LAPULAPU UNDERWATER TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORITY  (LUTEA): A PROPOSAL

By Alfonso Y. Amores, MD, FACS, Cosmetic Surgery Center of Asia,  Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines

My personal experience regarding scuba destinations involve, among others, trips to Aruba, Bonaire, Cozumel, Cancun, Cayman Islands, St. John (USVI), St. Thomas (USVI), Key West (Florida), Bahamas, Bermuda, and Catalina Island (California), prime tourist scuba diving destinations in the Caribbean, Atlantic (Bermuda), and  Pacific USA.

Scuba diving is a unique form of tourism industry contributing greatly to the economy of these destinations. Island nations in their own right, some of these tourist spots exist solely because of scuba diving. Prime examples are Cozumel in Caribbean Mexico and Bonaire in the South Caribbean.

The important factors that attract the scuba tourist are:

1. A healthy coral reef
2. A wide range of resort facilities
3. Nice beaches
4. Good tropical weather
5. History of the destination
6. Accessibility
7. Good and hospitable dive support: dive shops, dive operators, dive instructors, dive masters, dive guides
8. Good and hospitable population host. (There is absolutely no concern about peace and order)
9. Secondary perks such as legalized gambling, and favorable banking laws
10. Value of US dollar (price of goods and services)
11. Peace and order situation

Implications for Lapulapu City

For us, Lapulapu City, this is a good news-bad news deal. The good news is that Lapulapu City is included among world-renown destinations, and we truly deserve it because of the unique nature of our coral reef. The bad news is that it ranks poorly among other world-class scuba diving spots. In surveys, we score particularly low for Reef Health and Peace and Order. Reef health we can improve on, as well as Hospitality rating and Dive Support. Peace and Order is largely beyond us, but, given a favorable national resolve, improvement on this score is doable. Lapulapu City can upgrade its Hospitality rating in the presence of a Tourism Bureau that can handle vital functions such as an Aid Center for tourists, promotional programs, etc.

The biggest drawback that Lapulapu City faces is the health of the coral reef. More than 95% of scuba diving activity is related to the coral reef. No reef, no scuba diving. A poor grade for coral reef health is totally incompatible with a good scuba diving program and coastal management. How poor is the Mactan Island reef? The reef from Punta Engao straight to Suba Bas-bas, and  Tingo to Baring to Sulpa is at least 80% destroyed. So is Caubian Daku.

With a healthy reef , Mactan Island, Olango Island and Caubian Daku can compare favorably to Aruba, Bonaire, Cancun, Cayman Is, St. Johns, St. Thomas, Key West, Bahamas, Bermuda and Catalina Island.  The few studies done in the Caribbean shows that diving/snorkeling revenues, including the multiplier effects (hotel, travel, food and other expenses) comprise anywhere from 10% to 50% of total GDP (Gross Domestic Product). These figures can surpass MEPZA and cottage industries combined, in annual revenues.

The Lapulapu Underwater Tourism and Environmental Authority (LUTEA) is essential to realize the full potential of the coral reef as natural resources. The bottom-line goal of LUTEA is to rehabilitate and preserve the coral reef. This requires no less than total regulation of scuba diving activities and reef management. The forces that have destroyed our reef have all been identified, and they are:

1. Cyanide (Kos-kos) fishing for food
2. Cyanide (Kos-kos) method of tropical fish catching for the aquarium industry
3. Dynamite (blast) fishing
4. Coral gathering and harvesting for the decor industry
5. Coral harvesting for sea and shore construction industry
6. Coral contact by scuba divers
7. Anchor drops
8. Intertidal zone fishing and invertebrate gathering (Panginhas), and
9. Industrial, recreational and household pollution.

One of LSCs primary function is to impose existing laws governing all of the above, recommend amendments to existing laws, and formulate pertinent new laws.

Of course, LUTEA will also identify adverse impacts, such as disruption of current practices of the population in general and the scuba diving industry in particular, disenfranchisement of the fishers and gatherers, etc. Once identified, these will be counteracted by direct and indirect benefits.

The Coral Reef

Formed over hundreds and thousands and million of years, the coral reef is an aggregate of billions of tiny living animals called the coral polyp. Thousands of coral polyps form a coral colony, using a common skeleton. This whole colony structures that we see is the decorative gasang, and the bato sa dagat that people use for building sea walls and other shore structures. People need to be educated that this is the basis of the reef ecosystem, a very delicate and intricate interrelationship of algae, sea grass, invertebrates such as the coral polyp, sponges, anemones, worms, sea squirts, stars, urchins, nudibranchs, mollusks and arthropods, and vertebrates such as benthic and pelagic fish, reptiles, etc. This mass of life contributes greatly to the soup we call plankton, a life-giving mass of larval and juvenile form of these animals, upon which sea life depends on, from the lowly gobbies (bunog) to the majestic whale shark (tiki-tiki). Along with the mangrove forests and the sea grass bed, the reef is the nursery of practically every fish. The coral reef is an ecosystem far more diverse than the rain forest.

Nowadays, all that one can see from the shore line of Marigondon up to near the ledge (kantil) - distance of about 200 meters - is a bed of broken coral skeletons and patches of hardy sea grass. I can personally attest that this was a bed of healthy coral formations teeming with life 50 years ago. The beaches of Suba Basbas, Agus, Maribago, Mactan, Engano and Olango tell the same story. What happened? Fifty years of dynamite fishing, cyanide (kos-kos) fishing for food and fish gathering for the aquarium industry, coral harvesting for the decor industry, coral harvesting for sea and shore infrastructures, illegal nets, anchor drops, pollution, and human contact (scuba diving).

An interesting story: Black coral is a soft coral, very slow growing, and survives hundreds of years. It is commonly used in the jewelry business. A few years ago, I saw a huge colony of black coral deep down the Buyong ledge. Just recently, I found the animal gone. The sad thing is that the size of the animal tells us that it was probably there already at the time the battle of Mactan was raging a few kilometers away in 1521!

It will take years for LUTEA to repair the damage, but it can be done. Now is the time to start!

Dr. Alfonso Amores an open water and technical scuba diver and a diving Medicine specialist. He is the Medical Officer of Philippine Coast Guard Auxilliary, Central-Eastern Visayas District and the volunteer Diving Medical Officer (DMO) of SAR 001 (BRP San Juan), treating Decompression Illness patients from all over the Visayas.

For a copy of the full proposal, contact Dr. Amores at tucker@skyinet.net

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