Sandy Cay in WPS now in degraded state, marine expert says

The marine biodiversity in Sandy Cay located in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) is now in a "degraded state" due to overfishing, climate change impacts, and island-building activities in the WPS, an expert said on Saturday.

During the Saturday News Forum, marine scientist Dr. Jonathan Anticamara painted a concerning picture of the marine biodiversity surrounding Sandy Cay.

Sandy Cay is a vicinity adjacent to Pag-asa Island, situated in the municipality of Kalayaan, positioned within the West Philippine Sea.

"Pag-asa Cays have less than 10 coral and fish species per 100 sqm transect that we surveyed, and most (of) the observed corals and fish species are small in sizes," Anticamara said during the presentation of his team's assessment.

"Many of the corals here in this island, including Pag-asa Island itself and the cays, are now degraded. By degraded, I mean that many of the corals are now small, a lot of the large corals are dead, and there's not a lot of live corals per unit area anymore, so there are very few remaining," he added.

Anticamara mentioned that the coral rubbles on Cays 1, 2 and 3 can be seen during high tide, where the debris are dumped on large live coral colonies.

In September 2023, experts discovered deceased and fragmented corals on Sandy Cay 2, a practice reportedly typical of China prior to initiating land reclamation efforts.

"The pile of sand and rubble on Pag-asa Cays 1, 2 and 3 have many characteristics that are atypical of naturally formed coral or sandy barrier islands, indicating that these are possibly product of island building activities that are observed in WPS, but with some degree of uncertainty," Anticamara said.

Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), promptly attributed the "degradation" of Sandy Cay to China.

"If you are going to ask me now, who is our suspect in doing these illegal small island reclamation in Cays 1, 2, 3, 4? There's no other country that we can pinpoint, it's only the People's Republic of China," said Tarriela. 

In March, a group of Filipino marine scientists sustained injuries following reported harassment by a Chinese Navy helicopter near Sandy Cay.

Allegedly, the helicopter flew at low altitude over the merging sandbars and the scientists for a duration of ten minutes.

The turbulence generated by the helicopter dispersed deceased corals, resulting in cuts and scratches on the Filipino researchers.

China asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, a vital route for over $3 trillion in annual maritime trade, encompassing territories also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Certain areas within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone have been designated as the West Philippine Sea.

In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled that China's claims lacked legal justification.

Beijing dismissed the verdict.