SURFACE RUN. A school of juvenile gold stripe Sardinella (Sardinella gibbosa) was caught on camera doing a surface run at the Cebu City Reefs in this undated photo. Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said on Tuesday (April 9, 2024) that the phenomenal spotting of the sardinella, locally known as "mangsi", indicates a successful effort to improve Cebu City's marine habitat. (Screenshot from Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia's FB video)
CEBU CITY – Regular clean-up activities in this capital city’s coastal area have produced good results as shown in a video of “Sardinella surface run” in the local seawater, the vice mayor said on Tuesday.
The video of a school of fish seemingly playing on the surface of water was recently posted on social media by Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia and shared by environmental pages, citing his office's effort on preserving the local marine habitat.
“After three years of regular reef cleanups, and by working hand-in-hand with our fisherfolk, the Cebu City Bantay Dagat, and Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, we can now see a school of juvenile gold stripe sardinella (Sardinella gibbosa), better known by its local name 'mangsi', at the Cebu City Reef,” Garcia said in his post.
Garcia, chair of the Cebu City Coastal Resource Management Unit (CRMU), said the city’s massive coastal preservation program was launched in May 2023 to strike a balance between environmental preservation and conservation in coastal villages and socio-economic development.
The emergence of a school of sardinella hopping on the surface of the local waters is an indication of improved marine habitat in the Cebu City coastal area, he said.
In March last year, the CRMU also set up a temporary mooring buoy in the middle of the 1.2-hectare Cebu City Reef where boats would no longer need to drop anchor and risk destroying corals and other marine life.
With the help of the Knights-Stewards of the Sea, Inc., the CRMU installed the mooring buoy after divers engaged in the weekly underwater cleanup came across some barrel sponges around the Cebu City reefs and adjacent waters that were torn from the base, likely due to a dragged anchor.
The weekly cleanup drives are capped every quarter with city-wide coastal preservation activities. (PNA)
