PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – Palawan’s coral reefs are under heavy attack by the Crown of Thorns starfish, and municipal governments, even high-end resorts like Amanpulo and Dos Palmas, are seeking immediate assistance.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources on Wednesday raised concern that the heavy infestation of the Crown of Thorns (Acanthaster planci), the largest starfish species and voracious eater of hard corals, was threatening the province’s fish production.
“The numbers are too high already that there is a need for human intervention to collect and destroy these Crowns of Thorns, in the absence of natural predators that are supposed to regulate their population,” BFAR provincial head Paciano Guianan told the Inquirer.
Municipalities have reported widespread coral reef bleaching and have passed legislative measures calling for assistance from the national government. Resorts that rely on the pristine reefs to attract visitors have also asked help from the BFAR and have begun paying fishermen to collect the coral predators.
Common in tropical climates, the Crown of Thorns is found in aggregations and suck the coral polyps to death. Scientists attribute the infestation to the absence or predator species, particularly triton shells and a wrasse species that eat the starfish eggs.
Among the heavily affected area is Roxas town in Palawan’s eastern coast. Its council passed last week an ordinance setting aside money to purchase collected starfish from fishermen at P2 apiece.
“At least 300 hectares of coral reefs in nine marine protected areas (in Roxas) are already heavily affected,” Sheila Albasin, project manager of the World Wildlife Fund Philippines, said.
Dina Andres, an official of Amanpulo resort in the Cuyo Islands Group, reported that the infestation began right before summer. “It was really scary because they were so many. In Pamalican, we are doing our share by collecting and burying them in order to save the corals,” she told the Inquirer.
At one point, divers were hauling in as much as 1,200 starfish a day, Andres said.
Glessele Batin, a marine research coordinator for Dos Palmas Resorts, said over 30,000 Crown of Thorns had been collected by fishermen in Honda Bay since mid-February. “Because of these interventions, the number seems to be decreasing and the sizes of the starfish are decreasing,” Batin said.
The marine menace has not spared even the deep-sea coral reef ecosystems, such as the Tubbataha Reefs, a world heritage site and protected area, in the middle of Sulu Sea over 80 nautical miles from the city.
