BY: RACHELLE M. NESSIA
BORBON, Cebu May 3 (PIA) --- A team from Philippine Navy dived in a marine sanctuary area here to clean up the coral reefs in line with the ongoing Bayani Challenge in Cebu.
The underwater cleanup was done by a team of eight divers from the Philippine Navy led by Lt. James Reyes, civil military operations (CMO) officer of Naval Forces Central (Navforcen).
Patrick Doromal of Gawad Kalinga, one of the organizations spearheading the Bayani Challenge, said the marine sanctuary rehabilitation is the only such activity undertaken during this year’s challenge.
“The coral cleanup was requested by the Borbon municipal government because they saw the need to clean up the coastal area here,” said Doromal.
For two days starting May 2, Reyes said the divers took turns picking up trash in a coral sanctuary area spanning 20 hectares with a depth of 50 to 100 feet.
In an interview prior to the underwater cleanup, Reyes said the divers will remove from the corals not only trash but also crown-of-thorns starfish that causes damage on coral reefs.
Reyes said the common litter items they usually fish out from coral reefs are plastic bags, plastic bottles, soda cans, and tin cans.
Rubbish, especially plastic, dumped by humans into the ocean pose a threat to corals which serve as marine habitats.
“Tayo na gumagamit ng dagat, dapat caretaker tayo mismo at ang plastic mahirap talaga ma-dispose (We should be the caretakers of the ocean, so we must take care of it, and plastic is so hard to dispose),” he stressed.
Reyes said they are eying to adopt said coral sanctuary area in Borbon to make the cleanup a regular activity.
The Philippine Navy has been supporting the Bayani Challenge by sending in the needed technical support, manpower, and transportation.
“We have our engineers in the construction brigade, technical workers, and electricians that have participated in the Bayani Challenge and this time here we have our divers,” said Reyes. (RMN/PIA Cebu)