(PHOTO COURTESY)
PADRE BURGOS, Southern Leyte-Dive resort operators in this progressive municipality, arguably the dive site capital of the province, have linked hands with the local government unit to restore the coral ecosystem in the town’s seawaters near the coastlines.
At a simple launching ceremony of the Coral Restoration Project on October 17, held at Peter’s Dive Resort in Barangay Lungsodaan, other sectors were also deeply involved, including fisherfolk organizations, barangay officials, and the academe, particularly the Southern Leyte State University (SLSU).
Allan Binnebose, a foreigner who had established residence in the community, led a detailed discussion on how to re-grow corals using seedlings from a healthy reef in neighboring Brgy. Sta. Sofia, transporting and planting them 7 to 9 meters deep underwater about 10 meters away from the shoreline in brgy. Lungsodaan.
A full-length cyclone wire is used as a coral bed secured with steel bars in the seabed as demonstrated by Binnebose, assisted by Arnel Beslig, a dive ranger of the LGU, with plastic soft drink bottles filled with stones attached to the cyclone wire serving as seed pots.
“Seventeen coral beds will be installed during this launching, and this will be done in three days,” said Rey Palero, executive assistant of Mayor Hermenegildo Culpa, adding that the LGU had set aside a budget for this effort this year.
Long before the launching, however, about a couple of years earlier, Binnebose had started laying out at least 10 coral beds on his own initiative in the area called Peter’s Dive Resort House Reef, just off the coastal waters of Brgy. Lungsodaan.
In June 2024, a team led by Bennibose and Beslig assessed the survival rate of the transplanted corals, and the findings were exceptionally positive, Peter’s Dive Resort posted in their social media page.
The total number of grown replanted corals were 125 units and 117 of them survived, a survival rate of 94 percent, spread in 10 coral cyclone wire beds at a deep of 9 meters, the resort reported.
“We want to replicate this to other barangays along the coasts in the municipality,” said Palero.
This initiative extends to other coastal LGUs all over the province whose coral reefs are losing fast, with Padre Burgos leading the way as the first to have confirmed that coral planting works.
(MMP, PIA Southern Leyte)
