Extreme levels of pollution and seabed quarrying mean fish can’t survive there, experts say
Fishermen are seen in Manila Bay in this file image. The Philippine authorities have declared Manila Bay ‘dead’ due to pollution. (Photo: Ronald Dionisio)
Authorities in the Philippines have declared Manila Bay a “dead body of water” due to extreme pollution.
The Department of Fisheries announced on Jan. 30 that Manila Bay was lifeless due to a lack of oxygen and that no fish or living thing can survive in its waters.
As such, the department, as well as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, urged fishermen to stop fishing in the bay
“We told them Manila bay is dead. There is no point in going out there to fish. Because of the pollution it suffered, there’s no more fish living in its waters,” Jeoffrey Santos, a regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, told reporters.
Environmental experts tested and found the bay’s water polluted largely due to at least a dozen oil spills over the past ten years.
“Since 2000, we have recorded 12 oil spills in Manila Bay that increased the presence of oil and grease in the water, together with the presence of oil terminals and the discharges from industries and cargo ships that dock in Manila,” Santos added.
The fisheries department conducted a study on traces of metals such as copper, cadmium, and zinc on the surface of the water coming from the bay’s seabed.
“These minerals technically cover the entire bay like plastic that reduces the oxygen content in water. The result, of course, is dead fish because fish need oxygen to breathe, not to mention these minerals are also harmful to other creatures like birds,” department of Fisheries spokesperson Jenny Ortiz told UCA News.
The department described the bay as a “sewer of mud” which one should stay away from.
Local fishermen, however, disputed the government’s proclamation.
“Manila Bay is not dead. It may be polluted but it’s not dead because we can still catch fish in it. They’ve been telling us it’s dead but we can still catch sardines in it, how can Manila Bay be dead?”, fisherman Robert Oredain, 43, told UCA News.
Oredain, who makes about 16,000 pesos (US$ 293) per month from fishing said he last fished in Manila Bay on Jan. 29.
Another fisherman Leo Ranieres said he plans to move to a town in the Bicol region, south of Manila, with his family.
“There’s no hope now in Manila. I’ll have no living if we can’t catch fish here anymore,” Ranieres told UCA News.
“I cannot leave fishing because it’s what I’m good at. We will just move home,” he added.
Environmental activists blamed seabed quarrying, a project allowed by the government, as the root cause of the bay’s pollution.
“The government approved the utilization of offshore areas not covered by approved mining permits and contracts as sources of dredge fill materials for government reclamation projects and for other purposes. This destroyed marine life more than water pollution,” Peter Castro, a member of Greenpeace, told UCA News.
Seabed quarrying destroyed natural landforms and compaction of the seafloor that created sediment plumes that disrupted aquatic life, a marine biologist said.
In 2021, Joseph Cincua, a marine scientist from the University of the Philippines, said in a report that the government did not gather “sufficient” data to determine the extent of seabed quarrying.
“The country needs to fund research on what lies at the bottom… even areas that are sandy or muddy are significant — and these are the kinds of environment that studies often neglect,” Cincua wrote.
He also said most of the pollution of Manila Bay was from land-based human activities, including the discharge of municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes, land runoff, and atmospheric deposition.
About 21 percent of the organic pollution in Manila Bay came from the Pasig River Basin, with 70 percent of this amount derived from household waste, Cincua said.
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