Tañon Strait office set up in Badian town (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
An office of the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS) office was inaugurated yesterday in Badian town, southwest Cebu.
Th opening marked the 17th anniversary that Tañon Strait was declared a protected area by then president Fidel V. Ramos.
The one-story building used to be the coastal environment office of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
DENR-7 Regional Executive Director Isabelo Montejo opened the office located in the center of a n islet in barangay Malhiao covered with mangroves.
“This area is chosen for the TSPS office because Badian is the center town within Tañon Strait,” Montejo said.
The strait is a narrow body of water between the islands of Cebu and Negros.
The office will be staffed by 11 people headed by a Protected Area Superintendent (PASU).
DENR-7 spent P800,000 for the TSPS office.
Montejo said they will hire more staff and install an Internet connection and telephone lines there.
While the roof is made of “nipa” the rest of the building is concrete and painted blue.
The illegal operation of commercial fishing boats in the protected area and in municipal waters, overfishing and destructive fishing methods remains their main concerns.
In 1988, Ramos issued Presidential Decree 1234 that proclaimed the Tañon Strait as a protected area where commercial fishing is prohibited.
Montejo said the Tañon Strait is an important migration corridor that measures 518,221 hectares or 161 kilometers long.
There are 14 species of sea mammals, 18,830 hectares of coral reefs and 5,000 hectares of mangrove area with 26 known mangrove species in the protected strait.