Click on any of the images to see the enlarged copy and narratives of the photo. Very few people would have known that Sariaya has impressive reefs. In fact, many divers are under the impression that there is nothing to see underwater in Sariaya and would never think of diving in Sariaya. Many even say that the reefs in Quezon province have been devastated by rampant uncontrolled dynamite and overfishing.
Perhaps it is true that the Sariayahin reefs have once been nearly obliterated by dynamite fishing. Most of the reefs are still in calamity state up to now. But people will be pleasantly surprised to know that a good reef is growing back to life today. And this is because Sariaya has so delineated an area in their waters and declared it a Marine Protected Area (MPA). Tightly guarded by the barangay people, the reef has had a chance to regenerate back to a state that would very soon rival the reefs of Anilao.
The MPA has just been surveyed by the WaypointsDotPH Reef Rehabilitation Team (Ed Garcia, Homer Hernandez, Boy Siojo) who have been tasked to come up with a report to be submitted to the Local Government Unit. Biological assessment, GPS/Sonar bathymetric mapping and video/photo documentations were done. The above photos show a glimpse of what we found. Impressive, even veteran diver and videographer Boy Siojo was impressed.
The MPA is still pretty much a "no touch" zone for now. Fishing and diving is strictly prohibited. Only the "reefkeepers" are allowed to dive in the area. This is so the gene pool in the area can further be enhanced. So, hold on to your tanks in the meantime. The Sariaya LGU is considering opening up certain areas of the reefs though in the near future to accomodate diving tourism. We shall keep people posted through this website. One of the projects on the pipeline is to do a coral reef rehabilitiation project as done by Homer Hernandez at Anilao [click here]. This will be both a conservation project and a dive tourism attraction aimed to accelerate the regeneration of the other reefs.
Waypoint narrative by: EPPGarcia 2009 follow EPPGarcia on Facebook
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