PH as global diving destination

Positioning the Philippines as global diving destination

By

BusinessMirror

23 June 2019

The Philippines is gaining popularity as one of the world’s best destinations for recreational and professional diving. To help further cement this reputation, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines, marketing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), continues to exhaust aggressive efforts in promoting the Philippines as a diving destination.

Diving with butanding

The TPB has successfully made its presence known in numerous international dive-related events, such as the Marine Diving Fair (MDF), the largest dive resort and consumer fair focused on scuba diving and travel overseas; Asia Dive Expo 2019 (Adex), the longest-running and largest dive expo in Asia; and Diving, Resort and Travel Expo Shanghai (DRT).

Held in Japan, the MDF had over 200 exhibiting companies from 50 countries and regions all over the world, including the Philippines which had one of the largest booths. Some 50,000 visitors, mostly diving enthusiasts, attended the fair.

Coral reef diving

At Adex, the Philippine representatives promoted the new and existing diving destinations in the country and also learned more about water sports in general from distinguished scientists, equipment manufacturers, marine conservationists, and underwater photographers and videographers.

The DRT in Shanghai had over 200 exhibitors and more than 40,000 participants. The Philippine participants showcased local diving products and conducted product presentations which included business-to-business (B2B) networking among Chinese dive counterparts.

Philippines offers rich biodiversity for deep diving

As a result, the Philippine participants were able to learn more about the latest developments in water sports and strengthen ties with Japanese media, dive clubs and operators, and diving enthusiasts. Moreover, they were able to showcase Philippine diving products through product presentations and conduct B2B networking among regional counterparts in China.

New Specie of shipworm in PH

Rock-Eating Shipworm Discovered in Philippines

Enrico de Lazaro 

Sci-news.com

Jun 20, 2019 

An international research team led by Northeastern University marine biologists has discovered a new genus and species of shipworm burrowing into the bedrock of the Abatan River on the Philippine Island of Bohol.

Shipworms (family Teredinidae) are a group of predominantly marine, wood-boring and wood-feeding bivalve mollusks.

Rock-boring and rock-ingesting Lithoredo abatanica shipworms live in carbonate limestone bedrock in the Abatan River on the Philippine Island of Bohol. Image credit: Dan Distel.

Known in the literature since the 4th century BCE, these creatures are the primary consumers of woody materials across the world’s oceans.

In contrast, the newly-discovered shipworm — named Lithoredo abatanica — lacks adaptations associated with wood-boring and wood digestion.

“Lithoredo abatanica is not a wood-borer and lacks the anatomical and morphological specializations typically associated with wood-boring and wood-digestion in other species,” said Dr. Reuben Shipway of Northeastern University and colleagues.

“It burrows into and ingests limestone, which accumulates in the guts of animals and is expelled from the siphons as fine-grained particles.”

“This strategy of burrowing into rock by ingestion is, to our knowledge, unique among the animal kingdom.”

The specimens of Lithoredo abatanica were collected from deposits of soft limestone in the Abatan River as part of a Philippine Mollusk Symbiont project expedition.

“The shipworms had entirely reshaped the riverbed ecosystem,” the scientists said.

“The rocks at the bottom of the river were covered in holes, many with tiny shipworm siphons protruding into the water.”

“Any burrows the shipworms had abandoned were now home to small fish and crustaceans.”

A paper reporting the discovery was published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

_____

J. Reuben Shipway et al. 2019. A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines. Proc. R. Soc. B 286 (1905); doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0434

PH biodiversity hotspot

Two new species of 'tweezer-beaked hopping rats' discovered in Philippines

Elusive rodents finally found when scientists switched out peanut butter bait for earthworms

Science Daily.com
06 June 2019

Just about everybody loves peanut butter. We put it on sandwiches and in candy, we use it to trick our dogs into taking their heartworm pills, and, when we have to, we bait mouse traps with it. But, as scientists learned when trapping rodents in the mountains of the Philippines, peanut butter isn't for everyone. A highly distinctive (weird-looking) group of rodents sometimes called "tweezer-beaked hopping rats" don't care for peanut butter, but love earthworms. Armed with this knowledge (and worms), the scientists discovered two new species of the tweezer-beaked hopping rats. The discovery was announced in the Journal of Mammalogy.

"In the late 1980s we were doing standard mammalogy surveys and using standard baits that most rodents really like: a combination of peanut butter and slices of fried coconut. It was really attractive bait, it makes your mouth water," says lead author Eric Rickart, a curator of the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah. The researchers knew that some of these critters had been found in the area before, but the rats weren't biting. One finally stumbled into a live trap, but it still didn't touch the peanut butter bait. The team tried to figure out what it did eat; when they offered it an earthworm, the rat, in Rickart's words, "slurped it up like a kid eating spaghetti."

"Once we began baiting the traps with live, wriggling earthworms, we discovered that these little animals are common and widespread," says Larry Heaney, a curator at the Field Museum and a co-author of the study. The field team, led by the late Danny Balete of the Field Museum, began finding more species that specialize in eating earthworms, including the two new species described in their recent paper.

The new species are named Rhynchomys labo and Rhynchomys mingan. The genus name, Rhynchomys, comes from the ancient Greek rhyncos for snout and mys for "mouse," a reference to the tweezer-beaked hopping rats' long pointed noses. The species names are for the mountains the rats are found on, Mount Labo and Mount Mingan.

"They're quite bizarre," says Rickart. "They hop around on their sturdy hind legs and large hind feet, almost like little kangaroos. They have long, delicate snouts, and almost no chewing teeth."

"They're very docile, very cute," adds Heaney. "Their fur is short and very, very dense, like a plush toy. They make little runways through the forest and patrol these little trails, day and night, looking for earthworms."

The two new rodents are examples of the generally poorly-known, incredible biodiversity of the Philippines, which boasts more unique species of mammals per square mile than anywhere else on Earth. "Up until the late '90s, we all thought maximum mammalian diversity was in the lowland tropical rainforest" explains Heaney. But Heaney, Rickart, and their colleagues found that mountains like those on the Philippines were the perfect breeding ground for new species of mammals. The different habitats at different elevations on a mountain can lead to different adaptations by its mammal residents, and their diversity actually increases as you go up higher into the mountains. Furthermore, the mammals on one mountain are isolated from their relatives on other mountains. Generations of isolation eventually lead to new species forming on different mountains, the same way that unique species emerge on islands. "Just about every time we've gone to a new area of Luzon with mountains, we've discovered that there are unique species," says Rickart.

But the Philippines' biodiversity is under threat. The islands are among the most extensively deforested places on Earth, with only about 6% of the original old growth tropical forest remaining. That's a big problem for the watershed. High mountains in the Philippines receive between 10 and 20 feet of rain every year, leaving steep slopes vulnerable to typhoons. The mulch-carpeted mossy forests in the mountains help to soak up that rain "like a giant sponge," says Heaney. "If you don't have an intact watershed and forest up in the mountains, you're going to have massive floods and landslides, because the water floods off instead of getting absorbed into mossy ground cover."

The researchers hope that the discovery of the two new species of tweezer-beaked hopping rats will serve as an argument for protecting the mountainous forests where they're found. "Every time we find a reason to say, 'This place is unique,' that tells people that it's worthy of protection," says co-author Phillip Alviola of the University of the Philippines.

All of the work on this project was conducted with permits and strong support of the Philippine Department of Natural Resources. The study was contributed to by authors from the University of Utah/Utah Natural History Museum, the Field Museum, the University of Kansas, the University of the Philippines, and Louisiana State University.

PH new sardine specie

New sardine species thrives in Manila Bay 


Manila Standard
25 March 2019


Manila Bay’s ecosystem is not dying. In fact, a new sardine species, Sardinellapacifica, has been discovered in Manila Bay waters and in other parts of the country. 

According to a peer-reviewed journal article, Japanese taxonomists HarutakaHata and Hiroyuki Motomura collected samples from Manila Bay, Quezon, Sorsogon and Samar and those revealed distinct characteristics from other sardine species, concluding a new species of sardines was found only in the Philippines.

“We appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte to stop all reclamation projects lined up in Manila Bay,” said Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana in the Philippines.

“This can be the legacy of your administration―that you were able to save the rich ecosystem of Manila Bay that carries national and natural heritage significance, especially with the discovery of this new sardine species i Philippine waters.” 

Manila Bay was identified by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources as a spawning area of sardines and is still one of the main fishing grounds of artisanal fishermen who depend on the sea for their livelihood. Sardines is on top of the kinds of fish caught in the area.

“Instead of dumping and filling our seas that bury and destroy mangroves, sea grass beds, corals and other fisheries habitats, let’s collectively save and protect these from destruction because of so-called “development” projects,” Ramos said. 

“More importantly, let’s help our artisanal fishermen earn a decent livelihood to feed their families from our rich marine resources that are known all over the world.”

Oceana appealed to Duterte to review and assess the projects submitted to the Philippine Reclamation Authority that would result in irreversible damage to the marine habitats. 

Ramos said the irreparable destruction in Manila Bay would leave the artisanal fishermen almost without income because of low or no catch, and their families hungry and displaced.

“These projects violate our constitutional right to balanced and healthful ecology, as well as our fisheries and environmental laws,” Ramos said. 

Oceana is co-organizing with Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas, and Center for Environmental Concerns a People’s Summit on Reclamation on March 26 to 27. 

The summit will discuss scientific studies and legal review with the government, academe, scientists and legal experts, non-government organizations and the urban poor and coastal communities in Manila Bay.