Fall-out from the carving of people's names onto corals on the Philippines’ diving destination of Bohol has continued, with the authorities now convinced that one or more local dive-guides and boat operators have been collecting additional fees from tourists to create the underwater graffiti.
One dive-guide is reported to have admitted vandalising corals. Damage to the reefs is illegal under the Philippine Fisheries Code, though it is not clear whether criminal charges will be brought against him.
At least 13 people’s names were found etched into corals at the Estaca scuba and snorkelling site off Puntud (formerly Virgin) Island near Panglao, when an inspection was carried out at the end of August following a tip-off from a local PADI dive-guide.
A Korean tourist had posted a video on social media showing a guide vandalising coral, and Bohol’s governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado offered a reward for further information, as reported on Divernet on 4 September. The reward money was later quadrupled to 200,000 pesos (about £2,700).
Backed by the governor, Panglao’s mayor Edgardo ‘Boy’ Arcay closed the site to tourist activities as of yesterday (9 September) for at least six months and possibly more than a year. Forming part of the “Panglao Island Protected Seascape” under the “Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System”, the area's coral will need time to recover, he says.
Arcay also says that on 5 September he personally questioned the unnamed guide seen in the video. After admitting inscribing the name of a female guest onto coral at her request, he was warned that he could be declared persona non grata for his role in “killing tourism”.
The Philippines’ Department of the Environment & Natural Resources and the Bohol Provincial Environment & Natural Resources Office are now assessing the dive-site. Aumentado has said that he intends to create a task force with powers of arrest to prevent similar incidents happening in future.
Also on Divernet: CARVED-UP CORAL SHOCKS BOHOL DIVERS, PARTIAL TO ANDA’S ABRACADABRA, PHILIPPINES DIVE-RESORT CLAIMS CORAL COUP
