m/y philippine siren damages reef in apo island

[kwhkg]

I dont know if its OLD or WRONG news ! All I DO KNOW is that it was an article in TODAYS MANILA BULLETIN, repeat TODAY, and a subsequent search brought up the Visayan article . I have no knowledge to any other thread re this issue.

So if you have some beef with local newspapers and their reporters or if you have some other agenda here please take it up elsewhere

 

[Bowmouth]

...please take it up elsewhere

Tuh-tuh..... feeling all grumpy now aye?

Sorry but I am here to stay.
And plan from time to time to throw a bit more sand in your eyes.
:HHGTTG:

 

[Hammerhead]

Just read the other thread - what are the chances of all the eye witness divers and the owner all making their first ever posts on scuba board so close to each other?!

I believed the first post, was a little sceptical by the second, the third onwards changed my mind..... I'm waiting for the next post, from "A. Diver", to say how wonderful the Siren was and how the prices should be higher....

Um, what if they had indeed been on the vessel and weren't already on SB. One person spots the thread and gets in touch with the others to corroborate his story?

Or is that too much like conspiracy theory for your liking?

Tell you what, I'll ask one of the Mods to check the IP's.That ought to settle it.

 

[Karl_H]

Um, what if they had indeed been on the vessel and weren't already on SB. One person spots the thread and gets in touch with the others to corroborate his story?

Or is that too much like conspiracy theory for your liking?

Tell you what, I'll ask one of the Mods to check the IP's.That ought to settle it.

Sounds like a good fix! If it's true I'll admit I was wrong....

My logic was just based on plain common sense

 

[kwhkg]

heres the controversal article from Manila Bulletin that prompeted my orignal post and got so many spirited replies. Again maybe all the newspapers and local officials were wrong. Since there seems to be ameeting set on Juy 23 (friday) maybe we ill know more. what does the NYT say "all the news fit to print"

QUOTE FROM MANILA BULLETIN REGINAL PAGE JULY 19 2010

Board tackles Apo Island reef rehabJuly 19, 2010, 5:23pmDUMAGUETE CITY (PNA) – The Protected Area Management Board (PMAB) of Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Oriental will meet on July 23 to tackle issues and concerns surrounding the recent destruction of coral reefs in one of its marine reserves and find legal and other measures to rehabilitate the area.

Apo Island has been declared by law as a Protected Landscape and Seascape and is an internationally famous dive destination.

Chief fish warden Mario Pascobello said over the weekend that Apo Island’s Protected Area Supervisor (PASu) Viernove Grefalde set the meeting after Dauin Vice Mayor Rodrigo Alanano called his attention on certain lapses involving the incident on June 25.

Among the concerns that Alanano had earlier raised was the seeming absence of communication and coordination among PAMB members and the local government of Dauin.

He also questioned the lifting of a suspension order against the yacht S/Y Philippine Siren in early July and allowed it to return to the island despite an ongoing investigation on the incident
Alanano, then mayor of Dauin until his term ended on June 30, complained that it took almost two weeks before he knew of the incident at which the S/Y Philippine Siren, a luxury dive yacht, had dislodged a mooring coral head across some 76 meters of coral reef.

Pascobello said an initial underwater survey he conducted showed what looked like a “mini runway” in the bottom of the ocean.

Expected to attend the meeting are the Region 7 director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR 7), who sits as chair of the PAMB, and board members to include Joy Gongob of the Provincial Planning and Development Office, Dr. Hilconida Calumpong of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory, Dauin local executives, and Apo Island village chieftain Liberty Pascobello Rhodes

 

[chip104]

Sorry but I am here to stay.
And plan from time to time to throw a bit more sand in your eyes.
:HHGTTG:

If you're here to stay, you can relax and drop the condescending posts. The frustration should be directed to the media spewing crap and not the SB users.

Well, maybe Karl is fair game since he threw down a gentlemen's challenge. HAZAA!

 

[Bowmouth]

If you're here to stay, you can relax and drop the condescending posts.....!

I am neither looking for a fight nor feeling superior.

But I do sometimes bite when I get barked at....

 

[bttmdwllr]

Bad news sells. if it was a fishing banca that run aground (wc happens all the time here in the P.I.) it never makes the papers. But "luxury Dive yacht" will get media coverage.

Ok , I think by now everyone knows that the Siren is a wooden hulled yacht. It did not plow into the coral reef as some papers claimed it did. If it did, it would becoming a nice wreck dive for us in Apo island by now

The boat moored at a designated mooring area where they were told to do so by the Office when they went to pay for their park entry fee and dive fees.

The mooring could not hold the weight of the boat. Obviously this was not known to either the Boat staff NOR the local govt officials . When stormy weather came the coral head was dislodged and that was what was dragged across the reef.

It was an ACCIDENT -something wc neither party wanted to happen.

I understand that even though it was force majeure, the operators of the Phil Siren was willing to pay for the damages in accordance with the rating system commonly used by other park managers (i.e. tubbataha where one of the Expedition fleet ships and the Greenpeace boat met a similar situation)

What is in contention now are 2 things:

The fine being levied (by the municipality and not the PAMB -Park Area Management board) is waaaay in excess of what the international standards are.

The jurisdiction over the accident is being contested by 2 parties--the municipality of Dauin.Vice mayor Alanano (who btw, has NOT complied with the Executive order mandating the standardization of dive fees nationally) wherein APO island in located and the DENR or our version of the Department of the Environment, wc apo Island, as NIPA (National Integrated Protected Area) is under--- or in simpler terms, its the Philippine version of a National Park.

The municipality wants to regain control over the island, as dive fees exceed over 2 million pesos annually. I have no gripes about this aside from the fact that it exceeds what we have tried to standardize . What I do have issue is that the fees we pay should translate into something we dive fee payers, see or also gain from. i.e. proper mooring buoys or designated anchoring areas.

You would think that after several years of dive fees, we would have proper mooring buoys in Apo, but we dont. The present buoy system uses a chain wrapped around or under a coral head. Needless to say this can only hold the banca type of boats of a specific tonnage.

I dont expect the LGU to put in the expensive pins but they can at least do 2 things:

1. Either designate an anchoring area -in apo island this is doable-Tubbataha , NOT
2. Permit the Ship to put in their own mooring blocks or pins at their expense.

Unfortunately , LGU's are more into the collecting of the fees, rather than spending it on the actual conservation of the reef.

So guys, please, if we're going to vent, can we at least vent to the LGU about this?

 

[eagerbeaver]

Thanks Yvette,

But do you really believe venting to LGU's works? We've just had our fees raised here - and with specific paperwork that pretty much outlines how it's a 'user fee' rather than anything we can expect to see put to good use to protect the environment.

Even though we've had an audience with the Governor of Cebu twice now, the Mayor pretty much stamped us down and said she'd deal with the illegal fishing etc. So our voice is hard to be heard even when we make it to the higher levels.

Appreciate your thoughts on how to actually get heard regarding this kind of thing.

Thanks,

Matt.

Bad news sells. if it was a fishing banca that run aground (wc happens all the time here in the P.I.) it never makes the papers. But "luxury Dive yacht" will get media coverage.

Ok , I think by now everyone knows that the Siren is a wooden hulled yacht. It did not plow into the coral reef as some papers claimed it did. If it did, it would becoming a nice wreck dive for us in Apo island by now

The boat moored at a designated mooring area where they were told to do so by the Office when they went to pay for their park entry fee and dive fees.

The mooring could not hold the weight of the boat. Obviously this was not known to either the Boat staff NOR the local govt officials . When stormy weather came the coral head was dislodged and that was what was dragged across the reef.

It was an ACCIDENT -something wc neither party wanted to happen.

I understand that even though it was force majeure, the operators of the Phil Siren was willing to pay for the damages in accordance with the rating system commonly used by other park managers (i.e. tubbataha where one of the Expedition fleet ships and the Greenpeace boat met a similar situation)

What is in contention now are 2 things:

The fine being levied (by the municipality and not the PAMB -Park Area Management board) is waaaay in excess of what the international standards are.

The jurisdiction over the accident is being contested by 2 parties--the municipality of Dauin.Vice mayor Alanano (who btw, has NOT complied with the Executive order mandating the standardization of dive fees nationally) wherein APO island in located and the DENR or our version of the Department of the Environment, wc apo Island, as NIPA (National Integrated Protected Area) is under--- or in simpler terms, its the Philippine version of a National Park.

The municipality wants to regain control over the island, as dive fees exceed over 2 million pesos annually. I have no gripes about this aside from the fact that it exceeds what we have tried to standardize . What I do have issue is that the fees we pay should translate into something we dive fee payers, see or also gain from. i.e. proper mooring buoys or designated anchoring areas.

You would think that after several years of dive fees, we would have proper mooring buoys in Apo, but we dont. The present buoy system uses a chain wrapped around or under a coral head. Needless to say this can only hold the banca type of boats of a specific tonnage.

I dont expect the LGU to put in the expensive pins but they can at least do 2 things:

1. Either designate an anchoring area -in apo island this is doable-Tubbataha , NOT
2. Permit the Ship to put in their own mooring blocks or pins at their expense.

Unfortunately , LGU's are more into the collecting of the fees, rather than spending it on the actual conservation of the reef.

So guys, please, if we're going to vent, can we at least vent to the LGU about this?

 

[bttmdwllr]

There is an inter-department order regulating the imposition of the dive fees. It will be on my agenda to take up with the new administration. It was signed by the DILG, DA, DENR and DOT, quite a feat actually, but the mayors are used to having their way. we just need a few to be brought to court so the rest will fall in line...