Maritime law expert urges gov’t to eliminate destructive fishing activities

July 12, 2019

A maritime law expert on Friday urged the government to save the West Philippine Sea by eliminating destructive fishing activities.

Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said in a forum harvesting giant clams or “taklobo” is the most destructive activity being conducted in the West Philippine Sea for the past months.

“When you look at it, this arbitral award provides for certain basic marine environmental imperatives to pursue and we are not even talking about the enforcement and implementation of the reward at this point. We are talking about just some basic things that we should move for in order to ensure that any future action to implement the award would be effective, would be actually worth pursuing,” he said.

“These basic things with respect to the marine environment are to protect the integrity and the productive capacity of the marine environment particular in our part of the South China Sea,” he added.

Batongbacal said the need to do these things is very clear because the marine environment in the entire South China Sea not just the West Philippine Sea has shown serious kinds of destruction.

According to his data, marine resources have been fished down to 5-30 percent of their levels in the 1950’s and since then total fish biomass in parts of the South China Sea has been reduced to less than 10 percent.

Coral reefs face threats as it declined at a rate of 16 percent per decade resulting in loss of biodiversity and fisheries. 

Batongbacal said these indicators are like alarms in the South China Sea.

“Despite the increase of catch, the value has been getting lower. Means you are fishing less and less valuable fish… It’s getting harder and harder to fish,” he said.

Batongbacal said a lot of foreign vessels are entering the West Philippine Sea.

“It’s massive… and you can see why there is a sense of urgency in the need to address this environmental crisis,” he said.

According to the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea data, as of 2016 Scarborough Shoal sustained 550 hectares of damage out of 3,500 hectares and the damage has continued.

Batongbacal said he feels emotional on the damage in the marine environment as the government has been receiving reports of marine destruction since 2016.

“It was well known, as early as November 2016 after the fishing allowed outside the Shoal it was reported,” he said.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources also recorded giant clam harvesting in April and August 2017; and March 2018 while the military recorded these last February 2018 and first quarter of 2019.

He said destruction in marine biodiversity is taking place while the government is “supposedly” negotiating marine cooperation and environmental cooperation.

Batongbacal said they are still waiting for the creation of a team from Task Force West Philippines Sea that will explore possible legal action against China.

“There should supposed to be a legal team… that’s (announced last) March. What’s happened since then? I think the Filipino people want to know because there is legal option available,” he said.

“Where are these legal actions? That is what we are trying to know,” he added recalling the 2017 document from ASEAN-China declaring a decade for the protection of the coastal and marine environment in the South China Sea.

He said the destruction in the sea needs to stop and the government should start being serious on this matter.

“And we are not talking about going to war. I’m talking about simple things like stopping the destruction of the resource that benefits us all,” said Batongbacal.

“That’s is the problem. That is the crisis we want to address and we can start in at the West Philippine Sea… but not just us but the entire region,” he added.

Batongbacal said the Philippines should get other countries to cooperate with conservation because that will benefit not only the Filipinos but everyone. Ella Dionisio/DMS