
Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan with his team of research assistants from the De La Salle University Br. Alfred Shields FSC Ocean Research Center (DLSU-SHORE) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines recently embarked on consecutive reef research trips to Tubbataha, Cagayancillo islands, Honda Bay, and Taytay, Palawan. This collaboration between DLSU-SHORE and WWF-Philippines, under a grant from WWF-Singapore, is called Designing of Monitoring and Evaluation System for Coral Reef Resilience and Fisheries Sustainability in Northeast Palawan through Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) or Network of MPAs.

In 2013, the grounding sites of the two vessels left fields of rubble, an environment where little to no coral could recruit. Upon consistent monitoring, Dr. Licuanan found that some plots, specifically in the USS Guardian are recovering. “Our projections on recovery rates at the USS Guardian site appears accurate. The impact plots should look like how it was before the grounding in four years. One Ming Ping Yu plot is also doing well,” expounds Dr. Licuanan.

“The Cagayancillo reefs are interesting as most sites we visited have coral cover levels of oceanic reefs and atolls yet also have the diversity of inshore fringing reefs,” says Dr. Licuanan. During his surveys, he also observed that the corals in the Arena atoll are most likely prone to temperature fluctuation because of the surge of warm water from the lagoon as the tide changes. This brings him to a hypothesis that Arena might have climate-resilient corals. “I suspect it will be tested in the next few weeks as the seas are expected to get warmer in the region,” he adds, “I wish we can revisit those reefs sooner.
Before the month ended, DLSU-SHORE and WWF-Philippines organized a reef assessment training in Puerto Princesa with delegates from the Tubbataha Management Office, Western Philippines University, Palawan State University, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, Office of the Provincial Agriculture, Office of the Puerto Princesa City Agriculture, Provincial Environment Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Smart Seas Philippines.

For Dr. Licuanan, monitoring reefs is a necessary step after the three-year natiowide coral reef assessment project. “Monitoring allows us to generate information that we can act on and potentially save corals. Assessments are useful only for writing obituaries for nature.”
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