On January 17, 2012, the USS Guardian, a minesweeper ship, ran aground on one of the richest coral reefs in the world and premiere diving destination. National outrage followed the heels of the grounding of a United States Navy grounding in the south atoll of the Tubbataha National Marine Park (TRNP), off the coast of Puerto Princessa in Palawan.
Ship Grounding at Tubbataha Reef: A Case of Conservation, Loss, and Cost
National outrage followed the heels of the grounding of a United States Navy grounding in the south atoll of the Tubbataha National Marine Park (TRNP), off the coast of Puerto Princessa in Palawan. On January 17, 2012, the USS Guardian, a minesweeper ship, ran aground on one of the richest coral reefs in the world and premiere diving destination. The TRNP is a Protected Area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS), designated by the Republic Act 7586, also known as the NIPAS Act. The TRNP is also a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site. Initial reports estimate the area of damage of about 1000 square meters. According to the Section 18.6 of TRNP’s Park Rules and Regulation, a mere PhP 12,000 per square meter, an equivalent of US$ 300, will serve as fine for the grounding. The Filipino people are also asking what is a foreign military ship doing within national waters, so close to the protected area.
Based on a similar incident in the Florida Keys, ship grounding can cause severe damage and may have harmful effects in the adjacent coral reefs. At the area where the ship has settled the impact could be 90 to 100 percent coral mortality. Coral reef recovery was slow, recovering only 22% of the original live coral cover within 5 years. The ship grounding also introduced debris and rubble which inflicted further harm by covering or bashing into coral colonies by strong waves and introduction of toxic substances into the water, hindering the recovery process.
Ecosystem Services and Restoration
Photo by Tommy Schultz
It is sometimes difficult to appreciate how much we as a society depend on natural ecosystems for our daily needs. This is the reason why we calculate the benefits that we get from them – the ecosystem services. Coral reefs serve as a habitat for fishes and other marine life. They provide food, shelter and as nursery ground. Coral reef services are valued to provide an average of US$ 130,000 per hectare per year and up to a maximum of US$ 1.2 million based on the DIVERSITAS Biodiversity Conference last October 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa. This includes food, raw materials, protection from storm surges, climate regulation, water purification, opportunities for recreation and tourism and maintenance of genetic diversity. A more specific study on Philippine reefs shows that reefs in good condition are valuable for tourism and 1000 square meters affected by the grounding could be valued between US$ 44 to US$ 155 per year.
The TRNP is one of the biggest MPAs that are being managed effectively. It generates revenues from diving tourism with an average of US$ 1,000 per year within only 3 months per year. In 2005 alone, it generated PhP 3 million from the conservation/park fees. Each diver pays roughly US$ 60 or PhP 3,000. The grounding could cause dwindling revenues from the diving industry.
Protected reefs like the Tubbataha support fishing communities all over the Sulu Sea either by direct spillover of fish into surrounding waters or providing food for fish living in the open sea. This connectivity extends to other coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrass that often take in larvae from adult fish and invertebrates in the reef. As such, the impaired functioning of a reef has far-reaching consequences that extend to other commercially important ecosystems. What is more, these services often provide for poor coastal communities that depend on these benefits for their livelihood. These natural resource-dependent communities will bear the brunt of the loss of the coral reef’s provisioning services.
Research benefits of coral reefs are also significant for such things as studying ecology, marine science, and even medical studies. There have been local studies conducted in extracting compounds in sponges within the TRNP that can be used for medical purposes. The reefs of the TRNP are home to manta rays, sea turtles, several species of sharks including the whale shark and tiger shark. Apart from their importance in biodiversity, these species also contribute to the beauty of the ecosystem., which gives another dimension of value to the reef. It is difficult to quantify, but these cultural services are something that should be preserved for the next generations.
Photo by Tommy Schultz
Aside from the loss of ecosystem services due to the grounding, there is the cost for the restoration of the damaged area. The government stated that studies on the damage assessment and restoration costs have yet to be done once the ship is removed. It is noteworthy that efforts have been made to ensure no further damage from oil spill will occur. However, based on comparisons with Haribon’s past assessment of the grounding of the cruise ship MY Island Explorer in Apo Reef National Park (ARNP), the intensive repair needed for the reef to recover would cost between 500,000 to 1,000,000 USD, as the stranding in Apo Reef was costed at above 700,000 USD in 2005 for 2,720 square meters of damaged reef. We must note that these measures for restoration cannot bring back the original health of the damaged track of reef. The measures only prevent further secondary damage to the site, and promote the recovery of the coral reef community.
Moving Forward
The Protected Area Management Board of TRNP has stated that the impact of the grounding will be assessed after the minsweeper has been removed from the site, and the results would be the basis for further fines. Haribon believes that the US Navy should make reparations commensurate to the damage done. This should take into account the ecosystem services lost including the source of livelihood of communities affected, larval supply or connectivity to other reefs, and revenues from tourism. Reparation must also include reef restoration activities, and maintenance of the site. They should also provide support in managing the protected area, and for programs that promote conservation awareness to ensure similar events will not be repeated. In the incident in the Florida Keys, the private company who owned the MIV Wellwood, the ship that ran aground, was fined US$ 6.275 Million, which resulted severe damage in 1,282 square meters of reef. Another coral reef grounding with a main damage area of 890 square meters occurred in Oahu, Hawaii in 2009 by another US Navy ship resulted in the US Navy’s payment of 8.5 Million USD for loss of natural resources and 6.5 Million USD in restoration costs, for a total of 15 Million USD.
The Real Cost of Biodiversity Conservation
Perhaps with the resources of the US Navy, the necessary compensation that we recommend for the stranding of the USS Guardian can be made. But at this point, we would like to draw light to one final detail of the grounding. As the ship made an unauthorized entry into the marine protected area, the Bantay-Dagat officials tasked with protecting the reef had tried to warn the ship’s crew that they were about to run into the coral reef. This warning was deliberately ignored and disaster ensued.
We believe that it is time that we as a people, whether US ship captains or tourists both foreign and local and more so the Filipino fishers, should begin respecting the biodiversity of protected areas and the rules for its management, not just based on whether we can pay for the damages, but for the irreplaceable values that they have which may be forever lost. If we all do not pay this respect, then we will have ensured the continued deterioration of our protected areas, potentially destroying our livelihoods and natural heritage. Indeed, money can pay for the penalty of damaging our reef, but it’s high time we remember that the true value of our biodiversity is incalculable, and even priceless.
