irregular monsoon and extreme weather events in recent decades that devastate the fishery sectors.

The warming of sea water often associated with El Niño episodes have caused coral bleaching on massive scales never seen before. In the Philippines, the case of the El Nido reefs is instructive. Despite being one of the better managed reefs in the country, what used to be a diverse reef with 60-70% coral cover is now down to 5-10% after the devastating coral bleaching event during the 1997-1998 El Niño. It has not recovered to date. Nationwide, the 1998 coral bleaching event decreased live coral cover by as much as 49%.

The sea surface temperature (SST) in Bolinao during the same period ranged between 34.1 °C to 34.9 °C, killing a large number of giant clams.

Moreover, the increased concentration of dissolved CO2 in seawater will lower its pH, which in turn will alter ocean carbonate chemistry resulting to decreased calcification in corals, mollusks and other shell-forming organisms.

High SSTs also trigger algal blooms that cause red tides as well as fish kills.

Further, high SSTs disturb upwelling, depriving fish of vital nutrients necessary for survival and growth.

These climate-related impacts will devastate Philippine fisheries and the mercury and lead emissions from coal-fired power plants, particularly in the inner seas of the Visayas will probably render whatever remains of our fisheries unfit for human consumption. The advent of climate change just made the challenges to our mission more complex.

• Dispose of trash properly – use trash cans at the beach or take your trash home with you

• Reduce, reuse and recycle as many as possible of the things you use — anywhere, anytime

• Cut the rings off plastic six-pack holders so that animals (like fish, turtles or seals) can’t get tangled in them — leave no solid plastic loops

• Join local beach, river or stream clean-ups

• Teach others how to practice good beach safety

Enjoy the underwater scenery without touching and moving fish and corals. Good meaning tourists feed reef fishes, but this results in changing their feeding behavior and don’t graze on algaes anymore which can choke the corals. Do not harass, play and touch fish and other marine life as you might injure these fragile creatures, Watch and observe only!

An unspoiled healthy reef environment can be appreciated and enjoyed by all divers. Anchors and other heavy objects can cause indiscriminate destruction. Boatmen should take extreme care in anchoring their dive boats. If available, use moorings!

Do not dispose of your garbage along the beaches and into the ocean, these trashes can cause immense harm to marine life. Plastic bags are often confused with jellyfish. Turtles and some fish swallow these bags and because they can’t digest them, the bags block their digestive tracts, causing the animals to starve to death.

The disposal of waste into the ocean is a major environment threat and a deadly enemy to marine life. Human sewage flows into coastal waters and leads to the rapid growth of algae which chokes coral polyps, cutting off their supply of light and oxygen.

Power of The Consumer

You can either choose to contribute to the continued decline of marine life or play a positive role in preserving our aquatic natural resources.

For example by not eating or purchasing turtle eggs or meat, you will decrease the demand for these products and therefore the need for the supply. Choose pelagic fishes like tuna and mackerels or aquacultured fish (Napoleon and lobsters are not aquacultured!) and avoid eating reef fish altogether.

As a marine fish hobbyist you can choose more robust aquarium species from sustainable sources instead of buying fish caught in coral reefs.

As a tourist you can avoid buying curios made with the dead remains of marine creatures such as shells, dried seahorses or dead corals. Also tell people not to walk on corals – they often don’t know corals are living animals or that they brake them by walking on them.

As a consumer you can choose to buy items with less packaging, generating less trash and recycle whenever possible.

As a diver you can help by choosing dive operators who support environmental initiatives.

It is all about making the right choices!

Spreading The Word

Share your knowledge on marine conservation! Tell others about life in the coral reefs and their importance to future generations and about conserving the marine resources.

If you have a website – By linking to OceanHeritage.com.ph, you help to spread our words, and raise the awareness for the need to conserve and preserve our marine environment. This awareness is very important, because with the knowledge of how and why there’s a need for this need, then only we humans will make the right choice, and knowing how little things do affect our environment.

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