Guimaras still reeling from oil spill

MANILA, Philippines - More than two years after an oil tanker sank and spilled its contents off Guimaras, the effects of the incident on the environment still linger, an online news site reported. The News Today reported that scientific studies showed abnormalities in breeding and growth of mangroves, sea grass, marine animals and sea cucumbers. "There are good signs showing recovery but the studies show continued stress to marine resources brought by the contamination," said Dr. Resurreccion Sadaba, program manager of the University of the Philippines Visayas Oil Spill Response Program. Scientists presented the results of their studies, adding this was due mainly to the contamination of the marine environment by bunker fuel from the sunken M/T Solar I. M/T Solar I sank off Guimaras on Aug. 11, 2006, spilling more than 2.1 million liters of bunker fuel oil it was transporting from Bataan to Zamboanga. It is considered as the country's worst oil spill, with around 8,580 families or 42,000 persons affected in Guimaras and some parts of Iloilo. The spill also contaminated around 65 barangays, according to Rosario Cabrera, Western Visayas director of the Office of Civil Defense. The studies were mostly undertaken at the 1,143-hectare Taklong Island National Marine Reserve (Tinmar) in Nueva Valencia town, the hardest hit among the island-province's five municipalities. Sadaba said that in his team's study on the impact of the oil spill on mangroves in the Tinmar, they monitored significant reduction of canopy cover and leaf size of some mangrove tree species. The study made between October 2007 to September 2008 in six monitoring stations also showed tree deformities. On the other hand, the mangroves were the worst hit among the contaminated marine resources. Sodium-potassium balance in oiled areas were also found to be higher compared to areas unaffected by the oil spill, according to Sadaba. He also raised concern over the possible entry to the food chain of heavy metals like copper, lead, nickel and zinc which were found to have a higher concentration in contaminated areas. Sadaba said the indicators of recovery include a decreasing rate of litter fall closing to normal rates. He said it is still to early to conclude that the trees will fully recover. Also, a study conducted by Marie Frances Nievales showed general decline in seagrass cover and in the number of sea cucumbers which were also attributed to contamination from bunker fuel. The decline in seagrass was also shown in a separate study conducted by Dr. Rene Rollon in areas outside of the Tinmar. Drops in the number of underwater marine animals including shells we also shown in the studies presented during the conference. Several studies also showed significant drops in fish size and abundance but the scientists said this could not directly attributed to the oil spill because this can also be caused by overfishing and destructive fishing methods. The scientists recommended continued and long-term monitoring and research to track the reaction and adaptation of the marine resources to the contamination. - GMANews.TV