Joe Cool
Contributor
Guys,
I picked up this posting from Diversions. I thought I'd share it here in the hopes that someone or a group can provide viable solutions to this matter. I have not dived Ducomi Pier but I am planning to dive it with Annasea early next year but it seems that we won't make it in time. Personally, I would like to see this famous dive site preserved but that pier does need to be repaired. Maybe instead of repairing the old pier, they can erect a new one close by (don't know the viability of this...I am just thinking out-loud). The Owner can maintain the old pier as a protected dive site and donate it to the people of Dumaguete. I wonder if someone from the DOT or the government or the municipality of Dumaguete can offer some help or suggestions.
Phil
I picked up this posting from Diversions. I thought I'd share it here in the hopes that someone or a group can provide viable solutions to this matter. I have not dived Ducomi Pier but I am planning to dive it with Annasea early next year but it seems that we won't make it in time. Personally, I would like to see this famous dive site preserved but that pier does need to be repaired. Maybe instead of repairing the old pier, they can erect a new one close by (don't know the viability of this...I am just thinking out-loud). The Owner can maintain the old pier as a protected dive site and donate it to the people of Dumaguete. I wonder if someone from the DOT or the government or the municipality of Dumaguete can offer some help or suggestions.
Phil
Posted by: "Pinky Breva" pinkyb_ph@yahoo.com pinkyb_ph
Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:41 pm (PST)
I don't know if you guys have already heard of this. Ducomi Pier is a world-class macro dive site, very beautiful. It's also a private pier that's being used as, well, a pier, by the owner, Dumaguete Coconut Mills.
If you know of anyone who can present a viable solution to save the life here, it would be wonderful. The marine growth took several decades to be where it is now. It's said to be comparable to the oil rig diving somewhere in Borneo (was it Sipadan)? I've never been to either place, but Ducomi is on one of my must-go places to go and dive.
Let's hope we find a way to preserve it, not just for our diving pleasure, but also for the marine life in the area -- it is a nursery for smaller fishes, cuttlefishes, octopus, and various other critters.
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Gentlemen:
Just recently, the Board of Directors of DUCOM approved the budget for the repair of the steel piles and concrete slabs and beams of our pier. This project was supposed to be scheduled early this year but we held it in abeyance the approval of the owners.
We deeply regret to say that this project necessitates the scraping of the nudibranches and other living things which consider the pillars as their home but we have to undertake such costly move in order to avoid further damage to our installation. If we donÃÕ do this now, we would be incurring much greater cost in the future, which we canÃÕ afford.
The project is scheduled to start this coming month and the contractor will be mobilizing this weekend. As we have no idea yet on the details of their repair methology, we remain hanging on our decision whether or not to continue allowing diving on the early stages while creatures still exist for the nature lovers to see.
What a waste, but we have no choice. We hope to preserve, conserve, retrieve or replace those marine beauties for them to still be visible after the repair works. Frankly we need them as a living proof that our industrial effluent is not polluted. It took years for them to build up on the pillars; we donÃÕ want to loose them in a wink of an eye.
If you have any suggestions or comment about their conservation, please feel free to communicate with us. We need environmentalists like you.
Sincerely yours,
Romunaldo S. Domingo
Plant Manager
We will report the next weeks about the development and the achievement of all involved parties."
end
The pier is owned by the below listed company:
DUMAGUETE COCONUT MILLS INCORPORATED.
6776 Ayala Avenue
Unit: Suite 1201 12/F Security Bank Center
MAKATI, 1200
Philippines