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Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - The crime was described as "the rape of the ocean."
 
Poachers decimated an entire "reef complex"--almost twice as big as Manila--off the coast of Cotabato province when they harvested more than 21,000 pieces of black coral and killed 161 endangered turtles and other marine life, officials said.
 
One of the turtles killed was a male aged 80 to 100 years old.
 
Bureau of Customs officials intercepted the contraband two weeks ago and recovered 134 bundles, or 21,169 pieces, of "sea fan" black corals and 15 bundles, or 196 kilograms, of "sea whip" black corals.
 
"The Moro Gulf and the Sulu Sea off Cotabato are supposed to be unexplored reef areas but with this collection, we can see that they have also been disturbed," said Ludivina Labe, a senior marine biologist of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
 
"It's like a forest that has been cut down," Labe said. "One reef complex was decimated."
 
Labe spoke with reporters during the turnover of the seized black corals, dead sea turtles and 7,300 pieces of sea shells to officials of BFAR and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at the port of Manila.
 
2 container vans
 
Customs Police Director Nestorio Gualberto said wildlife trader Exequiel Navarro, consignee of the contraband, appeared at his office on Tuesday and indicated that he was prepared to identify the financier of the project and the people who harvested the corals.
 
Gualberto said the contraband was concealed in two container vans and declared as rubber.
 
Only two or three colonies of black corals-each represented by a piece of black coral-are found in one hectare of sea bed, Labe explained.
 
With 21,169 black coral pieces recovered, this could mean that the area harvested could be as big as 7,000 hectares, or an area almost twice the size of the city of Manila.
 
"These web-like colonial organisms are not lush or bushy. They're found on reef walls or reef slopes. One piece is equal to one colony," Labe said.
 
"One piece of black coral is not just one organism. There are thousands of other organisms who live there," she added.
 
35m-peso contraband
 
Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the DENR-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said one of the turtles killed measured 40 inches and was aged "80 to 100 years old."
 
"There were also small ones who were only juveniles or just 4 years old," Lim said.
 
"This is saddening because we have reduced this illegal trade and now we catch something as big as this," she added.
 
Environment officials said some of the contraband could be given to marine biology schools while the black coral, although already dead, could be returned later to the sea.
 
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said the seized goods had a market value of "at least 35 million pesos (US$804,000)."
 
The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the "economic cost over a 25-year period of destroying one kilometer of coral reef is somewhere" between $137,000 and $1,200,000.
 
"It took 25 years or even more for these corals to grow like this. They grow only one centimeter a month," Labe said.
 
Exotic jewelry
 
The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora has banned the harvesting of black coral but the practice continues.
 
"(The illicit trade) is being fueled by the demand of the multibillion-dollar marine ornamental industry for exotic decorative species and the increasing popularity of coral-accented jewelry and fashion accessories," Alvarez said.
 
"While the Bureau of Customs does not have the means to serve as a first line of defense against the so-called plunderers of the marine ecosystem, we are determined to play the role of a deterrent by making it unprofitable for illegal wildlife traders to move their prohibited cargoes through our air and sea ports," he said.
 
"Nobody should profit from the rape of the ocean," Alvarez added.
 
The Fisheries Code of 1998, which bans gathering and selling corals, punishes violators with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine from 2,000 pesos ($46) to 20,000 pesos ($459).


http://ph.news.yahoo.com/coral-reefs-twice-size-manila-destroyed-071002394.html

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Gov't files raps vs consignee, shippers of black corals
By David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 06/03/2011 10:37 AM | Updated as of 06/03/2011 6:33 PM


MANILA, Philippines (2nd UPDATE) - The Bureau of Customs on Friday filed criminal charges against the shippers and consignee of a P35 million shipment of  black corals, sea turtles and other protected wildlife from Mindanao.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez identified the respondents as Exequiel Navarro, consignee of the shipment; Olivia Lim Li, proprietress of the Zamboanga-based Li and Lim Trading and identified by Navarro as the real shipper of the contraband; Kim L. Atillano, owner of the Zamboanga-based JKA Transport System which was the cargo forwarding company tapped by the shipper;  Ireneo Penuliar and other yet –to-be identified employees of the Manila branch of the JKA Transport System; and, officers/owners of Vicky’s Trucking, the company which transported the misdeclared cargo from the shipper’s warehouse to the Port of Zamboanga.

Alvarez said the respondents are accused of violating Section 91 of the Republic Act 8550, otherwise known as the Fisheries Code of the Philippines relative to the ban on coral exploitation and exportation, Fisheries Administrative Order 158 promulgated in 1986 relative to prohibition on the gathering, taking, collecting, transporting, or possession for sale of endangered species of mollusks; and, Section 27 of the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001. 

The respondents have been linked to the illegal shipment of 163 stuffed hawksbills and green turtles, 21,169 black corals, 7,340 trumpet and helmet shells and other endangered species found at the Eva Macapagal Domestic Terminal in Pier 15, South Harbor Manila last month.

Justice Secretary  De Lima said those charged for smuggling black corals will be put on a watchlist order.

Dr. Porfirio Alino of the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) earlier said only 5 percent —equivalent to  just around 1,000 square kilometers—of the country’s total reef area remain in good condition in the face of the wanton destruction of our coral reefs by poachers.


More at: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/06/03/11/govt-files-raps-vs-consignee-shippers-black-corals

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