Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol. 29, Nos I--3, pp.

62~8, 1994
Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon 0025-326X(94)00083-2 Printed in Great Britain
0025-326X/94 $7.00 + 0.00

A Review of the Status of Philippine

Reefs
E. D. GOMEZ, P. M. ALII'~IO, H. T. YAP and W. Y. LICUANAN
Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines, I101 Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Since 1979, the status of Philippine reefs has been genera and 400 species of hard corals documented as well
periodically updated. While conditions of the reefs during as about a thousand associated fish species. The reefal
the early surveys were assessed in terms of live coral cover areas cover some 25 000 km 2 which is equivalent to
per se, the 'coral mortality index' was applied to the sets of almost 10% of the total land area. Most of the reefs are of
data collected during the past 7 yr which may be a better the fringing type, varying from tens of metres to as long as
gauge in determining the health of the reefs. Generally, 5 km in length.
most reefs surveyed are in fair condition. Major destructive In the Philippines various benefits have been derived
factors described are sedimentation and siltation from from reefs. The reefs fringing the islands in the country
coastal development and activities inland, illegal and have been the main buffers against the erosive action of
destructive methods of fishing, and overfishing. If the reefs waves and the typhoons which frequent the area. An
are to continue to provide for the present and future users, increasing utilization of the coralline substratum for land
the ecological processes that render them productive must fill and breakwaters will eventually change many reef and
be maintained through integrated approaches of coastal beach landscapes of the archipelago.
area management. The reported high fisheries yields (5 37 t km -2) in the
Philippines (Alcala & Gomez, 1985) reflect the import-
ance of reefs to the nation's coastal communities. The
prevailing multispecies (some 300 species have been
This paper constitutes a review of work which has harvested in Bolinao, Pangasinan), multigear fisheries
periodically updated knowledge on the status of Philip- (including aquarium fish collection and destructive fish-
pine reefs starting about 15 yr ago (Gomez & Alcala, ing techniques such as blast fishing) in reefs presents a
1979). The Philippines probably holds the distinction of challenge to fisheries managers.
having been the first country in the world to conduct a The recreational benefit derived from reefs has been the
nationwide survey of the condition of its reefs. This was major boost for tourism-related activity in the marine
made possible through a grant to the Marine Science environment. Though many positive aspects can be
Institute of the University of the Philippines from the associated with the ecotourism potentials of reefs, increas-
Department (=Ministry) of Natural Resources in the ing tourist activity may also pose a major threat to reefs.
mid-1970s. The preliminary results of that survey were In some highly developed tourism zones (such as Mactan
reported as mentioned above, and the detailed results Island, Cebu and Anilao, Batangas), increasing unregu-
presented by Gomez et al. (1981). Since then the status of lated shore development presents problems related to
reefs has been updated by Yap & Gomez (1985a), Gomez dredging, coastal deterioration from beach alteration and
(1991) and recently Gomez et al. (manuscript). sewage pollution.
During the earlier years of the century, studies on As this paper is primarily concerned with the status of
Philippine corals focused on the description of species, as reefs, it is appropriate to make mention of the methodo-
exemplified by the work of Francisco Nemenzo (summar- logies used in coral reef asessments in the Philippines.
ized in Nemenzo, 1986). Within the last two decades,
coral research has expanded to include the assessment of
Methods
reefs, determinations of productivity both from ecological
and fisheries perspectives, community ecology, studies on The surveys initiated in the 1970s basically involved the
physiology and energy dynamics, and more recently, use of 1 m 2 quadrats positioned at regular intervals
marine natural products. Much of the work is related to (usually 20 m) along a 300 m transect line from the reef
management considerations. crest down the reef slope in a direction generally
perpendicular to the shore. Where there was no transect
line, the quadrat was thrown haphazardly on the reef
P h y s i c a l Setting
from the boat. Percentage live coral cover (hard and soft
The Philippines is located at approximately 4°-22 ° N corals) was calculated and reefs were arbitrarily categor-
latitude and 112°-127 ° E longitude. This places it in the ized as excellent (75-100%), good (50-74.9%), fair
tropical Indo-West Pacific which is recognized as the (25-49.9%), and poor (0-24.9%). For details, see Gomez
centre of marine biodiversity. There are more than 70 & Alcala (1979).

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Volume 29/Numbers 1 3

The surveys from the late 1980s adopted the methods corallines) cover, dead coral cover (both recently dead
developed by the ASEAN-Australia Marine Science and those covered with algae), and live coral (hard + soft
Project: Living Coastal Resources (Dartnall & Jones, coral) cover. A coral mortality index was also computed.
1986). This technique involved the use of 100 m line If several transects were surveyed in a given reef, or ifa reef
transects at two depths (usually 3 and 10 m) laid down at had been resurveyed, these summaries were computed as
the reef crest parallel to the shore. Benthic components averages.
were quantified by means of their lengths as intercepted 2. Twenty-six categories (Table 1) describing the state of
by the transect. A modification of this methodology is the reef and the importance of natural and human sources
being proposed for long-term monitoring of coral reefs of impact were subjectively ranked on a 1 7 scale for each
(UNEP/AIMS, 1993). The results yield coral cover of the reefs surveyed using a framework developed by the
estimates besides providing data on the macro commu- ASEAN-Australia Living Coastal Resources Project.
nities (Licuanan & Gomez, 1988; Alifio et al., 1992b). The ratings were made by three survey personnel, one of
To investigate the relationships between coral cover whom had worked on all the reefs rated. In all 26
values and the possible sources of impact (see 'Present categories, a rating of 1 is given for little or no impact or
Situation'), data were summarized as follows: level of a particular factor.
I. Line transect data (collected using methods described Spearman rank correlations of the summarized data
above) for 85 reef sites were summarized at the reef level described above were then computed and the results are
into percentage live hard coral (scleractinian and hydro- presented in Table 2.

BATANESIS. •
CAGAYAN
N
THE PHILIPPINES

BOUNAO,
PANGASINAN

~D POLILLO,QUEZON

PUERTOGALERA,~'~
ORIENTAl.M I N I ~ I ~ t

BACUITBAY,

T
• TURTLEIS.

~SITANGKAI iS.

Fig. 1 Location map of study areas.

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 Marine Pollution Bulletin

TABLE 1 TABLE 2
List of coral reef impact and status categories used in the correlation Correlation matrix of cover variables and coral mortality index with
analysis. impact categories.

Category Description Hard Dead Live

coral coral M.I. coral
Cyclone Cyclone impacts based on frequency and damage
Freshwlm Freshwater impact based on a m o u n t and damage Cyclone 0.015 -0.172 0.171 0.132
WaveImp Level of wave action and impact Freshwlm 0.080 - 0.082 0.029 - 0.072
DiseasPr Nat. disease and predator impact WaveImp 0.070 -0.049 -0.082 0.232
CorHealt Coral health DiseasPr 0.100 0.251 0.186 -0.054
CorType Variety of coral types present CorHealt 0.031 - 0.073 - 0.084 0.022
AlgOverg Algal overgrowth and presence of large seaweeds CorType 0.268 0.065 0.029 0.143
AlgGraze Invertebrate grazer population size AlgOverg -0.346 -0.275 0.112 0.253
ManageSt Extent of reef m a n a g e m e n t AlgGraze 0.256 0.225 0.105 0.141
EndangrS Level of control on harvest of endangered species ManageSt -0.108 0.010 0.016 0.291
(e.g. turtles) EndangrS 0.169 0.181 0.071 0.009
Fishlnte Fishing intensity based on n u m b e r of fishermen FishInte 0.039 - 0.237 0.173 0.074
FishDama Level of damage due to fishing gears (trawls, nets, FishDama -0.034 -0.162 -0.083 0.037
traps, m u r o ami*) BoatScou -0.180 -0.185 -0.076 -0.141
BoatScou Boat scour damage BlstFish 0.170 - 0.073 0.076 0.159
BlstFish Level of blast fishing FishPois 0.083 -0.073 -0.036 0.095
FishPois Level of fish poisoning by aquarium fish collectors FishAqrm 0.129 - 0.058 - 0.038 0.127
FishAqrm Level of fishing for aquarium species Gleaning - 0.039 - 0.114 - 0.022 0.043
Gleaning Gleaning pressure and activity+ WaterQua 0.071 0.101 0.023 0.038
WaterQua Water quality based on colour and clarity PopPress -0.178 -0.193 -0.070 -0.109
PopPress Size of nearby h u m a n populations PollutnD -0.161 -0.208 -0.092 -0.089
PollutnD Domestic and agricultural pollution levels PollutnI - 0.095 0.091 0.082 - 0.170
Pollutnl Industrial pollution levels Maricult -0.219 -0.144 0.001 -0.085
Maricult Mariculture impacts Dredging -0.281 -0.t69 -0.015 -0.129
Dredging Level of industrial dredging and engineering CorMine 0.214 0.132 0.035 -0.220
CorMine Extent of coral and sand mining TourFacy -0.142 0.158 0.075 -0.146
TourFacy N u m b e r and extent of tourist facilities TourActy -0.171 -0.195 -0.097 -0.181
Tour Acty Level of and damage from tourist activities Hard Coral 1.000 0.180 -0.185 0.773
Dead Coral 1.000 0.867 0.189
*'Muro ami' is a set net placed over coral reefs into which a phalanx of M.I. 1.000 -0.018
50 or more swimmers drive the fish using scarce lines whose weights Live coral 1.000
(usually rocks) damage the corals they hit in the process (Salvat, 1987).
+'Gleaning' is the collection of any edible or commercial (such as Critical value (two-tail, 0.05)= + 0 . 2 t 3 , n = 8 5 .
shells) organisms on reef flats at low tide by women and children who
often trample corals and other non-target organisms.
of the sites surveyed had less than 50% live (hard + soft
coral) cover. Although the methods used are not compar-
Present Situation
able, it should be noted that earlier inventories have
The most recent status review of Philippine reefs was shown that about 32-38% of Philippine reefs are in poor
prepared for the ASEAN Australia Living Coastal to fair condition (0-24.9% to 25-49.9% live cover) (Yap
Resources Project. A brief summary is presented here & Gomez, 1985a; Alcala et al., 1987) or a total of 70%
including a critique of the previous methods of assessing suggesting a loss of healthy reefs.
reef health and subsequent data analysis. The data thus suggest that substantial changes have
Using the coral cover data provided by the various occurred but this may be misleading. Gomez et al.
surveys Philippine reefs appear strongly stressed. They (manuscript) point out that coral cover per se is not a
are characterized as only about 5% in excellent condition, reliable index of coral health since large parts of the reel'
25% in good condition, and the rest divided between the may not be available to corals even in unspoiled coral
fair and poor categories (Table 3). communities. They recommend the use of a 'coral
Using a different approach to analysing the data, Table mortality index' which is a simple ratio of dead coral cover
4 summarizes the hard, dead and live benthic cover in 85 to the sum of dead and hard coral cover. In theory, the
reef sites in 14 localities across the Philippines surveyed denominator would scale the coral cover values to the
during the last 7 yr. Tables 5-7 are presented for amount of space corals could potentially occupy within a
comparison. These localities represent a cross-section of given reef. Applied to the newer Philippine data, this
areas ranging from heavily fished (such as Bolinao) to index reveals that 84% of the reefs surveyed have at least
relatively pristine (such as Surigao). About 75% (64/85) half of their corals still living compared to the 16% of the

TABLE 3
Status of Philippine coral reefs based on surveys by three projects (Gomez, 1991)

Excellent Good Fair Poor

No. of (75 100%) (50~74.9%} (25~49.9%) ((~ 24.9%)
transects
Source (station) No. % No. % No. % No. %

Yap & G o m e z (1985a) 632 35 5.5 153 24.2 242 38.3 202 32.0
ASEAN Australia MSP: 103 4 3.9 32 31.1 46 44.7 21 20.4
LCR
ASEAN--US C R M P 40 0 0 18 45.0 17 42.5 5 t2.5

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Volume 29/Numbers 1- 3

TABLE 4 reefs in the earlier studies carried out at least 5 yr before.

Summary of benthic cover in 85 reef sites in 14 localities in the This discrepancy can be partly attributed to the methods
Philippines.
used in the earlier surveys (transect-quadrats down the
Hard Dead Mort. Live reef slope, or quadrats thrown randomly from the boat)
Location (%) (%) index (%) which included areas where there is little coral develop-
Bacuit Bay, Palawan 38.0 19.4 0.3 40.2
ment like parts of the reef flat. On the other hand, the
Bais, Negros oriental 45.1 13.1 0.2 47.4 ASEAN-Australia 'life-form' method (see UNEP/AIMS
Batanes 37.4 10.8 0.2 38.0 1993) used to collect the data presented focused primarily
Bolinao, Pangasinan 20.7 7.4 0.2 31.9
Cagayan 20.2 20.1 0.4 38.0
on the shallow reef slope where there are more corals. The
Calatagan, Batangas 42.3 5.6 0.1 60.6 coral mortality index presumably corrects for some of
Cebu 30.4 19.0 0.3 33.5 these respective biases but the discrepancy between the
Polillo, Quezon 60.4 10.6 0.2 61.4
Puerto Galera, Mindoro 25.5 9.9 0.3 32.6
two sets of surveys is too large to hazard a conclusion.
San Juan, Batangas 34.2 20.8 0.4 38.0 Clearly, only a well-designed monitoring programme
Siargao Is., Surigao 33.7 5.2 0.1 36.3 could indicate whether there have been real changes in
Sitangkai 34.1 9.8 0.2 35.9
Turtle Is. 33.7 14.6 0.2 43.8
reef condition over time.
Ulugan Bay, Palawan 21.2 18.5 0.5 26.9
Mean (14 locations) 34.1 13.2 0.2 40.3 Causes of Degradation
Standard deviation 10.8 5.5 0.1 10.1
The causes of coral reef degradation in the Philippines
have been explained in the various status papers and
synthesized by Yap & Gomez (1985a). For a more
TABLE 5
detailed description of human impacts on coral reefs, the
Live coral cover (Investigation of Coral Resources Project).
multi-authored volume edited by Salvat (1987) covers
Bins (%) Number Percentage most human impacts on reefs.
The degree of typhoon damage and subsequent reef
0 0 0.0%
25 20 23.5% poor
recovery in the Central Philippines have been reported by
50 44 51.8% fair Alcala et al. (1986) and Alcala & Gomez (1990).
75 19 22.4% good Subsequent resurveys indicated that coral recovery was
100 2 2.4% excellent
relatively fast, that is, recovery to 50% cover occurred
Eighty-five sites. after 5 yr, although intermediate events (such as other
subsequent storms and stresses) could reduce recovery
rates. Yap et al. (1990) noted that modification of the
TABLE 6 substrate (for example, that due to increased sedimen-
Mortality index frequency distribution. tation or physical disruption) may also deter recovery.
The recent volcanic eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the
Bins (M.I.) Number Cure.%
Northwestern Philippines had considerable effects on the
0 3 3.5 Zambales coastal environment owing to ashfall and
0.1 21 28.2 subsequent lahar (volcanic mudflows) (Atrigenio et al.,
0.2 12 42.4
0.3 13 57.6 1992; Ochavillo et al., 1992). From an estimated 60-70%
0.4 15 75.3 live coral cover before the eruption (10June 1990), a
0.5 7 83.5 survey a week later (22 June 1990) showed the remaining
0.6 7 91.8
0.7 3 95.3 cover of live coral was 10-20%. The proportion of abiotic
0.8 1 96.5 cover increased significantly by around 40% (Pajaro et
0.9 3 100.0 al., 1992). Remote sensing image analyses indicated that
1.0 0 100.0
the highest turbidity due to siltation was concentrated
Eighty-five sites. within 4 km from shore, and water clarity improved only
about 10 km away from the river mouths. An initial
approximation of fishery loss ranged from around
TABLE 7 US$0.5-2.5 million annually (Ochavillo et al., 1992).
Live coral cover frequency distribution. On the other hand, no large scale problems have been
reported in the Philippines that could be attributed to
Bins (%) Number Cum.%
coral predators such as the Crown of Thorns starfish
0 0 0.0 (Acanthaster planci) and gastropods (Drupella spp.). Only
I0 5 5.9 localized population outbreaks have been observed
20 12 20.0
30 10 31.8 (Alcala, 1976; Yap et al., 1992a), although their nature
40 21 56.5 and extent have not been properly documented.
50 16 75.3 Where reefs have developed in the vicinity of rivers or
6O 13 9O.6
70 6 97.7 transient streams, increasing levels of siltation which are
80 0 97.7 anthropogenic in origin are the main threats. These are
90 0 97.7 often attributable to unwise land-use activities related to
100 2 100.0
deforestation and agriculture (Yap & Gomez, 1985a).
Eighty-five sites. Hodgson (1989) has demonstrated that logging activities

65
 Marine Pollution Bulletin

had deleterious effects on the fringing reefs in Bacuit Bay, clam, Tridacna crocea, for the live aquarium trade, can be
Palawan due to increasing sedimentation from erosion of significant. Enforcement of the law has been inconsistent.
the topsoil from logged-over areas. Aside from the Unfortunately, illegal and destructive fishing are wide-
physical smothering by sediment of the living benthos spread in the Philippines. Blast fishing has been one of the
(especially corals and algae), recruitment success may be most highly documented activities (see review by Pauly et
diminished due to poor larval settlement and a higher al., 1989). Alcala & Gomez (1979) have suggested that it
probability of increased post-recruitment mortality may take some 40 yr for areas which have been destroyed
(Hodgson, 1989). by blast fishing to recover to 50% live coral cover. Russ
High sediment loads may also be generated by (1991) has outlined the various ways in which this may
industrial activity and dredging, threatening reef health. affect both the coral reef habitat and the associated fish
At Toledo City, Cebu (Central Visayas) around 100 000 t communities. Rubec (1988) has provided some convinc-
of mine railings are discharged into the marine environ- ing arguments on how cyanide fishing may negatively
ment daily. This has affected around 7 km of the coastline influence the socio-economics of the coastal communities.
with fish and coral diversity being diminished, and coral As yet, no direct evidence has been reported to demon-
cover decreased by as much as 20-40% (Alifio, 1984). strate how the fish poisons (e.g. sodium cyanide) affect the
Even with a lesser discharge load (such as ,-~ 10 000 t biophysical integrity of the reef habitat or the coral colony
d a y - l ) such as in Calancan Bay, Marinduque, effects can itself. This needs to be investigated in the future.
still be significant. Other circumstances such as poor The urgency of abating destruction of reef areas is often
flushing and depositional effects due to embayment highlighted by the widespread experience of diminishing
characteristics have been shown to complicate conditions fish catches. But at times, it may be quite difficult to
in Calancan Bay. In both of the above-mentioned cases, differentiate effects related to the deterioration of the
stress is not only related to high sedimentation and habitat as compared to effects due to overfishing. Saila et
turbidity but also to the toxic properties of the heavy al. (1993) have illustrated through simulation models the
metals associated with the tailings, such as copper and possible effects that various destructive fishing methods
arsenic. (that is, blast fishing, use of poisons and anchor damage)
Increased oil exploration has had some minor impacts have on the coral reef and its associated fish communities.
during drilling activity especially when done on reefs or In some areas where destruction of the reef habitat may
adjacent to reefs. Some drill sites off the E1 Nido area of be minimal, overfishing of the reef resources resulting in
Palawan have been sited on reefs and drilling activity has decreased yields is a prevailing concern (NFRP, 1991).
been shown to have minimal effects (Shinn et al., 1981). Diversity may (Alcala & Russ, 1990) or may not be
This is probably also because no long term oil production obviously affected in terms of the associated reef fish but
has taken place at these sites. Though no major oil spill localized extinction of some other reefal species has been
has occurred on a reef site in the Philippines, potential reported such as the giant clam, Tridacna gigas. Evidence
hazards are envisioned to increase due to recent encour- of growth overfishing of some dominant species (especi-
aging findings of offshore oil and natural gas especially in ally siganids, scarids and acanthurids) is increasing for
the Northwest Palawan area. some areas in the country (see Del Norte, 1990; and Russ,
The increase of human settlements on the coasts has 1991). The Philippine reef fisheries would be a typical
brought to the fore problems of sewage and other example of what Pauly (1990) would refer to as Malthu-
pollutants in the marine environment. In Puerto Galera sian overfishing. This concept mainly refers to the
Bay, Oriental Mindoro the dual effects of domestic waste depletion of the fisheries resources by the increasing
and restricted circulation are manifested in blooms during number of fishermen and their resorting to destructive
summer (May June) of Hydroclathrus clathratus, a fishing to try to catch more fish. Recruitment overfishing
brown seaweed, in the sheltered portions of the bay, and of the spawning stock may also cause some of the
in the deterioration of the aesthetic quality of its beaches reduction of the fisheries stocks in reefs (as may be the
and underwater scenery. Unregulated resort development cause of the sea urchin recruitment collapse at Bolinao,
in some tourist zones such as in Mactan Island, Cebu may Pangasinan). The understanding of these various modes
prove to impact on the reefs. Aside from the increased of overfishing is important in providing resource manage-
sewage inputs, the construction of marinas and concrete ment options.
breakwaters on the reef itself was contributed to the Illegal fishing methods like blast fishing and fish
deterioration of the landscape and to changes in poisoning are factors that have been considered import-
sedimentary depositional processes. ant in degrading reef habitats. However, analyses using
In addition to the broad scale habitat changes due to the coral mortality index and the subjective scores of
siltation and pollution, direct extractive activities of the environmental impacts (Table 2) for each location in
reef resources have taken their toll. In the 1970s the Table 4 reveal that their effects are more localized and
Philippines was known as the number one coral exporter vary from place to place. Thus, country-level generaliza-
for the curio trade, with over 52 t exported annually in tions about sources of, or causes of reef degradation,
1974 (Gomez & Afionuevo, 1979). With assistance from should be regarded with caution.
coral reef scientists in the country, a coral ban was
promulgated into law in 1977, under Presidential Decree
1219. The direct effects of coral collection may at a glance
Understanding Reef Function
seem minimal (Ross, 1984) but when added to the other In the context of the present paper, reef function is
stresses such as the extraction of the burrowing giant taken to mean the processes that contribute to maintain-

66
Volume 29/Numbers 1 3

ing a healthy reef condition (from the point of view of significant amount of net primary production (Yap et al.,
human benefit), so that the various uses of the ecosystem, 1992b; Yap et ah, 1994). Thus, the coral components of
such as the generation of food and other useful products, reef systems deserve vital consideration in any plan to
the maintenance of coastal protection, and recreation conserve the productivity of such habitats. On a broader
derived from its aesthetic value, are not diminished. scale, the primary production of other ecosystem com-
In the case of reefs in the Philippines, as is the general ponents such as macroalgae also constitutes a significant
rule, reef condition is greatly affected by changes in the input into overall system productivity (Alifio et al.,
biotic or abiotic environment, whether natural, or due to 1992a).
anthropogenic interference. Natural changes in the en-
vironment could constitute a stress, bringing about
Management Considerations
deleterious effects on reef condition, if such changes
approach extreme values or relatively high frequencies. In an earlier section, mention was made of Presideltial
In the determination of reef responses to environmental Decree 1219 which was promulgated on 14 October 1977
forcing which eventually affects reef condition, the as the first national law aimed at protecting the coral
question of scale is central. Changes on the ecosystem resources of the Philippines. As loopholes were found in
scale are ultimately determined by responses on the level that law, an amendent (P.D. 1698) was passed on 22 May
of the individual. Such responses are somehow integrated 1980 to tighten the regulations, including the prohibition
at succeeding higher levels of organization (population, of possession of corals. If strictly enforced, these two laws
community). It is at these levels that changes pertaining to would suffice to prevent the further degradation of coral
reef health, such as alterations in the quality and/or reefs due to the harvesting of corals. They have, in fact,
quantity of useful production, are discerned. stemmed the trade to a significant extent, although illegal
In the Philippines, investigations into functional smuggling still continues (Wood & Wells, 1988).
aspects commenced with physiological studies at the The threats from other sources are more worrisome,
organism level. Thus, an understanding was derived of the notably blast fishing, siltation, and pollution. These are
responses of stony corals to environmental factors such as correlated with increasing population pressure and hence,
temperature (Yap & Gomez, 1984; Yap et al., 1992a), will represent chronic and, in some cases, acute problems.
sedimentation (Yap & Gomez, 1985b), light (Yap et ah, in Other problems such as tourism impact, tend to have self-
press) and water movement (Montebon, 1993). Tempera- regulating mechanisms, and may, therefore, be less of a
ture, when attaining relatively high values in the summer, concern. More and more resort and boat operators have
was seen to constitute a stress and depress coral growth realized that the number of tourists has increased as the
(Yap & Gomez, 1984), and even cause bleaching (Yap et coral reefs which had been previously blasted by fisher-
al., 1992a). Relatively high levels of sedimentation were men recovered. Consequently, they have taken measures
also found to be stressful and decrease coral growth rates to protect accessible reefs.
(Yap & Gomez, 1985b). On the other hand, corals in the While the future remains a rough road for Philippine
Philippines are probably adapted to the relatively intense coral reefs, there are encouraging signs. As an example,
light characteristic of shallow reef flats. Experiments on the demonstration of the value of managing a reef (the
several species of Fungia (Yap et ah, in press) showed light Sumilon Is. Reserve) properly which results in greater fish
saturation to occur at a relatively high level (800 productivity (Alcala, 1988) has become widely known
microEinsteins m - Z s 1) as compared with results of throughout the world (Alcala & Russ, 1990). In addition
previous studies in other localities. With respect to water to government, many non-governmental organizations
motion, increased turbulence was seen to increase the (NGOs) today are actively involved in marine conserva-
productivity of another typical reef flat species, Porites tion. The recent consciousness of the value of developing
cylindrica, but beyond a certain level, metabolic rates integrated coastal zone management approaches is
appeared to become saturated (Montebon, 1993). another positive factor in coral reef conservation. NGOs
The above findings indicate optimal levels for coral are also pressuring government and private industry to
physiology, and hence, productivity, with respect to implement pollution control measures which should
environmental factors such as light, temperature and ultimately reduce damage to reefs. Much of the prevailing
water movement. These results have implications for the environmental awareness can be related to the develop-
maintenance of overall reef health in different environ- ments that preceded the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro
ments. and to the results of the United Nations Conference on
On a community level, gross primary production and Environment and Development. Finally, it is encouraging
respiration of the major ecological components of a reef to note that marine science expertise is increasing both
flat were found to be significantly correlated with light, nationally and regionally. The results of the various
temperature" and salinity, but exhibited relatively small studies that have been conducted in relation to coastal
seasonal fluctuations over an annual cycle (Yap et al., ecosystems, particularly coral reefs, are being incorpor-
1994). Since environmental control of reef function ated into management measures that are aimed at
appears to be significant, the absence of a distinct seasonal ameliorating the deterioration that was becoming more
variability may be due to the relatively minor variations in and more evident on the coastal zone in recent times.
the environmental factors themselves.
In the above study, the larger fraction of primary
The authors are grateful to all those who contributed in some way to the
production was due to the coral component, while the realization of this paper. Special thanks are due to Ms Irene S.
sand and rubble portions of the reef flat did not generate a Pamintuan and Ms Evangeline B. Miclat for word processing and other

67
 Marine Pollution Bulletin

editorial assistance. This paper is Contribution Number 233 of the northwestern Philippines: a physiognomic structural approach.
Marine Science Institute. Proc. 6th Int. Coral Reef Syrup. 3, 275 280.
Montebon, A. R. F. (1993). Metabolic responses of Porites cylindrica
Alcala, A. C. (l 976). Population densities of the crown-of-thornsstarfish (Anthozoa: Scleractinia) to water motion. M.Sc. Thesis. Marine
in two Philippine reefs. Silliman J. 23, 279-287. Science Institute, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, 118 pp.
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