Sandali lang, Kalk...
I am a brown Filipino, live in the Philippines, and have been actively involved in private pro-environmental initiatives since the early 80's. I myself have surreptitiously joined cyanide-fishermen on collection trips, sporadically from '86 to '94, (plus another investigative mission in 2000 that did NOT include wet time).
You should know
1) How those collectors use cyanide
2) Why they continue to collect using cyanide
3) How easy and reefsafe non-cyanide collection methods are
1-Collection via "sodyum"
Sodium cyanide (called "sodyum" for short by many collectors) is purchased in either bulk solution or (more commonly) tablet form and dissolved for loading into a handy plastic squirt bottle. At the collection site, fish are chased into ramose coral or loose rubble, and are flushed out by stunning them with generous squirts of "sodyum" into their hidey holes. The fish are then either pulled or 'fanned' out or they bolt out on their own -- only to slow down due to sudden narcosis (or death). The fish are bagged and placed in cheapo styropor ice-chests in the boat (an outrigger banca, typically) and kept shaded. On shore, the dead are discarded and the survivors rebagged, over and over until the most-severely poisoned are gone.
I can assure you that all the corals I
saw directly exposed to "sodyum" were dead within five days (when I typically returned to the scene of the crime). In some cases one could even see how the solution plumed from the target site with the current, based on the fanned-out trail of dead coral. You can visit certain reefs of Pangasinan, and even the eastern waters of Batangas (outside Balayan Bay which is better policed) and still see these sort of white plume- or fan-shaped trails of death, evidence of recent illegal cyanide-fishing. It is not as prevalent today as it was from the late 80's to mid-90's. The same cannot be said for blast fishing... but I digress.
2 - The cyanide yoke
Based on my own first-hand experience, and updates from others who still monitor this trade, it is certain Chinese-Filipino wholesalers who still force cyanide-use on the collectors. You simply cannot sell your catch to them UNLESS you agree to buy cyanide from them at inflated prices.
Aside from the obvious benefit to wholesalers of reducing their purchasing cost, selling cyanide and forcing its use yields two further benefits: the fish that (at least for a time) survive cyanide exposure display more brilliant color, and are rendered free of a large number of problematic parasites.
Even if a fisherman buys cyanide but conscientiously refuses to use it, cacheing the poison God knows where, his fish will not be as attractive to the wholesaler. Fright causes many vibrant colors to temporarily fade, yes? Recent exposure to cyanide partially or wholly removes this natural "flaw" for days, and the wholesaler loves having merchandise that looks good even under stress. A faded, non-cyanide caught fish is thus detected immediately and is rejected, and the collector scolded for wasting the wholesaler's time and cyanide.
Mayhaps the retailer also likes the brightly-colored goods, and perhaps the increased sales due to mortalities in the hobbyist's tanks (always the newbie hobyists fault, that!).
Certainly there are levels of exposure, and at some point of dilution cyanide becomes merely a soporific with repairable side effects on the fish. In all my observations, however, the exposures are severe enough to spell permanent physical damage, particularly to the liver.
3)Non-cyanide collection
Barrier nets are great for collecting small tangs ---especially sand-hole dwellers like
P. hepatus babies. Many other fish when young are just incredibly stupid and easy to herd into them, and this is in broad daylight. they are technically easier to capture when asleep ---but many shallows in the Philippines are unsafe at night. You do not want to anger the diwatas of the seashore, even with all the appropriate prayer to your patron saint (to intercede for you to Panginoong HesuKristo, and ultimately to Dios Ama ng Langit). Sharks and stonefish are another, more earthly concern.
Even fast-fleeing fish like
Dascyllus, which hide and wedge into branching coral are easily captured by simply submerging dead acropora heads collected at the shore (storm debris) near the target school, and lifting them out of the water when the
Dascyllus have fled into them ---the fish will not fall out even out of water. You then transfer the whole dead coralhead to your collection bucket.
Nobody I've known 'crowbars' coral to get to a fish, except maybe the large-wrasse and grouper hunters ---and I'm talking about food-fish collectors way out offshore (very few big foodfish left near land). They are IMO responsible for the bulk (maybe 85+%) of cyanide fishing in this country, but again I digress.
While a newb collector might be willing to ignore the damage that his cyanide-use wreaks on the reef, after a few seasons a collector CANNOT escape the realization that he is killing his family's source of food. That bitterness is the foothold for change.
The long-running efforts of OVI and our local Haribon are appreciated insofar as educating and properly-equipping collectors is concerned. (Past bad blood aside, I have to give even IMA my gratitude for its efforts.)
Our local group of layabouts has been focused on the business end ---engaging the children of wholesalers and exporters, and some of them have already take over from their parents, else consigned the business to oblivion. Nevetheless, about Balayan Bay, Batangas; In Morong, Bataan; the vast Bicol region and the Pacific-hugging province of Quezon, (and soon in southern Cebu) we train some families of collectors to try to replenish lost coral cover by anchoring healthy, assorted large frags (from the same locale) DIRECTLY to where the scars of old cyanide-collection occur. We also supply them with farming tools and vegetable seeds, and link them up with handicrafts exporters for alternative lines of income.
FWIW I am personally familiar with many a coral bommie or formation in the above mentioned locales, particularly in Balayan Bay. On the whole, the health of those NEARSHORE reefs has (to my impression) improved noticeably from the desolation of the very early 90's. That is, if you place greater value on the density and diversity living components of a reef than on the physical superstructure they produce. If blast fishing were eliminated, along with this persistent, residual cyanide use.... what a marine paradise would be restored!
I might have gone into more detail, but this post is overlong already for this medium. I do not like describing the situation here (ostensibly as one of our group) on this forum because your education is not our mission.
However, I (personally) was moved by your apparent low regard for both the efforts of outsiders helping Filipinos, and for the ability of the Filipino to redeem her/himself once given a decent break.
horge
www.thereeftank.com
