[Coral-List] Tubbataha Reefs, Sulu Sea, Philippines

[Pawlik, Joseph]

Greetings, all,

I thought you might enjoy this video of Tubbataha Reefs in the Philippines from April 2022:

https://youtu.be/sTMhShXuL_0

Despite their remote location, these reefs were subject to overfishing, including dynamite fishing, from the 1960s through the 1980s (see article in the most recent National Geographic magazine). They were protected as a Philippines National Park in 1988 and declared a World Heritage Site in 1993. They are currently protected by a group of park rangers who spend months at a time living in a ranger station on the north atoll and preventing illegal fishing on the reefs (which remains a constant threat).
You can still see evidence of past dynamite fishing in places, but the high coral cover and abundance of fishes is a testimony to reef resilience combined with active protection from fishing.

Enjoy!



**************************************************************

Joseph R. Pawlik

Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology

Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology

UNCW Center for Marine Science

5600 Marvin K Moss Lane

Wilmington, NC  28409

Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579

Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html

PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html

Video Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011

**************************************************************