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Dead dolphin beached on Bolo shores
Date:
The Alaminos city government thru the Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network-Alaminos City Chapter is eyeing on the conduct of a Marine Mammal Stranding Response training-seminar here following another reported mammal stranding incident in the city’s shores.
Dr. Ronald Abarra, chief of the city veterinary office, said that the lecture cum training plan for the city veterinary office and POSO-Bantay Dagat personnel, City PNP operative, motorboat operators, and fisherfolks was shelved last year due to time and financial constraints.
“I have already received instructions from Mayor Hernani A. Braganza to reconsider the whole plan," he added. "Hopefully, we could do (training-seminar) it this year.”
“With this important seminar and hands-on training, members of our composite team will soon be equipped with the right knowledge and approaches in dealing with mammal stranding,” he stressed.
A marine mammal stranding is an event in which an individual or group of marine mammals washes ashore after death or is found on the beach or shore in a helpless situation and unable to return to the water on its own.
Marine mammals are said to be out-of-habitat when they are found close to shallow waters and likely at risk of becoming stranded.
Last week, local fishermen found a male Pantropical Spotted dolphin floating and washed ashore along Bolo Beach in Brgy. Telbang and Polo here last April 6. The dolphin eventually died due to still undisclosed reasons.
Almost every year, dolphins and whale sharks are getting stranded along the city’s coastline which Abarra believed is due to presence and sufficiency of their favorite food at the 1,884 hectare Hundred Islands National Park.
This is mainly attributed to the Braganza administration’s all out war against illegal fishing in the area in 2004 and the full implementation of the city’s Coastal Management Resources Program.
Dr. Lemuel Aragones, Associate Professor at the UP Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, said in one of his visits here that the dolphins and whales are indicators of the health and condition of the coastal waters and the ocean in general.
He noted that marine mammals enjoy eating the alamang (small shrimps) and other planktons which are abundant in the city’s marine ecosystem while pointing out that they can also be affected and get stranded due to dynamite fishing.
Abarra though dismissed the possibility that the latest dolphin washed up on the shore is due to illegal fishing activities since the PNP-POSO Bantay Dagat operatives are patrolling the city’s territorial waters round-the-clock.
“It is more likely that it got entangled with the fishing net or injured in a fish pen or motorboats while searching for food rather than ingested toxic food or have been harmed by our local fishermen,” he pointed out.
“This is why we need this marine mammal stranding training-seminar to further educate all our stakeholders on how to fully and swiftly respond on similar mammal stranding cases in the future.” (CIO)
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