In the wake of foreign vessels running aground on the Tubbataha Reefs, the richness of the country’s coral reefs will take center stage during the observance this month of the Month of the Ocean, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said on Friday.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is to lead this year’s celebration with the theme: “Ang Bahura ay Kagubatan sa Karagatan, Ating Pangalagaan (Coral reefs are the forest of the seas, let’s protect them)!”
The observance of the Month of the Ocean takes on new resonance considering the back-to-back incidents of an American warship and a Chinese vessel getting stuck on reefs in Tubbataha in January and April, respectively.
Last month, a 48-by-8-meter fishing vessel with 12 suspected Chinese poachers got stuck on a reef in the Tubbataha marine park in the Sulu Sea. The vessel was confiscated and the Chinese charged and fined.
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