BIEN UNIDO. – How do you keep blast fishers from further ruining the country’s only double barrier reef?

For Mayor Rey Nino Boniel, the answer lies in hitting the right nerves of the people who use dynamite fishing as a way of living. With a seemingly infinite resource at their doorsteps, people from the town’s islands and some coastal barangays here find a no-sweat livelihood in their blast fishing, one that Mayor Boniel agrees would kill the goose that lays the golden egg in their front yard. “We recorded at least 20 blasts a day then,” the young mayor who has sought an end to blast fishing to make the town’s tourism through diving as a feasible economic engine. “There have been strict coastal laws implementation but it did very little to dent on illegal fishers who have islands and islets as easy refuge during apprehension drives,” he pointed out. “We just have to find a way to make a better campaign going.” For the local leaders however, the solution was right within their reach.

“Knowing our people and their fear of the sacred, we submerged religious images in the reefs creating an underwater grotto of the Fatima and an underwater coral garden guarded by a 14 feet-4 tons Santo Nino,” shared Mayor Boniel. Bien Unido, a town on the northeast of Bohol some 108 kilometers away from Tagbilaran is a fairly young town with only 5 of its 13 barangays in mainland Bohol. Fishing is the primary source of income for its 32,000 residents. Danajon is the town’s ace in the sleeve, as it sits on the doorstep of a rare frontier: a double barrier reef that forms as the central bank of fish and marine bounty in the region. Hugging most of the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, one which extends from Tubigon to Bien Unido, the town hosts most of the inner and outer reef system of shoals, islets and shallow waters that has become a favorite refuge for small and large fishes. In between the reefs are deep waters which has become a haven for adventure divers whose insatiable search for deep sea caves, caverns and walls is satisfied, says Alfie Fernandez, a marine protection and conservation advocate member of the Sea Knights.

Knight-Stewards of the Sea, Inc. or the Sea Knights helped Bien Unido reclaim its treasure by educating people of the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources through responsible communities. The ultimate aim is to empower coastal communities and assist local government units in adopting environment friendly practices, building and strengthening linkages and relationships, promoting and ing volunteerism and participation, protecting Danajon has become an urgent project, Fernandez said. The problem was not just law enforcement, because a cat and mouse game always happens. The islets also present as a perfect hideaways for pursued blast fishers, the young mayor said. Diving the double barrier reef is a high for sports dive enthusiasts but the presence of blast fishers makes dive in Danajon difficult if not dangerous. Blast fishing destroys the corals and underwater scapes as it also could dangerously daze a diver within the vicinity, Fernandez explains. The solution was brilliant: submerge religious images of the Holy Child (Santo Nino) and the Virgin of Fatima in the blast fishing grounds, the sea knight exclaimed.

The choice of the Santo Nino and Fatima was easy, devotion to the two religious patrons in this part of island is overwhelming and it would be understandable if fishers would respect the sites, mayor Boniel, whose name is also Rey Nino. So they would not feel deprived of their livelihood, SeaKnights and LGU Bien Unido taps communities in the island and teach fishers to find alternative livelihood, he adds. That time, government introduced seaweed farming which has helped decongest the tension in fishing. Bien Unido is declared the sea weed capital in the country, with an annual harvest of 73 tons, Boniel said. But still up to get its people moving, a series of trainings has been done to equip its people with the basics in dive guiding and tourism services is now ongoing to help lessen the tension. Recently, Bien Unido was launched as the home of the Bohol Yatch Club, another alternative move to bring the right people closer to protecting the reef, Boniel said. (30)