Resolution of Philippine Association of Marine Science to stop oil exploration in the visayas

This Resolution is signed by over 150 Marine Scientist in the Philippines
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CALL TO ACTION

RESOLUTION URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND ALL
CONCERNED AGENCIES TO STOP THE OIL EXPLORATION AND POSSIBLE
EXPLOITATION OF THE TAÑON STRAIT PROTECTED SEASCAPE (TSPS).

WHEREAS, Tañon Strait was declared as a Protected Seascape by Presidential
Proclamation 1234 by then President Fidel V. Ramos in 1998 in due recognition of the
extraordinary abundance and diverse assemblage of cetaceans (dolphins and whales), 11
out of the 25 species found in the Philippines can be sighted in the area, and its known
importance as feeding, breeding, and resting grounds for these marine mammals;

WHEREAS, uniqueness of associated habitats in TSPS, such as coral reefs, mangrove
and seagrass communities among others, provide livelihood, support food security; and
sustain and safeguard the integrity of the traditional interaction of people and nature, for
which protected seascapes have been established;

WHEREAS, the impacts of activities such as seismic surveys, exploratory drilling, and
actual oil mining operation would negatively impact the marine ecosystem and organisms
dependent on it; sound is very important to whales and dolphins as they use it for
hunting, navigation and communication, and in general, these animals maybe sensitive to
certain sound levels; coincidentally, a study being conducted by Aragones et al. in the
area showed immediate negative effects on the surface behaviors and delayed (1 year
after) negative response on the relative abundance of spinner dolphins implicating short
and intermediate term changes on these animals possibly brought about by the seismic
surveys (using gun arrays) conducted in the summer of 2005;

WHEREAS, the process used to evaluate the potential impact of seismic surveys and
exploratory oil drilling had procedural lapses, lacked transparency and appropriate
consultation with stakeholders, and failed to seriously and adequately consider substantial
scientific evidence on the potential detrimental impacts of such activities to marine
animals like mammals and fish.

NOW THEREFORE be it:

RESOLVED, that further seismic surveys and exploratory drilling be immediately
stopped in due recognition of the protected status of Tañon Strait and its national, global
and ecological importance;

RESOLVED FURTHER, that the impacts of such activities be recognized for the threats
they pose to marine animals like whales, dolphins and fish, people’s livelihood, and
potentially irreplaceable and invaluable natural heritage;

RESOLVED FURTHERMORE, that an appropriate body undertake the investigations
and review with adequate inputs from the scientific community and affected
stakeholders;

RESOLVED FURTHERMORE, that the current system of obtaining Environmental
Compliance Certificate (ECC) in ecologically critical areas (ECA) should be evaluated in
the light of the serious threats posed to important habitats like the Tañon Strait Protected
Seascape for assessing future oil explorations and similar undertakings;

RESOLVED FURTHERMORE, that copy of this resolution is circulated to the
following:

Office of the Environmental Ombudsman of the Philippines
Office of the Senate, Committee on Environment (Senator Pia Cayetano)
Office of the Senate, Committee on Economics (Senator Loren Legarda)
Office of the House of Representatives, Committee on Environment
Office of the House of Representatives, Committee on Economics
Office of the House of Representatives, Committee on Energy
Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Cebu and Negros Oriental Provincial Chapters
Office of the Senate Committee on Women and Children’s Affairs (Senator
Jamby Madrigal)
Senator Miguel Zubiri
All concerned local, provincial and regional government units
Office of the Team Leader of the Visayan Sea Squadron (Atty Antonio Oposa)
All media outfits

AND IT IS FINALLY RESOLVED, to conduct simultaneous and intensive
investigations on the above matter from all concerned agencies.

WE, members of the Philippine Association of Marine Science (PAMS) and fellow
marine scientists and practitioners, whose signatures appear below, strongly support this
resolution.

Signed this 26th day of October 2007 at Punta Villa Resort, Iloilo City.

The Tañon Strait Oil and Gas Project

The Tañon Strait Oil and Gas Project

Dr. Angel C. Alcala

Sometime ago this year, an assistant secretary of the Department of Energy and a Japanese official of the Japan Petroleum Exploration co., Ltd. (JAPEX) came to see me in my office at the SU Angelo King Center for Research & Environmental Management to explain this project.

From that meeting, I gathered that this gas exploration project is planned to be carried out in the Tañon Strait off Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan, Cebu.

The direct impact area has a radius of 1.5 kms and the secondary impact area has a radius of five kms. The project will use a floater rig.

The project plans to drill this year a well 3,000 meters below the sea surface. Drill cuttings will not be discharged to the immediate area but will be collected and dumped into the sea elsewhere, I was told.

Because the project is exploratory, the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) is not necessary according to the DENR, and only an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) is needed. A copy of this IEE was given to me for our review.

In this IEE, a list of five groups of data is presented in a table. Another table listed eight names that composed the EIA Study Team, some of them I know personally. It is assumed that the report of this team is the basis for the environmental and resource information discussed in the IEE. This information was reviewed by our team of marine biologists at SUAKCREM, which is the subject of today’s column.

Our review concluded that the environmental and resource survey was extremely rapid, lacking in critical data essential for valid and meaningful comparisons in order to determine the impacts of the exploratory drilling. The following discussion gives the details:

1. The baseline data (DENR 7 PCRA) are too old and not suitable for the project. PCRA data are meant for use by stakeholder communities, and not suitable for the project, and a more detailed technical methodology was not presented. This is needed for an environmentally sensitive project such as this one. A more detailed technical assessment of marine habitats is required. The methodology has to be properly documented (examples, how many transects were surveyed by what procedures, density of fishes and other marine organisms per unit area, total number of target species, of indicator species, etc.)

Fish densities presented were too low – 2,000 fish individuals per square kilometer; we have found 2,000 individuals per 500 square meters around Cebu and Negros; something wrong here!

To put it bluntly, the methodology employed, and consequently, the data gathered, do not meet acceptable standards, cannot be used as baselines for future monitoring of drilling effects, and therefore, not acceptable.

2. Of prime importance is the construction of a fisheries profile. For this, the IEE document should be clear on how the data are gathered so they can be verified for credibility in any future inquiry.

3. On fish data composition (p.39, Chap. 5), technical data and graphs with units need to be presented so they can be compared to other existing data within the whole country.

4. On catch composition per gear type, the data presented are old (2001). If the catch was this bad back in 2001, it is expected to be worse now. A proper catch per unit effort spans at least one year, and not done instantly. A detailed methodology was not presented in the study.

5. Substrate types were not determined, and major coral growth forms were not reported including those most vulnerable to pollution such as sedimentation. Susceptibility of vulnerability indices of sites was not assessed.

6. The disposal of drill cuttings presents a problem. One area identified is the Sulu Sea. But the Sulu Sea is a prime fishing area and has high biodiversity! Dumping cuttings into this sea unnecessarily creates additional problems.

In brief, we found the IEE document wanting in the critical survey data and information needed for determining the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed drilling operation of JAPEX.

RECALL JAPEX ECC. STOP THE PLUNDER OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES.

Fisherfolk leaders with DOE director Engr. Labios

At the Environment Management Bureau Office with the local Media



At the office of Provincial Board Member Victo r Maambong

Below is the letter calling for a moratorium and investigation over off-shore mining in the Visayas given to the Provincial Government and the Department of Energy.

Another letter calling for the recall of JAPEX' Environmental Compliance Certificate was given to the office of the Environment Management Bureau. Currently the Provincial Vice-Governor of Cebu, the Congress, including the Philippine Senate passed resolutions calling for various actions against off-shore mining.

For a copy of the House Resolution regarding off-shore mining, please email us.

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August 15, 2007

Atty. Victor Maambong

Provincial Board Member

Chairperson

Committee on the Environment

CALL FOR A MORATORIUM ON ALL PLANNED AND EXISTING OIL EXPLORATIONS IN THE VISAYAS

Dear Hon. Maambong,

Greetings.

The Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center Inc, and various organizations under DEFEND our Sea Coalition and Conservation Watch, manifests its concern on the plight of the marginal fisherfolks whose livelihood were affected by oil explorations in fact majority of Fishermen in the Visayas were not justly compensated when JAPEX and NorAsian Energy Ltd implemented their seismic survey. We would like to extend the same concern to our local marine environment deemed as one of the global centers in marine biodiversity when oil explorations and off-shore mining will commence.

According to the paper presented by DOE USEC Guillermo Balce, another 23 Service Contracts will be awarded to various corporations to conduct oil exploration activity in our waters another service contract was awarded to Forum North Cebu to conduct exploration activity, it is interesting to note that this activity will be inside made inside the Visayas Sea considered as a unique world treasure and recognized as a national heritage area.

Based on international scientific papers, seismic survey and off-shore mining will pollute our waters since Oil and Gas drilling operations generate huge amounts of waste that is discarded into water. According to the National Academy of Sciences, a single well produces between 1500 and 2000 TONS of waste material.

Debris includes drill cuttings, which is rock ground into pieces by the bit; and drilling mud brought up during the drilling process contains toxic metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury. Other pollutants, such as benzene, arsenic, zinc and other known carcinogens and radioactive materials are routinely released in “produced water,” which emerges when water is brought up from a well along with the oil or gas.

Offshore drilling will cause a significant amount of air pollution. Each offshore oil platform generates approximately 214,000 pounds of air pollutants each year(National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration). An average exploration well for oil or natural gasgenerates some 50 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 13 tons of carbon monoxide, 6 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 5 tons of volatile organic hydrocarbons7. These pollutants are the precursors to smog, acid rain and contribute to global warming.

These projects will also spill oil to our more than the volume that destroyed Guimaras.Oil is extremely toxic to a wide variety of marine species, and current clean up methods are incapable of removing more then a small fraction of the oil spilled in marine waters. Offshore drilling platforms and pipelines spilled 1.8 million gallons of oil in U.S. waters from 1990-1999 in 224 reported accidents – that’s an average of almost 500 gallons a day.

Oil spills present the potential for enormous harm to deep ocean and coastal fishing and

fisheries. Oil waste poisons the sensitive marine and coastal organic substrate, interrupting the

food chain on which fish and sea creatures depend, and on which their reproductive success is

based. Commercial fishing enterprises may be affected permanently. Wildlife other than fish and

sea creatures, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds that live in or near the body

of water, are also poisoned by oil waste.

The hazards for wildlife include toxic effects of exposure or ingestion, injuries such as smothering and deterioration of thermal insulation, and damage to their reproductive systems and behaviors. Long-term ecological effects that contaminate or destroy the marine organic substrate and thereby interrupt the food chain are also harmful to the wildlife, so species populations may change or disappear.

During the seismic survey of JAPEX and NorAsian, a significant reduction of fish catch were

recorded, it was later found out that heavy metals contamination from seismic survey will

result to reduction of fish reproduction.(Cadmium EbrahimTi, et al. 1995 Kime, et

l. 1996, Lead - Ruby, et al. 1993, Mercury - Khun & Weis. 1987, Methylmercury - Van Look,

K. Journal of Fish Biology. 2003.)

Seismic blasting damages planktonic eggs and larvae found in the immediate vicinity of airguns (Dalen and Knutsen, 1985)‏ and can reduce catches in commercial fisheries (Slotte et al. 2004; Soldal and Loekkeborg, 1993; Engas et al. 1996; Skalski et al. 1992) since the impact of the sound underwater tends to bursts air bladders (i.e. swim bladders for fish, lungs for marine mammals and the animals may have well sunk to the ocean floor from ruptured lungs. Andrea Leonor Bautista,manager, Cetacean Research and Conservation Project - WWF. (inq7.net. Thu, Sep 08, 2005)‏ Seismic blasting can damage the hearing structures, (McCauley et al. 2003)‏ and can cause body tissues to hemorrhage (hastings, 1995)‏ and damage reproductive organs in marine organisms (Jensen and Alberdice, 1989)‏

Seismic blasting can cause behavioral modifications and reduce or eliminate available habitat for

breeding / spawning, foraging and migration (Richardson et al. 1986; Harris et al. 2001;

McCauley et al. 2000; McCauley et al. 1998)‏ Seismic noises can alter fish distribution by tens of

kilometers (Slotte et al. 2004; Engas et al. 1996)‏ It can elicit physiological stress and

neural-immune responses in Marine organisms (Santulli et al. 1998; Romano et al. 2004)

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Despite the damages, despite the fisherfolks were denied access to their fishing grounds fisherfolks from various communities were not justly compensated or were not compensated at all.

With this we would like to ask the your committee to issue a moratorium on all oil exploration activities and bring together all the stakeholders in a public hearing to discuss the cost and benefit of oil explorations.

We must conduct exhaustive public consultations to discuss the issues and concerns on the conduct of the oil exploration. It is noted that the consultations are limited only to “information” dissemination which is far different from the nature of a consultation where people are given enough time to engage the proponents in a healthy dialogue. Two to three hours of meeting in each of the affected municipalities are not enough compliance of the consultation requirements as provided by law.

The Local Government Code provides:

SEC. 27. Prior Consultations Required. - No project or program shall be implemented by government authorities unless the consultations mentioned in Sections 2 (c) and 26 hereof are complied with, and prior approval of the sanggunian concerned is obtained: Provided, That occupants in areas where such projects are to be implemented shall not be evicted unless appropriate relocation sites have been provided, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

We are also calling on our Governor, Mayors, Sangguniang Bayan/Panlungsod, and our Congressional Representative to exercise their authority and influence to lobby with the national government to address our concerns before the actual conduct of the seismic survey.

FIDEC AND FISHERFOLK ORGANIZATIONS CALLS FOR MORATORIUM AND INVESTIGATION OVER OFF-SHORE MINING IN CENTRAL PHILIPPINES

FIDEC and various Fishermen's organization from Bohol, Argao, Dalaguete, and Pinamungajan Cebu conducted a press conference before the actual filing of legal cases against off-shore ming.

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT

RECALL JAPEX ECC. STOP THE PLUNDER OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES.

STOP OFF-SHORE MINING IN THE VISAYAS AND THE PHILIPPINES.

It is more than a year since the oil spill tragedy in Guimaras disrupted the lives of Filipinos, It is more than a year and the culprits involved are roaming freely in Philippine waters raking profit after profit at the expense of Philippine interests.

It is more than a year and yet the government haven't learn important lessons by pursuing oil explorations in the Visayas and other parts of the Philippines. These explorations aside from violating our Constitution and Patrimony is very successful in dislocating fishermen, destroying marine biodiversity, disrupting economic activity and threatened local and global food security.

JAPEX after wreaking havoc in Tañon strait will pursue development of resources in the area this October. Despite violating the provisions of the EIA law, the Fisheries Code, the NIPAS Act, and the basic law of the land including international policies was able to secure an ECC last March 6, 2007.

The idea of energy independence flaunted by the national government and its agencies is a hoax, since the corporations involved in various oil exploration activities within Philippine waters were given the sole authority to identify, develop, and sell oil reserves from our waters.

It is quiet ironic for our country to pursue extracting finite fossil fuel deposits when the rest of the countries around us are abandoning its dependence on fossil fuel due to climate change and global warming and are now on the path of developing clean and sustainable sources of energy.

International conservation organizations, local government units,and various NGO's have spent billions of dollars protecting and sustainably developing our marine resources and yet our national government is doing the exact opposite.

Based on these there is a need to recall the questionable ECC given to JAPEX and we would like to enjoin IBP Cebu Chapter in their call to stop all planned oil explorations in the Visayas. We would like to call for a full investigation over these projects from the provincial, regional and congressional level. We also would like to call on environmental advocates, the fisherfolks, and other stakeholders to rise above the occasion and call to protect our natural resources and call for genuine national development free from foreign control and exploitation.

Let us put an end to resource plunder and environmental destruction. Let us stand up against oil exploration and off-shore mining.

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PAMANA Sugbo, DEFEND our Sea Coalition, PAMALAKAYA, Conservation Watch, Kinabuhi Inc People's Network for the Environment, FIDEC Inc.