The Philippines "certified' to be the most species-rich seas in the world

[TomvdH]

Rich Islands

What area of the globe has the most diverse mixture of marine species? Old Dominion biology professor Kent Carpenter knows the answer. He led a research project that lasted more than 10 years and involved 101 marine experts who produced nearly 3,000 maps of marine species in the western Pacific Ocean.Carpenter suspected the center of biodiversity would be in the Pacific Ocean at the equator, because that is where there would have been the least impact from water cooling periods that killed off species during past ice ages. But he found out that the most species-rich portion of the oceans was actually farther north, in the Philippines.

"It's an enigma," he said. "We don't know why. This is one of the reasons I'm writing research proposals to try to understand why this happened." Carpenter works in the Philippines for about a month every couple of years. Scuba diving in the Philippines is quite different than in the Chesapeake Bay or even the Caribbean. "In the Philippines you can get in the water in a coral reef and in about 20 minutes you can enumerate 120 species of fish," he said. "If you get in the Chesapeake Bay and spend 20 minutes around one of the pilings under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, you may be able to count 10 species but normally three or four."

You may see an explosion of species while diving in the Caribbean, but The Philippines has four or five times the number of fish. Carpenter said it's unfortunate that erosion, pollution and overfishing are threatening the biological diversity of the Philippines in the same way that clear-cutting is harming the Amazon rain forest.

Carpenter's findings will soon be published in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes, but you can find them more readily at <http://web.odu.edu/sci/> web.odu.edu/sci/ biology/kent.html

 

[minervamar]

This is great information, backed up by scientific research.

It is also emphasizes the urgent need for the prevention of destructive fishing methods in the region.

Dynamite or blast fishing is at the top of the list. This method of fishing is rampant,
as it is a way of life for fishers in most areas

Creating and enforcing marine sanctuaries such as Apo Island is a good thing.
But the areas covered by sanctuaries compared to total area is like a pinpoint on a map, a drop in a bucket, a grain of rice in a rice sack.

This is like going to a major city with a high crime rate and establishing a "no crime"
sanctuary in a single building.

Anyone who says that destructive fishing is declining is not willing or able to see what is happening in areas that are not monitored and protected.

Thanks for posting the information.

 

[Jester]

Destructive fishing is one thing, but when I had the opportunity to dive in Anilao this past August, I saw multitudes of fish, coral and sponges, but I also saw way too much trash. As we dove, we picked up as many plastic bags from the bottom as we could collect, but I'm not sure we even made a dent. I sure hope it improves, because the reef(s) were far too beautiful to be ruined by refuse.

 

[minervamar]

Thanks for picking up the bags.

I would rather have a reef with plastic bags than a reef with dynamite bombs.

I once bought a large mamsa (jack) from fishermen on a beach. They were selling a big mound of these fish, uniform in size.
After buying the fish, I asked the fishermen how they caught them, with a hook, or with a net.

They said they caught them with a bomb.

Reefs are killed along with the fish.
I could show you areas that used to be reefs, now they are as clear as parking lots, paved with coral rubble.

 

[Jester]

I agree with you about the use of explosives to catch fish. It's a horrible practice.

My point was that the plastic will also result in the death of the reef if left unchecked. I wonder how many turtles have perished from ingesting the plastic.