Philippine marine scientists have called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to reconsider the extension of the oil exploration permit for the Tañon Strait issued to the Japan Exploration Company, and are also calling for a transparent review of the whole Environmental Impact Assessment process for this activity.

In a statement, marine scientists belonging to the Philippine Association of Marine Scientists lamented the claim of the Department of Energy and the DENR that there were no negative impacts on the marine ecosystem of Tañon Strait as reported in the newspapers a week ago.

The signatories of the petition are Lemnuel Aragones of the University of the Philippines Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, former environment secretary Angel Alcala, director of the Silliman University Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management;

Portia Joy Nillos-Kleiven of SUAKCREM, Edna Sabater of Silliman University and PAMS officers Ruth Gamboa of UP Mindanao, Grace Bacaltos of the Southern Philippines Agribusiness Marine & Aquatic School of Technology, Rommi Dizon of the UP Marine Science Institute, Willy Campos of UP Visayas and Sony De Guzman of the Mindanao State University.

In November 2007, a 60-day permit was awarded by DENR to JAPEX to conduct exploratory oil drilling. Recently, an extension for another 41 days has been given to JAPEX since they argued that they had technical problems associated with the drilling.

In 2005, JAPEX conducted seismic surveys for the initial stages of the oil exploration in Tañon Strait . In that same year, Aragones and his colleagues recorded changes in the surface behavior of the nighttime-feeding spinner dolphins.

The scientists discovered that the spinners became unusually inactive, as opposed to their usually active behavioral state in the afternoon just before they feed.

The same group also found that the relative abundance of the spinners declined a year after the seismic surveys. They said this suggests that the seismic surveys did not only have immediate negative impacts on this cetacean species but also had delayed negative effects.

They said this implies that the individual animals may have been negatively affected by the seismic sounds, which consists of an unusual loud sound in this area where these cetaceans have lived before in serenity.

They said most cetaceans, like spinner dolphins, use sounds for their navigation, feeding and breeding purposes.

The Tañon Strait Protected Seascape is a critical habitat for 14 of the 27 cetacean species recorded in the Philippines . This body of water is their known feeding, breeding, nursery grounds as well as their migratory pathway.

What makes Tañon Strait unique, they said, is that there is only one other body of water in the Philippines which has 14 cetacean species, which is the Batanes/Babuyan groups of Islands in northern Luzon .

The Batanes area is surrounded by a large body of water that is fed by the productive Kurushio current in comparison to the very narrow waters in Tañon Strait , making it more unique.

The scientists said an indicator that the oil exploration activities in Tañon Strait have threatened the populations of cetaceans in the area is the very few numbers of species and relative abundance of cetaceans sighted by the researchers from SUAKCREM in December 2007.

Only two species: spinner and common bottlenose dolphins were sighted from Dec. 11 to 15, 2007.

A 1994 survey by Dr. Louella Dolar pegged the population of spinners in the entire Tanon Strait to be about 3,500. A subsequent survey in 2005 by Aragones placed the number of spinners at 1,300.

Another survey will be done as soon as weather conditions improve.*AP

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