Greenwire 11/18 story on coral reefs (fwd)

[Coral Health and Monitoring Program]

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 11:50:23 -0500 
From: Don McAllister <mcall at superaje.com> 
To: "James C. Hendee" <hendee at aoml.noaa.gov> 
Cc: mcall at superaje.com 
Subject: Re: fwd: Greenwire 11/18 story on coral reefs (fwd) 

> 
> *23  PHILIPPINES:  CORAL REEFS RAVAGED BY IMPOVERISHED FISHERS 
>      "Local poverty and local politics" are working together to cause the > destruction of coral reefs in the 
Philippines, as poor fishers are 
forced > to rely on environmentally damaging fishing methods for 
survival, reports 
> US NEWS & WORLD REPORT. 
> 
>      Impoverished fishers in the Philippines often catch fish in coral 
> reef areas by detonating dynamite, spraying cyanide and pounding reefs 
> with rocks and crowbars to scare fish out (GREENWIRE, 10/31/95).  The 
> methods are "horrifically effective,"yielding huge amounts of fish, but ruining reefs. Although the Philippine 
government "long ago" 
outlawed blast and cyanide fishing, the practices continue because of a 
lack of enforcement and a fear of retribution from illegal fishers. 
Also, because of extreme overty and population pressures, "the choice 
for many [fishers] each day s not between illegal and legal fishing 
methods but between eating and going hungry." 

Ocean Voice International of Ottawa and the Haribon Foundation for 
Conservation of Natural Resources of Manila has been working since 1989 
on community education, training, fisher organizations, etc. on the 
cyanide collection of marine aquarium fishes and increasing 
understanding of what it takes to conserve a reef or restore it.  An 
educational manual, SAVE OUR CORAL REEFS, available in English since 
1993, has just been published in Tagalog.  And we have a video, CORAL 
DIVERS SAY 'NO' TO CYANIDE, to increase awareness of the problems. 

The US program will be helpful, especially if it can address the many 
land-based sources of reef stress - agriculture, deforestation, 
pollution, etc. 

You can learn a bit more about our program at our home page: 

	http://www.ovi.ca 
-- 
Don E. McAllister             /& Canadian Centre for Biodiversity 
Ocean Voice International          /Canadian Museum of Nature 
Box 37026, 3332 McCarthy Rd. /Box 3443, Station D 
Ottawa, ON K1V 0W0, Canada    /Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4 
URL: http://www.ovi.ca  E-mail: mcall at superaje.com 
 (or: ah194 at freenet.carleton.ca) Tel: (613) 264-8986, Fax: (613) 
264-9204