Niel Martinn C.

Namoc
BSA 1-17
Phillipine Seas
A Documentary by Atom Araullo
“Beautiful” and “Wonderful”, those are the words tourist would usually utter when ask
how would they describe the Philippines after paying a visit. But I guess, the real beauty and
wonder of the Philippines cannot be only measured and deduced by those adjectives and I
realized just how much I underestimated and underappreciated the beauty and wonder of the
Philippines until I witnessed how Mr. Atom Araullo documented some of the many valuable
places in the country that could be aligned together with the treasured wonders of the world. In
his documentary entitled “The Philippine Seas”, he showcased the seas from various parts of the
Philippines wherein he presented its rich and abundant biodiversity where millions of animals
are living. The seas of the Philippines are extremely protected and preserve because of its great
importance and significance not only to the Philippines, the livelihood of numerous Filipinos and
to the living things that are inhibiting in the seas but also to the whole world.

Mr. Atom Araullo visited the Tanon Strait, a body of water located at the Visayas part of
the Philippines between the island of Negros and the province of Cebu, the sea that separates the
islands in the archipelagic province of Palawan and the Philippine Rise, a protected exclusive
zone located at the Philippine Sea. The biggest marine protected area, the Tanon Strait is the first
place that Atom Araullo and his team ventured in wherein watching whales and playful dolphins
from tour boats is the main attraction of the place. However, it is mentioned that for the reason of
the said body of water having a vast area, protecting the whole area is difficult for the groups of
people that are responsible for its preservation and protection. Consequently, there is a high
possibility that the foreign vessels that are roaming near the boundaries of the Tanon Strait could
also stray to the areas of the said body of water that are unguarded and illegally fish and kill
other animals that could be endangered and should not be killed. It is worrying and pretty
alarming that there are such instances that could be seen and heard from the news although some
of the foreign fishermen who was caught illegally fishing are confined by the organizations who
are in charge of protecting the region and there could also be some foreign fishermen roaming
the region that were left unnoticed and not confined. Hence the government and other
organizational bodies responsible should pay more attention and invest more on the equipment,
materials and resources that will be useful on the conservation of the Tanon Strait.

Fishing is one of the main livelihoods of Filipinos and fishermen would spend 4 days up
to 1 week just to be able to catch tons of fishes from the sea. But often times, they spend too
much days roaming in the sea without even realizing that they have strayed in the areas that are
outside the boundaries where they are allowed to fish. Up to this day, it is painful to know that
our fishermen who just want to earn for a living are jailed in foreign countries where they are
considered prisoners. I hope the government could do something especially to the left families of
those fishermen. The lives of the fishermen and how they ventured in to the sea provided me a
visual presentation of how my grandfather who used to be a fisherman in a town in Bohol lived
when my father was young. I only thought that the positive side of living near the sea was being
skilled able to swim all day but I never really realized the type of living that they used to have.

I have been to many beaches before, have seen the ocean and admire the view while
meeting the playful waves rushing near but it is really true that what you see is just the tip of an
iceberg and there is so much more down there that the mankind haven’t discover yet. The bluish
shallow part of the sea is something we always gaze at but we have never really dive into the
depth of the deepest part of the sea and it makes me curious just how vast the sea could really be.
There are millions of species of animals and water plants living in one huge body of water, most
of those could still be unknown, makes me wonder what could be the remaining mysteries of the
sea that could be unveil. But with the humans in the picture, the living of these creatures are
disturbed and extremely interrupted. Coastal pollution, overfishing that resulted to the drastic
decrease of the fish caught and fishing through the use of dynamite that resulted to the
destruction of the coral reefs are just some of the main problems that the sea of the Philippines is
facing and it is upsetting to think that such occurrence has a possibility of happening up to this
moment. It is not just right to pay through these actions the gift of the sea that are given to us.

The documentary opened my eyes to the deeper beauty of the sea that the Philippines
possess but also to the issue underlying this beauty. As Wendell Berry, an American
environmentalist quoted, “The earth is what we all have in common” one region or one nation is
not the only responsible on the protection of the seas, of the environment and everything that is
on earth that we should take care of but every single individual who is born into this world, I
believe from the time we were able to walk and talk, we already have the responsibility look
after all of our natural surroundings. No matter how old or young, or sex or gender we choose to
be, no one is excuse on making damages or harm that could result to the destruction of our
natural environment. As I have learned from the documentary, it takes a global effort, through
the help of the world as a whole, to make great changes from the damages that people brought to
the nature. Although drastic changes in our natural environment may also take a whole length of
time to be visible and be felt by people and it may be discouraging because it takes a lot of time,
energy and a huge amount of resources to give assistance and support, I am beyond grateful and
elated to the people are not losing hope on helping the nature heal itself. After watching the
documentary, I realized that an individual like me, through the simple action of proper
segregation and waste management can help contribute to the changes that the nature needs.

Source: GMA Public Affairs. (2017, November 5). Philippine Seas, a documentary by Atom
Araullo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxqgm-ruiW8&t=861s