China, get your coral-pickin’ ships out

A recent study published by the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports in May has identified Philippine waters as among the world’s hottest of spots for marine biodiversity.

The study, entitled “Biodiversity and biogeography of zooxanthellate soft corals across the Indo-Pacific,” particularly cited soft corals in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and Benham Bank in the Philippine Rise — now under grave threat from China — as among the world’s richest and most diverse, confirming the country’s waters are a habitat of these vital reef organisms.

Algae-energized soft corals, also called octorals, do not form the rigid skeletons that build reef structures. What they do — these stunning forms that make diving sites a vibrant attraction for sports dive enthusiasts — is play a consequential ecological role in adding complexity to reef habitats and provide shelter to marine life.

But the significance of soft corals stretches beyond their striking visuals. They produce a wide range of bioactive compounds, including anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-viral agents which are being studied for their therapeutic properties.

There is ongoing research probing their potential for treating neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and rheumatic arthritis even. Some studies indicate that certain soft coral compounds such as eleutherobin could inhibit cancer cell growth in lab settings.

A study undertaken in 2013 found two steroid compounds from soft corals showing promise in treating human cytomegalovirus, mouse lymphocytic leukemia, and human colon ademocarcinoma. And, unlike marine toxins, some compounds in soft corals can be ingested, making them potentially easier to synthesize and formulate into drugs.

This is the reason why the pinpointing of the West Philippine Sea and Benham Rise as being right smack in the hot-spot center of soft corals diversity by the “massive international collaboration” of scientists, including Jue Lalas who had been research associate at the UP Marine Science Institute, is cause for both exhilaration and dread.

Exhilaration for what the country possesses, and for the immense scientific and medicinal value of these soft corals. Dread because what if a belligerent superpower like China which persists in claiming virtually the entire South China Sea manages to succeed in wresting total control of our sovereign territorial waters?

Comprehensive studies by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative point to dredging and landfill operations by China as part of its island-building activities which, in the past decade, have caused significant coral reef damage in Philippine waters.

Already, the AMTI’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) points to at least 10 Chinese outposts occupying six reefs within the WPS — in Calderon Reef, Kagitingan Reef, Burgos Reef, McKennan Reef, Mischief Reef, and Subi or Zamora Reef. China, says AMTI, also “controls” Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal off the coast of Zambales.

All of those have been damaged by China’s dredging and landfill activities, as well as the harvesting of giant clams that are vital to the health of the reef ecosystem, especially in the WPS which propagates a coral reef ecosystem in the western part of the Philippines.

In March, an alarm was raised by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. following sightings of Chinese research vessels at Benham Rise. “There is a suspicion,” he said, “that they are not only research vessels, so again there is an escalation of the tension that is present in the WPS.”

Benham Rise is actually not part of the West Philippine Sea. It is located on the eastern seaboard of the Philippines facing the Pacific Ocean, opposite the WPS which is part of the South China Sea.

Renamed Philippine Rise, Benham, a 13-million hectare plateau underwater, is larger than Luzon and is believed to be rich in natural gas, among other resources.

That a Chinese vessel — purportedly for “research” but most probably manned by coast guard or militia personnel — was spotted cruising around the Philippine Rise is cause for alarm, indeed.

What are these aliens up to? What designs, other than rapacious, on this, our resource-rich waters, do they have in mind?