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Monday, February 20, 2017
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THE ANNUAL Paraw Regatta is a paean to the humble paraw, the wind-powered sailboat our ancestors used to navigate seas and transport goods. It was – and still is – a source of livelihood of our marginal fishermen.
But the yearly sailboat race should be more than just about the paraw or Ilonggo seamanship. There’s a bigger picture – the paraw and our seas are intertwined. Perhaps in the coming years, we could focus the regatta to heighten public awareness on the need to protect and conserve our seas. This is the urgent concern of our times – halting and reversing the damage to our marine habitat brought by human activity. What’s the paraw for without our seas?
We have relied so much on the sea for our existence – for food, for employment, for energy and for recreation. However, rapid population growth along with unsustainable marine practices such as overfishing, waste dumping, oil spills, among others, have seriously damaged marine habitats and life in the sea over the years.
One serious concern is plastic pollution in our seas. According to the study on plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean published in the journal Science, of the 275 million tons of plastic waste generated in 192 coastal countries worldwide in 2010, plastic debris entering the ocean was somewhere between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons. The Philippines is the third top contributor with around 0.28-0.75 million metric tons of plastic marine waste annually, next only to China and Indonesia.
Plastic can choke and poison marine species and damage marine ecosystems. Ultimately, it can affect us humans through the seafood that we eat. Thus, we must take this challenge seriously. The effective implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law is vital in this campaign.
We must also highlight the impacts of climate change on oceans and marine ecosystems. Studies have shown that oceans have acidified, having absorbed about a third of the carbon dioxide emitted, which has caused coral bleaching. Carbon emissions reduction is crucial in protecting our oceans. Sea level rise, floods that damage fish farms, and the increased acidification of the oceans could reduce farmed fish yield. The destruction of coral reefs would mean less fish population, which would translate to lower fish catch.
We must adopt responsible fishing practices and sustainable marine management and conservation systems not only to improve fisheries yield but also to maintain ecological balance and to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from our oceans.
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