By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 18 (IPS) - For the past 11 years, Scott Sharpe, a diver from Hawaii, has been exploring the undersea world off the coast of the Philippines. It is the beauty of that country's marine life that drew him to the archipelago.

Yet increasingly, there are disturbing signs underwater. ''Everyday, the environmental stress on the marine life increases,'' says the 51-year-old owner of the Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium. ‘'One of the reasons is because of the impact of global warming caused by forests being cut.''

Earlier this month, the edition of an internationally respected magazine shed light on one area, in particular, that is worrying ocean enthusiasts in an article that was headlined, ‘World Without Corals?'

The May 7 edition of ‘Science,' a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the latest in a series of journals to report that global warming could trigger the death of coral reefs, with coral bleaching being the clearest sign.

‘'The latest and perhaps biggest present danger for reefs is bleaching,'' reveals the account in Science, which begins by describing a ‘'silent graveyard'' of coral reefs in the Andaman Sea, off Thailand's southern coast.

‘'When sea surface temperatures exceed the normal summer high of one degree Celsius or more for a few weeks running, coral polyps, for reasons not entirely understood, expel their zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that lend corals colour and provide nutrients. The polyps turn pale and starve,'' it adds.

Earlier this year, the Australian Institute of Marine Science expressed similar concern in a briefing note on ‘Coral reefs and climate change', prepared for a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N.-backed group of experts studying the extent of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions and its impact on the planet.

‘'Climate change due to the enhanced greenhouse effect has significant consequences for coral reefs,'' it noted. ‘'There is a direct link between unusually warm seawater temperature and bleaching of reef-building corals around the world.''

Among those who agree with such troubling assessments is Domingo Ochavillo, a marine biologist in the Philippines. ‘'Coral reefs serve as one of the best barometers of climate change,'' he said in an interview from Manila. ‘'Coral bleaching is an indicator of what is happening due to global warming. We are going to lose our heritage with this.''

The prospect of such mortality on the ocean floor has gathered added significance in the Philippines over the past two years following research that named the archipelago as having the crown jewels of marine biodiversity in the entire planet. The 10-year study, released by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, placed the nation's ocean wealth at centre of the ‘Coral Triangle,' which has Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Malaysia for its borders.

‘'The report excited many people in the Philippines, because it made known what we had in our sea and that we are the centre of biodiversity in this area,'' added Ochavillo, who is also the head of the Philippines branch of Reef Check, an international network spread over 80 countries that regularly monitors coral reefs worldwide. ‘'Reports of losing this heritage has begun to raise more awareness here.''

The undersea riches have earned this South-east Asian nation a place among the world heritage sites of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The chosen site, the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, is spread over 10,000 hectares of coral and marine life close to the south-western coast of the country.

‘'Researchers have recorded 396 species of corals - 85 per cent of all hard coral species in the entire Philippines,'' according to the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park website. ‘'There are 479 species of fish from 46 families. Manta rays are frequent visitors to the reef as are barracudas and large schools of jacks. Tubbataha is also home to six species of sharks.''

In South-east Asia, the Philippines comes second only to Indonesia in the extent of the sea bed covered with coral, according to the ‘Status of the Coral Reefs of the World' report. The former has 25,060 sq km of coral cover, while the latter has 51,020 sq km of coral.

In fact, surveys of hard coral indicate that between 50 to 75 percent of the global total is found in four South-east Asian countries, adds the report. They include Indonesia, which has 590 species, the Philippines, 464 species and Vietnam and Malaysia, with 400 species each.

The fate that awaits this biodiversity-rich area came into focus this year when a report by the IPCC warned that the earth's temperature could increase by two degrees Celsius if the brakes were not applied to the current pace of polluting the atmosphere, consequently triggering climate change.

Environmental lobbies like Greenpeace are warning that it is not only the beauty of marine life that will suffer if the coral reefs in the Philippines are reduced to a graveyard due to climate change. ‘'The fishing communities who depend on the coral for their catch will be affected,'' says Abigail Jabines, climate and energy campaigner for the South-east Asia section of Greenpeace.

‘'The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable rising sea temperatures,'' she told IPS from Manila. ‘'At least one million fishermen who are dependent on small-scale fishing will be hit and there will be coral bleaching.'' (END/2007)