BENHAM Rise Region, the newly acquired territory of the Philippines, may provide a wealth of marine resources and biodiversity when properly explored and documented.
In order to achieve this and learn the dynamics of the region, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology funded the program, “Exploration, Mapping, and Assessment of Deep Water Areas” that is currently being implemented by the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, UP National Institute of Geological Sciences, and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
The program also aims to assess the future economic benefits and also generate benchmark data as basis for the national government to proactively plan and manage its territory.
Covering a total seabed area of 135,506 square kilometers. off the coast of Aurora, the Benham Rise Region was acquired as new territory of the Philippines, when the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of the United Nations had adopted in full the country’s submission for an Extended Continental Shelf on April 12, 2014. The program’s first oceanographic exploration and survey was conducted from May 3 to 18, 2014, at the shallowest area, Benham Bank, which is less than 50 meters deep. The research team is composed of experts from UP Diliman, UPLB and the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR), as well as researchers, scientists, and seasoned dive specialists from UP Mindanao, UP Baguio, Xavier University, and Ateneo de Manila University.
Boarding the MV BFAR research vessel, the research team initiated the assessment of the benthic marine biological features and resources of the Benham Bank seamount. The knowledge obtained may be linked to the productivity of the Benham Rise Region, where fishing activities have been known even before the country was awarded its claim.
The results of the surveys contributed to the knowledge and status of the Philippine deep-sea biodiversity and resource planning and management. It has benefited the scientific community and academe; the agencies tasked to manage the resources while allowing economic activities to occur; and the public.
Also, the program can contribute significantly to the effective global management and scientific responsibility of the country to the Benham Rise Region.
Benham Bank’s shallow area comprises the peak of an isolated seamount, one among 30,000 seamounts found in the world’s oceans. Seamount habitats can be biodiversity hot spots because of available substrates for macrophyte and invertebrate recruitment and settlement, abundance of food, and the interaction of dynamic currents with the supply of nutrients from the deep.
The exploration and assessment program on the Benham Rise Region, among other programs, is one of the council’s initiatives to improve the state of Research & Development in the agriculture, aquatic and natural resources sectors.
This is in keeping with its commitment under the Department of Science and Technology’s Outcome One: To provide science-based know-how and tools that will enable the agricultural sector to raise productivity to world-class standards.
Ricardo R. Argana/S&T Media Service