Guimaras Oil Spill - Impact on Fisheries - 1

“Damage assessment must be carried out, so as to create a basis, to demand compensation for the victims of the Oil Spill in Guimaras.”

Oil spill may have direct and indirect impact on fish and fisheries. Oil spills can cause mortality to fish and fisheries resources, particularly to fish larvae. Detrimental effects of oil spill on fisheries could include the following:

1. The effects of oil on inshore shellfish beds can be overwhelming. But impact on fishes can be limited because fish tend to swim away from the sites of oil spills and hence the long-term impacts on local populations can be avoided.

2. However, fisheries productivity can be disrupted if migration routes of fishes are altered as a result of the oil spill.

3. The sub-lethal effects of the spilled oil on fishes may be very detrimental. Even very low concentrations of oil can affect reproduction and feeding of fish and shellfish, among other organisms.

4. Fish exposed to oil can be tainted by oil-derived substances. Concentration of petroleum contaminants and its derivatives in finfish and shellfish tissues could pose a significant potential hazard to human health.

My involvement in researches dealing on oil spill and its impact on fisheries, contamination could go deeper into the tissues of food fishes that we eat, and could possibly go up in the food chain. For example, for fish tissues we have sampled in the middle-east in areas that had extensive oil spill, even after a period of nearly 8 years, concentrations of trace metals such as arsenic and mercury for demersal and reef associated species were much higher than in areas that did not experience an oil spill. I am wondering (hehehe) how much changes would there be in so far as concentrations of carcinogenic PAHs (Polyaromatic hydrocarbons) such as benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, and chrysene on fish tissues of fishes in Guimaras months or years after the oil spill. Sana naman magkaroon ng milagro, at walang maging ganitong kalalang impact sa yamang dagat ng Guimaras.

5. Massive spills may result in loss of fishing opportunities with boats unable to fish due to the risk of fouling. This may cause temporary financial loss to fishermen and temporary shortage of seafood supplies to the people in Guimaras.

As I said, “Damage assessment must be carried out, so as to create a basis, to demand compensation for the victims of the Oil Spill in Guimaras.”

Dito muna, more to come…

Oil Spill in Guimaras

I watched ABSCBN news last night. This blog entry will try to react how they covered the oil spill in Guimaras. This is very subjective and is based on my personal assessment of the news they showed on TV. Hindi sa ako ay nagmamagaling.

Eto na:

1. As always, the coverage tried to show the impact of the oil spill in sensationalizing way. They always tried to appeal to emotions, the destruction caused by the spill, the people losing livelihoods, almost appealing/asking the people to rebel, to rise up against oil companies.

2. The payment paid to the people involved in the clean up are not always enough, as if asking, they should be paid more.

I am therefore, wondering if this method of reporting is helping alleviate the impact of the spill on the people and their livelihood (at all). Or it is trying to create more trouble, to create more news. Which leads to the question, do they really care?

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I remember that in Jubail (SASREF) there was an oil spill sometime in February 2006. The reaction was immediate that after three weeks when our team (composed of three people) went to sample and assess the area for oil spill impact we had difficulty looking for evidence of the spill. We went as far as collecting fish tissue samples, and digging the substrate to get evidence that indeed there was an oil spill. And that damage had been done to the environment, and therefore compensation is due, to clean up, monitor, and rehabilitate the affected areas.

But then Saudi is an oil country, and they have to be well equipped to respond to disasters like oil spill because this is more common there than in the Philippines.

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I can only compare how we react (here) on environmental disasters.

1. Our government is ill equipped to react, and we are slow to get down working to respond to disasters like this. Our media outlets are interested more in sensationalizing the news, instead of coming out with bulletins how to help people overcome the disaster. And our politicians are more interested in politics instead of passing laws on environmental accountability, and related environmental laws such as quick determination of responsibility, and requiring companies with high risk of environmental hazard to put up an environmental fund which can be accessed for environmental clean up, rehabilitation etc. etc..

2. It seemed to me that the Navy got only involved because some Japanese came here to help in the clean up.

3. Our DENR does not have equipments and QRT’s to respond to disasters like this.

4. As an ASEAN member country, we should have coordination and agreement with our neighboring countries on massive disasters especially those that have possibilities of inter-country impact such as oil spill, para naman matulungan tayo.

5. Our government approach is always to throw money over a problem as if we do not have a massive budget deficit. Bakit kaya? We should have a law, requiring mining, oil companies among others with "high potential of risk on environment" to get environmental insurance, to set up a fund etc. etc. Instead of our government throwing money much needed by the poor - over a problem created by private companies negligence.

Hay……… I will just keep my mouth (hehehe, my blog entry) shut.

Quotation

I am posting this, because (1) I like it, and (2) so i can read it from time to time on this blog. What is it?

From PDI: TAIPAN John Gokongwei Jr. marked his 80th birthday on Friday by donating an unprecedented P10.25 billion to education and other causes. And the taipan said during his speech, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.”

Paano giginhawa?

While drinking beer with a friend last week, my friend complained that life is difficult. Mabuti pa raw ako, “abroad” (his indirect way of telling me na ako ang magbayad, ahihi). His take home pay is 11,000 pesos, while his wife is 9,000 pesos for a total of 20,000 pesos a month. They have two young children, one is 5 years old and the other is 3 years old…..parehas daw malakas lumagok ng gatas, hehehe. May ATM debt pa raw sya sa opisina nya, which charges 10 per cent a month. Ano raw ba gagawin nya? Should he go abroad para daw lumaki ang kita nya? Paano na lang daw, pag-nag-aral na mga anak nya, tyak daw talagang kakapusin sila. His reasoning was, no employee became rich; most government employees get old and get deeper in debt. (unless corrupt, diba?), hehehe.

Hay…….ang sagot ko ay:

Kahit abroad ka kong hindi mo rerendahan ang gastos mo, ganoon din, wala kang maiipon. Kahit hindi ka abroad kong hindi mo rin rerendahan ang gastos mo, ganoon din. Sabi ko, try to save. I asked him to list his monthly expenses: gastos sa yosi – Marlboro, palitan mo ng Winston, bawasan mo beer budget mo, add more vegetables to your diet, kong OK pa cellphone mo, why buy a new one? blah blah…etc. etc. Sabi ko, isipin mo 16,000 lang take home pay niyong mag-asawa a month, and live on it. Budgetin mo. Now save that 4,000 a month for 6 months, and how much you will get? 24,000 diba? Now instead of you taking the loan at 10% a month, asked your fellow employees to get a loan from you at 8% a month. Roll that, and continue saving 4,000 a month and how much you will get, with the power of compound interest, after a year; what about after two years? Magaling ka sa math diba… magkano?

Ayan…. you will have a total asset of 0.25 million in two years, and an added income of almost 20K a month on interest alone after two years. Can you imagine how much will it be in 10 years? Magkano nga ba? Yayaman ka rin …….sabi ko. Just spend less than what you earn, and invest wisely. And most importantly, you have to start Now!

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Since we are on this, I am wondering how much the "bombays" earn in my City since they have been charging 20% (5-6), and their clients are almost all the vendors and small stores here, and they have been doing this since I can remember. In fact, one of my shop neighbors told me that she had been on a loan from a "bombay" for the past 15 years na "walang patid", and her monthly loans ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 pesos at a time, up to 10,000 pesos, and she had been paying the "bombay" religously- daily for the past 15 years!

Shop is open for business

We opened the shop last Monday. The shop sells: school supplies, photo copying services, e-loads, book binding, and cigarettes. So I have been busy the past week, observing and assisting in the shop, hehehehe. Cge na lang (kahit nahihiya**), I went into this business kaya panindigan na. My observations are as follows:

a. We should open only on Mon. to Friday. Ang bantay ko kasi has to do her household chores on weekends. And starting next week, hahayaan ko na sila; my involvement would be limited on Friday evenings (while I am here) para bilangin ang kita, hehehe.

b. Instead of a weekly inventory, it is better to list the purchases on a receipt, and do the inventory on the receipts. We issue temporary receipts lang, I asked them to asked around kong kailangan ba talaga naming ng receipts, e hindi naman malaki ang shop namin.

c. Just for e-loads, it is possible to earn 100 a day, enough for the salary of my shop keeper/s. We are searching for a shop helper.

d. Most of the students would prefer the cheaper Xerox, instead of the more expensive clear copy Xerox. We all agreed to obtain a liquid Xerox so that the students would have an option. So I have to scout around, probably go to Cebu para bumili.

e. We made a list of items the students are interested to buy - that our shops doesn’t have, para ma kompleto daw ang laman ng shop namin.

f. Believe it or not, the highest earning item in the shop are the cigarettes. A pack of Marlboro, for example, which we purchased for 23.00 pesos, would sell for 27.00 pesos to vendors. These vendors would buy from us several packets a day which they would then retail for 2 pesos a stick.

g. I now know how to trouble shoot a photocopying machine. So does my shop keeper and one of my scholars assigned to oversee and managed this shop.

h. Since I have an old printer and scanner in my house na hindi nagagamit, I am planning to buy a cheap desktop computer so the shop can also do computer printing, scanning, and CD writing.

i. When one student buys a sliding folder, expect another hundred or two hundred students to follow within the hour. If one student photocopies two pages of something, expect more students to come, photocopying the same, hehehe.

I am not sure how much income this business would provide me on a monthly basis. But my observations during the first week of operation, and if and when, marami na ang suki namin, I expect a substantial amount over the months, hehehe. And most importantly for me, I was able to create a job for my relative, and free up a small amount for one of my scholars expenses. And for them to learn/experience how to run a small business. O diba?

**Baka makita ako ng mga kaibigan ko, at tanungin ako: what happened to you? Tindero ka na ba? hehehe.