Holy icons used in protecting country's lone double barrier reef

Manila Bulletin - 

Local government officials in a Bohol town have resorted to using religious images to prevent blast fishers from further ruining the country’s only double barrier reef.

This solution was devised by the local government of Bien Unido, a fairly young town located in northeastern Bohol, some 108 kilometers away from Tagbilaran.

The town, with fishing as the primary livelihood source for its 32,000 residents, is known for its devotion to the Holy Child and the Virgin of Fatima and, in an effort to keep dynamite fishers from further destroying the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, local officials led by Mayor Rey Nino Boniel, have submerged religious images of both religious patrons down in said reef.

The Danajon Double Barrier Reef, which extends from Tubigon to Bien Unido, is host to most of the inner and outer reef system of shoals, islets and shallow waters that provide sanctuary to fish and other marine life in the region.

Blast fishing has, however, endangered marine life and adventure divers who plunged into the depths to experience Danajon’s deep sea caves, caverns and walls, according to Alfie Fernandez, a marine protection and conservation advocate member of environmental group, Knight-Stewards of the Sea or Sea Knights.

“We recorded at least 20 blasts a day then,” said Boniel, who has been seeking an end to blast fishing in an effort to promote local tourism and attract divers to Bien Unido.

“There have been strict coastal laws implementation but it did very little to discourage illegal fishers who hide in islands and islets to evade arrest during anti-illegal fishing operations conducted by government,” he said.

That’s when he and other members of local government thought of using people’s devotion to the Santo Nino and Virgin Mary as a way to protect the fragile double reef barrier.

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