So you are the one”, commented Dr. Daniel Pauly, the first time we met last week in Metro Manila. He was referring to the fact that Oceana, the world’s largest organization focused on marine conservation, protection of marine habitats and livelihoods, and increasing fisheries’ abundance globally, is now in Asia, specifically in the Philippines, with yours truly heading the Philippines office.
Highly respected and recognized for his trailblazing works and achievements, Daniel Pauly is an outstanding giant in the world of fisheries governance. A professor at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, he is “the principal investigator of the Sea Around Us Project at the Fisheries Centre, where his global, multi-year analyses of marine ecosystems has allowed him to reach startling and important conclusions, most critical among them that fish populations are declining rapidly all over the world.”
An article in New York Times reported that “Dr. Pauly helped create what may be the biggest and most lasting field-leveler of all, FishBase, online at www.fishbase.org, with information on every one of the 27,000 fish species, including photographs, home climate, depth, peril to humans and the person who named it. It gets as many as five million hits a month.”
Daniel Pauly authored the ‘shifting baseline’ concept of seeing the world and our vanishing biodiversity. Our propensity is to adjust our baselines to the new degraded level, the new normal, and we do not remember the species that were there and have been lost. We cannot overemphasize what Daniel Pauly observes: “We don’t lose abundant animals, only rare animals and so they are not perceived as a big loss. We think it is the base line. Why do we accept this?”
To reverse the problem of overfishing, Dr. Pauly espouses the establishment of more marine protected areas through which “we re-create the past,” and where fishes can grow, reproduce and be abundant once more. To do so would indeed help improve the quality of life of our artisanal fisherfolk who are most affected by the alarming fisheries stocks depletion happening in the Philippines and the world.
It was Andy Sharpness, Oceana’s dynamic chief executive officer, who first shared to me that the Philippines is a place close to Daniel Pauly’s heart. For 15 years, he worked at the International Center for Living and Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) in the Philippines. At ICLARM, he started to develop new methods for estimating fish populations.
Described as “one of the most influential fisheries scientists” of our time, Daniel Pauly is a member of Oceana’s Board of Directors, composed of accomplished personalities from around the world.
Months back, during a Skype call with him, Deng, the ever-supportive Oceana’s Chief Strategist and Scientist Mike Hirshfield and Director Margot Stiles, Daniel Pauly committed to be in the Philippines for the National Fisheries Symposium and scientists’ workshop on fisheries stock reconstruction. He did come. He and a Filipina scientist, Lourdes “Deng” Palomares’ recent work, “Philippine Marine Fisheries Catches: A Bottom-up Reconstruction, 1950 to 2010”, was the subject of the peer review made by some of the Philippines’ distinguished scientists on November 4-5. It “attempts to estimate the marine fisheries catch of the Philippines using methods independent of the Philippine fisheries statistics as reported to the FAO, for the non-industrial sectors.”
The highly engaging twin events, held from November 3-5 in Quezon City, served as the official launch of Oceana in the Philippines. With the enthusiastic participation of stakeholders from key sectors, including multi-awarded Bindoy City mayor Valentin Yap, BFAR-7 Director Andy Bojos, PEJC managing trustee and UC College of Law Professor Liza Osorio, and distinguished speakers, the national symposium hopefully attained the goal of serving as the platform for discussion on the state of the fisheries, the challenges, impacts, reform proposals, and sharing best practices in sustainable fisheries governance and effective law enforcement and the crucial next steps to rebuild our fisheries.
The workshop was unprecedented in the sense that it was the first time that the dialogue with fisheries practitioners was held in subject country of the ‘Sea Around Us’ Report on fisheries stocks reconstruction.
Oceana is grateful to all who helped made our Philippines launch a big success: our Oceana Board, management, colleagues, speakers, participants and of course our partners, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources led by its National Director and concurrent Fisheries Undersecretary, lawyer Asis Perez who also shared the Philippine government’s strategies to fight illegal fishing, the Sea Around Us Project at the Fisheries Centre of University of British Columbia, the Fish Information Network who designed the symposium and workshop sustainable fisheries logo, the UP Marine Science Institute under Director Annette Menez, NGOs for Fisheries Reforms and Executive Director Dennis Calvan and Greenpeace Southeast Asia and Mark Dia and Vince Cinches, and the indefatigable Tanggol Kalikasan team and its Executive Director, lawyer Genee Mislang. It goes without saying that the Oceana Philippines hard-working crew made the big difference: Lani Zabat, Edward Lorenzo and Yasmin Arquiza. Thank you.
With the ever growing challenges in fisheries management, each of us has the responsibility to save our oceans. By protecting our oceans, we are saving and enriching lives.
Let us act. Now.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
