Batangas City OKs ordinance to protect thresher sharks

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines - The city council had approved an ordinance for the conservation of endangered species like thresher sharks, four months after a specialist warned that the Philippines might lose said species if the hunting in Batangas Bay for shark meat and fins continue. "Time will come that the thresher sharks will disappear and we don't want to be blamed for not doing something to protect them," Councilor Marvey Mariño, chairman of the committee on environment and co-author of the ordinance said. In an interview with GMANews.TV, Mariño said the ordinance not only aims to prevent trade of the concerned marine species in Batangas City but also to educate the people on the relevance of protecting thresher sharks. "I'm sure there are people who buy at a high price that's why they are hunting (the sharks). But we have to explain to these people that they will earn more if we don't kill the sharks and we can develop a tourism industry," he added. The ordinance, which was approved for third and final reading on August 19, prohibits taking, catching, selling, purchasing, possessing, transporting and exporting of endangered marine species within Batangas City. Destroying critical habitats and identified cleaning stations of marine species indicated in the city's list is also prohibited under the ordinance. Violators of the law will be dealt with administrative fines of P1,000 for the first offense and P2,000 for second offense, including confiscation of the marine wildlife species that were caught at the time of apprehension. The persons who violate the law more than twice will face fines of P1,000 to P5,000 or one year imprisonment depending on the court's discretion, respectively. Aside from the three species of thresher sharks, the ordinance listed manta rays, whales, dolphins, pawikan; various species of mangroves, giant clams and corals among the endangered marine species within Batangas City. Mariño said that they based their list on the Philippine Wildlife Act, Philippine Fisheries Code, Fisheries Administrative Order 208, International Union Conservation Network (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Earlier on April, the environmental group First Philippine Conservation Inc. reported that at least 80 thresher sharks had been butchered in the coastal villages of Mabacong, Pagkilatan and Wawa in Batangas City and Bauan town and the village of Talaga in Mabini town since December 23, 2007. An environmentalist familiar with the trade said shark meat was usually sold at P150 per kilo and shark fins at P1,000 per kilo in the public markets of Batangas City and Lucena City in Quezon. "The extent of the fishery situation with regard to the thresher sharks in the Batangas Bay area is absolutely in my honest scientific opinion not sustainable and you're on the risk of losing your sharks," shark specialist Simon Oliver of the UK-based Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Group earlier said in an interview. Locally known as banderahan, thresher sharks feed on sardines, cattle pods and crustaceans and can live up to 28 years if left undisturbed. Oliver said the said shark species mature late, noting that a female shark need to be at least 8-13 years old and a male shark 7-10 years old in order to reproduce. The three species of thresher sharks namely bigeye, common thresher shark and pelagic thresher shark found in Philippine waters have been classified as "vulnerable species" by the IUCN. Oliver said that this means that the thresher sharks are now facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. The Philippine Wildlife Resources Conservation Act or RA 9147 prohibits collecting, hunting or possessing wildlife, their byproducts and derivatives, subject to fines of up P1,000 to P300,000 and imprisonment of 2 to 4 years, depending on the category under which the species was listed. But Mariño said that thresher sharks are not included in the list of the country's endangered marine species provided by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, which makes it difficult for the city government to enforce the law. - Marlon Luistro, GMANews.TV