Southern Coral Reef Conservation Project (SLCRCP)

Monthly Project Update

August 2014

Location: Napantao Dive Resort, Napantao, San Francisco,

Project Scientist: Charlie Wiseman ([email protected])

SLRCP Project Aim The Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project (SLCRCP) is a collaborative Contents project to protect the coral reefs of . The programme provides training and conservation education opportunities for local Filipinos, as part of an  Latest news integrated programme to develop local capacity and ensure the long-term  Story of the Month protection and sustainable use of marine resources throughout the region. Coral  Educational & Cay Conservation (CCC) is working at the invitation of and in partnership with the Community Projects Provincial Government of Southern Leyte and the Philippine Reef & Rainforest  Survey Update Conservation Foundation Inc. (PRRCFI). Coral Cay Conservation provides the  Marine Scholarship resources to help sustain livelihoods and alleviate poverty through the protection, News restoration and management of coral reefs and tropical forests.  Marine Creature of the month

Latest News August has been a busy month for CCC. We helped out with and held a variety of community events, including an Information and Education Campaign (IEC) for the Son-Ok fisherfolk and a Reef Rangers day for Estrela High School. The Son-Ok IEC was implemented to teach local fisherfolk about the science, legislation and benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Municipal Agricultural Office is implementing these IEC’s in barangays throughout Pintuyan in the hopes that fisherfolk will be encouraged to learn about MPAs and respect their regulations. The Reef Rangers day for Estela High School involved a day at the CCC site learning about coral life forms and fish families before taking the plunge (snorkelling) to see the stunning reefs of Napantao MPA. The students learnt about threats to the reef, made CCC Education Officer, Liz Scheimer, assists US Peace Corp posters on reef conservation and played some fun member, Tom Sanborn, to implement an Information and marine related games. By the end of the day the Education Campaign for the fisherfolk of Son-OK students, CCC volunteers and staff members were all very in the municipality of Pintuyan. tired but ecstatic with how the day had gone.

Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project , August 2014

Story of the Month CCC Coral Rehabilitation Project

For a few weeks of August our boat Banakun was unfortunately broken, and so CCC staff and volunteers were unable to survey. In order to continue our marine conservation efforts despite this set back, our science team revived an existing coral rehabilitation project on the reefs of Napantao. Storms in 2013 led to a number of corals being broken into fragments by large waves. The science team at the time started a coral rehabilitation programme that involved re- attaching broken coral fragments to bare rock in the hopes that they would encrust back onto the substrate and grow. Unfortunately our current science team found that the majority of these fragments were not re-attaching onto the substrate. CCC Volunteers Sig Vorren and Denis Ramos utilising marine It is likely that recent high wave action during putty to attach coral fragments to the substrate Habagat will have loosened the fragments from the substrate making them unable to grow. It was, therefore, apparent that we would have to try a different attachment method. CCC staff and volunteers experimented with a few different methods before deciding upon a combination of fitting fragments into tight holes within the rock and utilising a marine putty to help the corals stick within their holes. This method appears to be working well so we have started monitoring the health, state of attachment and growth of individual coral fragments. As coral growth is a very slow process, we hope to see results over the next few months.

Education and Community Projects Youth Camp Weekend at Pintuyan National Vocational High School

On the weekend of the 9th of August CCC’s Education Officers Liz and David, in conjunction with the US Peace Corp, ran a youth camp weekend for students of Pintuyan National Vocational High School. During the youth camp, students were educated about marine fauna and flora found in their local area. Some of them had never had the opportunity to study these organisms before and so were very excited to learn about their ecology and biology. The youth camp also aimed to raise student awareness of the anthropogenic issues that Southern Leyte marine habitats face. Students were educated about proper waste disposal methods and the risks that waste products pose to their oceans. Staff also explained the importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the future conservation of their waters. Students were shown the risks of overfishing for future generations by playing the famous “MPA game”. They realised that if their waters were not managed properly and people fished them unselectively, their coral reef communities would quickly decline to an unhealthy state. The two-day event culminated with CCC staff taking the students snorkelling to identify different species of fish and coral. Some of the students had never even been snorkelling before so it was extremely rewarding to see them enter the water and start excitedly identifying the animals they had been learning about. It was a truly magical weekend full of learning and inspiration (inspiration to both the children and the staff involved).

Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project Philippines, August 2014

CCC Education Officers Liz Scheimer and David Orr, Medical Officer Caroline Pegg and SCUBA Instructor Amy Cartwright present Pintuyan National Vocational High School with their awards for completing the 2-day Youth Camp on Marine Conservation

Survey Update Survey background: Since January 2013, survey efforts have been focused on assessing Marine Protected Areas in Sogod Bay, in order to provide management recommendations. To do this we use an expanded version of the Reef Check survey protocol, which has been customised by CCC to perfectly fit our work in Sogod Bay. Prior to this a baseline appraisal of marine resources in Sogod Bay was carried out. If you would like more information about our surveying please contact our Project Scientist, Charlie Wiseman.

We are extremely excited to announce that our boat Banakun has been fixed! The Coral Cay staff and volunteers are thrilled to be back in the water conducting surveys. We are currently surveying the beautiful barangay waters of Nueva Estrella Norte in Pintuyan. Survey teams are particularly enjoying surveying this previously undived and undiscovered area! Preliminary inspection of the area revealed lots of hard coral cover and available habitat for fish but a low population of large fish. These initial findings indicate that the area would make a very successful MPA if managed effectively.

Scientific reports from all of CCC’s sites around the world are available on our website at http://www.coralcay.org/science-research/scientific-reports/.

Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project Philippines, August 2014

The beautiful barangay waters of Nueva Estrella Norte, CCC’s current proposed Marine Protected Area (MPA) survey site

Marine Scholarship News Each month CCC offers Filipino nationals who display an ambition to study and protect the vital marine ecosystems of the Philippines an opportunity to take part in our Marine Conservation Scholarship. The programme lasts for one month and involves training the student in SCUBA diving to the level of PADI Advanced Open Water. They then take part in an intensive Skills Development Programme giving them the knowledge and expertise to conduct sub-marine surveys of the coastline.

On the 20th August our new scholar Gil Gabriel Villancio AKA “Gabbo” joined CCC. Gabbo is a graduate student from the University of the Philippines currently studying a Masters in Zoology CCC Science Officer, Alan Kavanagh, teaching our new scholar, with a minor in Veterinary Medicine. He has been Gabbo, how to identify different species of hard coral. interested in learning more about marine

Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project Philippines, August 2014 conservation ever since his marine zoology module during his Biology undergraduate degree and has always wanted to learn to dive. He is ecstatic to announce he is now a PADI certified SCUBA diver and is currently speeding through the material in our two-week science programme. He is looking forward to using his CCC dive and survey training to further his research into marine biology and conservation.

If you would like to apply for the CCC Marine Conservation Scholarship programme or read more about it, please visit: http://www.coralcay.org/volunteer/scholarship-opportunities/

Marine Creature of the Month!

Our “marine creature of the month” for August is the mushroom coral! Mushroom corals belong to the family fungiidae and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They are our “creature of the month” because our current survey site, Nueva Estrella Norte, is home to large aggregations of mushroom corals that our current science team has never seen before! Mushroom corals are extremely unique hard corals because they are solitary animals. Most hard corals are large colonies comprised of many small animals, known as polyps. Mushroom corals, however, exist as one large, individual polyp. Another unique characteristic of mushroom corals is that they are capable of benthic locomotion. Most hard corals are attached to the substrate by a calcium carbonate skeleton and so do not move. Mushroom corals, however, are free-living and so capable of utilising water motion to move relatively large distances. Some species have even been shown to expand their tissues above their calcareous skeletons and push against hard surfaces to move small distances away from adjacent competitive corals

Different species of mushroom coral aggregated on the reef of Nueva Estrella Norte

Learn More! To learn more about the CCC Philippines project, to join the expedition, or to find out about local marine Scholarships, visit www.coralcay.org.