Oil Spills and Our Dying Seas

If Typhoon Ondoy showed us how vulnerable we are to floods, the recent typhoons this year showed us how vulnerable our seas are from oil spill damage.

After the typhoons, oil spills and a coal spill occurred within the Philippine seas. Incidents of oil leakage were reported from the provinces of Batangas and Bataan. The coal spill was reported to occur in the province of Pangasinan. The reported oil spills added more the damage to the much exploited marine environment of the country.

According to reports, the oil leakage in Mariveles, Bataan came from vessels and barges sunk by Typhoon Basyang. Initially, the people feared that the leak came from an LPG tanker and may pose greater damage to their seas.

The coal spill in Bolinao, Pangasinan posed resulted into greater damage in the marine environment in the area because the coal spilled by an Indonesian barge is high grade coal. Currently, large swaths of coral reefs were already covered by the coal spill, killing fishes and other marine faunas. The damage became worse as the owner of the badge is still looking for a salvor company that offers cheap price to remove the coal barge.

The oil spill in Batangas was discovered after oil slicks were found in the mangrove areas in the town of Calatagan. The oil leaked from an undersea pipeline and already damaged the mangrove forests and the livelihood of the fishermen in that town. The oil continued to spread because the Philippine Coast Guard does not have the necessary equipments to contain the oil spill.

Oil and petroleum products are needed by our country to move the economy, but it is disheartening to hear about incidents that these products are unleashed to our seas due to irresponsibility of some people or corporations. Oil spill is one of the worst causes of destruction of the marine environment. The immediate effect of oil spill is that it poisons marine organisms. Previous incidents of oil spills around the world caused the deaths of fishes, birds, mangroves and other animals that lives and depends on the seas to live. The long term effect of oil spill is that it affects the marine food chain. Oil that is leaked to the sea creates a film that prevents sunlight and oxygen from entering the water surface. Because of this, marine plants and planktons are deprived of the sun’s energy, resulting to their death. Consequently, Animals that depends on plants for food will also die.
Previous incidents of oil spill in the country showed that our government lacks the political will to go after those who are responsible. The Guimaras Oil Spill is a testament to this fact and the recent oil spill incidents will also get the same fate, when the media coverage and the public attention went down.

Our marine environment is an important part of our nation. Our seas are the major source of livelihood for the large percentage of the Filipino people. Many fishermen were affected by the oil spill in Batangas and the coal spill in Pangasinan. This fact alone should make the government work hard to punish those who are responsible for the oil spills.

Now is the time for our government to seriously protect our seas and the marine environment. Going after the owners of the barge and pipelines that caused the spill is one of the best move that the government must do to show the public and the world that protecting our seas is a serious business.

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This is an opinion piece regarding the recent oil spills that plagued the Philippine seas. Leave your comments and let us talk about these tragedies that are besetting our seas.