After being caught spearfishing while using scuba gear on 21 April, a Filipino freelance divemaster has had his CMAS Divemaster status revoked, meaning that he is no longer able to work as a dive professional under the organisation’s banner.
“Philmar Madriaga is no longer affiliated or a member of CMAS Philippines due to illegal spearfishing in full scuba gear at Cathedral Rock,“ CMAS has stated. The Cathedral Rock dive-site is in Mabini, Anilao near the diver’s home town of Batangas.
Madriaga, who is said to have received numerous previous warnings about his conduct, was caught as he emerged from the site at around 7pm. Cathedral Rocks is a Declared Marine Sanctuary, a variety of MPA in which human activities are restricted by law to protect marine resources and biodiversity.
Spearfishing is legal in the Philippines, normally as a freediving activity, but using scuba gear for the purpose can be restricted or prohibited in certain areas, particularly marine sanctuaries. The use of spearguns as opposed to traditional spears is also banned in some Philippine waters.
CMAS is a long-established international umbrella organisation for diver-training bodies and competitive underwater sports. It remains to be seen whether the penalty imposed by it on Madriaga was a one-off or part of a concerted crackdown on illegal spearfishing, said to be common practice in local protected areas.
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Check Moalboal in Cebu to see the damage regular spearfishers (without scuba) can do to a reef. Everynight the coast shines with dozens of underwater torchlights, so much that the sites are now completely void of fish, except for sardines..