8/6/2019 The Rise and Fall of Apo Island

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THE WONDERS OF APO ISLAND( or the fall and rise of APO Island)

By Tommy Schultz

The Pandoras box of dynamite fishing was opened forty years ago on Apo Island, just a fewmiles off the coast of Negros Island. After only a few years of blasting, the delicate coral reef fringing the island was mostly reduced to a calcified rubble so that even today the sand on Aposbeaches is made up of golf-tee sized bits of broken coral, worn smooth by the waves andresembling millions of tiny bones. Its just another reminder of how far this island hasprogressed since then.

Jutting like a jagged, volcanic tooth out of the nearly 700-foot deep Taon Strait, today Apo ishome to about a thousand peopleand nearly all of them are fishermen. Im told that 25 yearsago, the section of reef I snorkeled this afternoon was a barren underwater wasteland withflattened corals that offered no protection to the thousands of reef fish that depended on it for ahome before the bombing began. It bore no resemblance to spectacular example of the oceans

biodiversity it is today, home to even more species than Australias Great Barrier Reef.Apos recovery wasnt an accident. The marine biologists from Silliman Universitys Marine Lab innearby Dumaguete had witnessed first-hand the devastation brought by dynamite fishing in thenearby communities on the coast, but for years had struggled to find a solution to reverse thisworsening problem. Even though it is illegal to use dynamite for fishing, government attempts toreduce the demolition of the countrys fragile reefs have had difficulty. But in 1982, a fewpioneering scientists led by Dr. Angel Alcala from the Marine Lab approached the Apo Islandcommunity with the idea of creating a marine sanctuary there. Apos fishermen were catchingfewer and fewer fish to feed their families and most of them realized they needed help. Also, theMarine Lab was looking for a case study for the new science of marine sanctuaries, and after all

the flattened reef of the proposed sanctuary site wasnt used anymore since the fish werealready dead. The community leaders held a vote, and it was agreed to establish one of the firstmarine sanctuaries in the Philippines.

At the time, the idea of a community-based sanctuary was a new idea and it took some gettingused tomost people had grown up fishing wherever they wanted to whenever they wanted. Forthe first few years after the buoys went up to mark the area off-limits to fishing nobody reallycaredthere werent any fish to catch there anyway. But after five years of no fishing, a smallschool of jacks (a tuna species) returned to Apo.

This was big news since the jacks were among the first species to disappear when the bombsstarted dropping on the reef in the years before. Even though the fish werent fully grown,everyone noticed that they chose the protection of the sanctuary area for their home. A fewyears later, after this newly-returned school of jacks had matured, they moved out of the marinesanctuary and used cobalt depths of Apo Islands rocky Cogon Point as a feeding ground. Thestrong deep-sea currents brought a steady supply of small fish and marine animals for them toeat, and the fish grew rapidly from the steady supply of food. Cogon Point also happens to bethe traditional fishing ground of the islands fishermenthe sanctuary had begun to pay off already.

Today its been nearly 25 years since the establishment of Apo Islands marine sanctuary. Thesmall school of jacks that first arrived has multiplied into a shimmering wall of about 1,000. Theadult fish return to the marine sanctuary each year to spawn and the juveniles still grow thereuntil theyre large enough to move out into the open water. Its like a living savings account thatthe islands fishermen draw the interest from each year for a sustainable livelihood. Depletedpopulations of green and hawksbill sea turtles are rebounding thanks to an innovative turtlebreeding program that pays islanders a bounty of about protect the turtle eggs laid on theislands beaches rather than dig the eggs up and sell them as an edible delicacy for just pennies.

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Rare species such as thresher sharks, bumphead parrotfish and Napoleon wrasse have alsoreturned as the health of the ecosystem improves year after year.

Apo Islands Marine Sanctuary has become a success thats changed the lives of the families whomake their livings from fishing the reefs fringing the island, but the impact has been felt farbeyond those thousand people lucky enough to live there. Every year the island is host tomayors, fishermens cooperatives and community organizations who come to see the nowfamous reef of Apo Island for themselves. Like most people who experience the amazingbiodiversity of the Marine Sanctuary in person, these visitors are awed by the brilliantly coloredcoral gardens inhabited by a psychedelic array of tropical fish and other marine animals. Butwhile theyre drying off under the shade of Apos palm trees waving in the salty seabreeze manyof them ask themselves why their communities cant also be like Apo.

This is the real power of Apo Island. After seeing a healthy reef like Apos, some visitors find thatthey have a certain amount of jealousy or wounded pride when they realize their home reefsdont look as good when compared to the undersea paradise of the Marine Sanctuary. Many of them return to their homes throughout the Philippines and establish sanctuaries of their owncommunities and follow Apos lead. Although most of these sanctuaries are still in the vulnerablestage that comes with the first few years of telling fishermen who have fished the same watersfor generations that they cant fish there anymore because the area is protected, some of themare already showing the same signs of rebound that Apos reef had nearly 25 years ago.Apos lesson is important: lasting improvement to any environment that has been destroyed ordamaged has to come from the pride and sacrifice of the community that lives there. After all, if we dont look after our own backyards, who will?