Help! Ducomi Pier - Dumaguete

[Joe Cool]

Guys,

I picked up this posting from Diversions. I thought I'd share it here in the hopes that someone or a group can provide viable solutions to this matter. I have not dived Ducomi Pier but I am planning to dive it with Annasea early next year but it seems that we won't make it in time. Personally, I would like to see this famous dive site preserved but that pier does need to be repaired. Maybe instead of repairing the old pier, they can erect a new one close by (don't know the viability of this...I am just thinking out-loud). The Owner can maintain the old pier as a protected dive site and donate it to the people of Dumaguete. I wonder if someone from the DOT or the government or the municipality of Dumaguete can offer some help or suggestions.

Phil

Posted by: "Pinky Breva" pinkyb_ph@yahoo.com pinkyb_ph
Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:41 pm (PST)
I don't know if you guys have already heard of this. Ducomi Pier is a world-class macro dive site, very beautiful. It's also a private pier that's being used as, well, a pier, by the owner, Dumaguete Coconut Mills.

If you know of anyone who can present a viable solution to save the life here, it would be wonderful. The marine growth took several decades to be where it is now. It's said to be comparable to the oil rig diving somewhere in Borneo (was it Sipadan)? I've never been to either place, but Ducomi is on one of my must-go places to go and dive.

Let's hope we find a way to preserve it, not just for our diving pleasure, but also for the marine life in the area -- it is a nursery for smaller fishes, cuttlefishes, octopus, and various other critters.

---

Gentlemen:

Just recently, the Board of Directors of DUCOM approved the budget for the repair of the steel piles and concrete slabs and beams of our pier. This project was supposed to be scheduled early this year but we held it in abeyance the approval of the owners.

We deeply regret to say that this project necessitates the scraping of the nudibranches and other living things which consider the pillars as their home but we have to undertake such costly move in order to avoid further damage to our installation. If we donÃÕ do this now, we would be incurring much greater cost in the future, which we canÃÕ afford.

The project is scheduled to start this coming month and the contractor will be mobilizing this weekend. As we have no idea yet on the details of their repair methology, we remain hanging on our decision whether or not to continue allowing diving on the early stages while creatures still exist for the nature lovers to see.

What a waste, but we have no choice. We hope to preserve, conserve, retrieve or replace those marine beauties for them to still be visible after the repair works. Frankly we need them as a living proof that our industrial effluent is not polluted. It took years for them to build up on the pillars; we donÃÕ want to loose them in a wink of an eye.

If you have any suggestions or comment about their conservation, please feel free to communicate with us. We need environmentalists like you.

Sincerely yours,
Romunaldo S. Domingo

Plant Manager

We will report the next weeks about the development and the achievement of all involved parties."

end

The pier is owned by the below listed company:

DUMAGUETE COCONUT MILLS INCORPORATED.
6776 Ayala Avenue
Unit: Suite 1201 12/F Security Bank Center
MAKATI, 1200
Philippines

 

[Joe Cool]

One thing I can think of to help the plight of the marine life under the pier is for several newspapers to publish a piece about it. If someone, who has dived the pier, can write an article complete with photos and submit it to several newspaper agencies, we might be able to catch the attention of the right people who can intervene on behalf of the people of Dumaguete and the dive community. I am hoping someone influential both socially and politically would spearhead a move to protect this dive site.

I do take my hat off to Ducom for openly asking for help to protect the marine life under the pier. Rarely do you encounter such a company in the Philippines. If no one will stand up and spear head a dialogue with the owner, we'll lose this valuable dive site and all the good things in it. So, those with black books and good networks, time to put those contacts to work.

 

[chip104]

there was a thread about this a couple weeks back, which I can't find. Matt Reed, a dumaguete local, brought up a good point that the first thing to try do is to open a dialogue between the Ducomi BoD and the local community to try figure something out (it was implied that this was already underway) and the last choice would be to force them into a corner.

I'd be interested in an update on the progress...

 

[jigo]

some friends just dove there. they said the small pier is intact but half the soft corals on the posts of the main pier are gone. dont know if they have been moved or just scraped away. but they did note that there were still a lot of fish at the pier.

 

[annasea]

So there are actually two piers at the site? Is it only the main pier that is being replaced? It sounds like there's still diving to be had at the site in general... Regardless, I'm still sorry to read about the fate of the (main) pier. Hopefully, some sort of resolution will be found.

 

[dirtfarmer]

I'm new to ScubaBoard (but have been lurking for a few years) and I read about the pier a while ago then the post disappierd ( clever me! ) I had hoped it was just a rumour. I dove the peir 4 times last year and it was so spectacular!!! I'm hoping things might be worked out, as it is a national treasure. I'm serious. It has recently been mentioned in Sport Diver as one of the best spots in the R.P. And I can attest to that is is one of my favorite spots of all time. Wishing for the best for the locals and the whole of the R.P.

 

[eagerbeaver]

Talks are on-going and it looks like a solution may have been found. I am not fully on the loop on all the details but from what I heard last week it sounds hopeful.

I will see if I can find out more, but there are dives going there some of the time as there is currently no work going on (I was there last wednesday). They started some stuff, but were stopped and not allowed to go any further. Only a small amount of coral was scraped from the main pier - so it is still a great dive site, and if you hadn't been there before you wouldn't know it was any different.

 

[annasea]

Thank you for the update, Matt.

 

[rhadamantus]

thanks for the update, Matt. I haven't dove the site before - would be such a shame if i won't be able to dive it ever... !

 

[jigo]

the smaller pier is an awesome dive by itself.