By Gelyka Ruth R. Dumaraos / All photos from Oceana Philippines
The Philippine Rise’s marine biodiversity and reefscapes were highlighted in an exhibit mounted recently at the National Museum of Natural History, as it aims to call for awareness and conservation of the marine resource reserve.
Donated by international advocacy organization Oceana Philippines, the permanent exhibit features a 3D model of the 170-square kilometer Benham Bank, the shallowest point of the larger underwater plateau called the Philippine Rise.
Entitled “The Journey Towards the Protection of the Philippine Rise,” the images and videos were taken during the 2016 Benham Bank expedition conducted by Oceana Philippines, in partnership with the marine scientists from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
With over 200 fish species found and documented, the underwater plateau serves as a refuge and nursery for commercial fish, such as mackerel, marlin and bluefin tuna. It is also covered with coral assemblages, sponges and algae.
Philippine Rise conservation
According to Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Oceana Philippines vice president, the exhibit is a representation of the collaboration between government agencies and institutions from all sectors that champion the protection of the Philippine Rise.
“We put up this exhibit to show the unique beauty of the Philippine Rise and to let the public understand what this underwater plateau looks like,” she said. “Its conservation ushers in new hope for our food security, as well as ecological security.”
She added that the exhibit is also to document the journey toward Presidential Proclamation 489, declaring the 350,000 hectares of the Philippine Rise as a marine resource reserve and almost 50,000 hectares as a strict-protection zone signed by President Duterte in May 2018.
Amid the significant milestones that the government and its partners have reached for the protection of the Philippine Rise, Oceana Philippines believes that there is still a lot of work to do.
With only a portion of the Philippine Rise that has been explored, extensive marine research is the only way to discover all of what the marine reserve has. The underwater region measures up to 24 million hectares and covers the far off the coasts provinces from Cagayan to Catanduanes.
For Mar Guidote, Government and External Relations director of Oceana Philippines, with the Philippines as one of the top fish-producing countries worldwide, people should start realizing that ocean conservation is a top priority.
“We are blessed that we have these resources that’s why we’re pushing for sustainable management of our resources, most especially our key biodiversity sites,” she said.
Aside from protecting the Philippine Rise, Oceana Philippines is also pushing for the adoption and implementation of a management plan that will guide the agents in developing research and aid when it comes to future explorations in all parts of the Philippine Rise.
A long journey
It was in 1933 when the Philippine Rise, formerly known as the Benham Rise, was discovered by American surveyor Andrew Ellicott Kennedy Benham. In 2004 the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria) began a seven-year survey to map the seabed beyond 200 nautical miles away and more than 5,000 meters deep.
The Philippines claimed the Philippine Rise as part of its continental shelf in a claim filed with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in 2009. The claim was approved in 2012 and is the first validated claim under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. In May 2017 President Duterte signed EO 25 renaming Benham Rise to Philippine Rise as an exercise of sovereign rights and jurisdiction.
Image credits: Oceana Philippines