Editorial: American GIs brought dynamite fishing to the Philippines

I thought that I'd share some disturbing news I've learned from friends in the Philippines. Part of the reason why I am in the Philippines is that the Philippines not only belongs to the "coral triangle" area of highest coral reef fish and hermatypic reef-building coral diversity globally, but its reefs also suffer among the most in the world through overt environmental degradation by humans. See the figure below for areas of reef and their subsequent threat risk level.

Dynamite fishing (the practice of throwing dynamite in the water to kill or stun fish and bring them to the surface) destroys coral reefs in the process of catching large amounts of fish. Fully 25% of coral reefs in the Philippines are already destroyed beyond repair in a generation's lifetime, with another 25% already greatly impacted (findings from State of the Reefs 2010 country findings). Looking at the figure above, it is clear that most reefs in the Philippines are color-coded red, for extremely high risk to their survival. Arguably dynamite fishing is one of the greatest threats to Philippine reefs considering how extensive it is.


What is disturbing to me is that dynamite fishing was taught to Filipinos by US troops post-WWII, first using hand grenades supplied by the American troops before returning home, and later through learning how to make dynamite from US instructions. Therefore, while the practice is now a couple generations old, when looking for blame about why the coral reefs of the Philippines are so damaged, a large part of the blame must go to the US, whom, in only a few years before granting the Philippines independence (in 1947) were able to sow the seeds that led to future destruction.


Unfortunately, such short-sightedness is not limited to the above example. Even [the late] Osama bin Laden and the Taliban received support from the US military in the past, and I think we know how well that turned out.


Before closing this week's Science corner, I'd also like to share a short list showing that the Philippines is among the top of most threatened countries environmentally. The United Nations Environmental Vulnerability Index (below) describes how vulnerable a country is (politically and other measures) depending on how imminent environmental collapse may be.