Page 70 - Dive the Seas and More-2

Coral Reef Teacher’s Guide Benefits, Threats, and Solutions

islands, along with guns, cocaine, and violence. THE FILIPINOS OF THE PHILIPPINES In the
As with the Miskito, foreign fishing boats have Philippines, native coastal people live in small, in-
over-harvested their waters, taking huge quan- depen-dent communities on different islands.
tities of spiny lobster and selling them to large Many still use traditional net fishing methods to
restaurant chains in the United States. The catch fish, their primary source of food, protein
sea turtles that used to mi- grate to their is- and income. However, fishermen using dynamite
lands have been killed hundreds of miles away and cyanide to harvest the fish are destroying
for their meat and shells. the coral reefs and fisheries.
The Kuna are taking action against these On the remote island of Palawan in the north-
threats, too. ern Philippines, the El Nido Marine Reserve and
its coral reefs are being threatened on two fronts.
Puksu Igualikinya (Figure 3-18b), a REEF RE- In the rainforests above the reserve, trees are
LIEF advisory board member, is working to cut illegally for sale to resort developments and
establish a ma-rine protected area near his the thin tropical soil is eroding into once crys-
home; to implement a safe- diver training pro- tal clear wa-ters, covering and smoth- ering the
gram for the Kuna lob-ster divers; and, to edu- reef. Offshore, the reefs are blasted by fishermen
cate his people about the threat to their coral who toss sticks of dynamite into the water and
reefs.
gather the fish that float to the surface.
In order to better conserve, protect and On the tiny island of San Salvador off the west
proper-ly manage their marine ecosystem, coast of Luzon, the coral reefs are damaged by
Puksu and a group of Kuna formed the Osis- fishermen using illegal cyanide, a deadly poi-
kun Foundation. In 1996 they asked Coral son, to harvest salt- water tropical fish for the
Forest for educational assistance. Joined by aquarium trade. The poison is squirted from
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in a bottle to stun the fish, making them easi-
Panama City, the three organiza-tions created er to catch. However, the cyanide also kills up
the Kuna Marine Environmental Edu-cation to 90% of the fish caught, destroying the sur-
Program, the first program created by Kuna rounding coral and other marine life, in ad-
for Kuna. This program was designed to ed- dition to causing health prob- lems and even
ucate them about the ecology of their coral death for the fishers and their families. San
reefs and re-lated marine ecosystems, and to Salvador fisherman Noel Abulag (Figure 3-19a)
provide them with methods they could utilize stated, “We observed that little by little the coral
to promote sustainable development.
was dying and there were fewer fish. We didn’t
To implement the program, a series of semi- understand the effects of cyanide. We only knew
nars and presentations were successfully it was easy. There was no alternative. Now
organized for the Kuna teachers, youth, we know it was a big mistake.” One by one,
and general public. In the presenta- tions Abulag was able to convince three dozen men to
to the teachers, participants prac-ticed coral switch to catching the tropical fish with small
reef lesson plans and received teach-ing ma- hand nets. Although initially much harder, in
terials and a teacher’s guide (in Kuna) so that the long-run it is more effective be- cause a
they could introduce marine education to their much higher per-centage of the net-caught
classrooms. In addition, snorkeling trips to the fish live to reach the aquarium (Figure 3-19b),
lo-cal coral reefs were organized, giving every- the damage to the reef is reduced, and no
one an opportunity to learn about their reefs one is hurt. Abulag is also helping to train
firsthand. The Osiskun Foundation plans on tropical net-fishing techniques to fishermen in
expanding this educa-tional program to reach other communities, and he has created a small
more of the Kuna community, including fish- marine sanctuary where no fishing is allowed.
ermen and lob- ster divers. The sanctuary provides a spawning ground for
the fish and coral to reproduce and replenish
the surrounding seas. There are now three
times as many fish in the sanctuary than before
it was established.

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