ALAMINOS CITY — The waters surrounding the Hundred Islands National Park off this is now bubbling with life anew with the return of dolphins, various fin fishes and sea grasses to the ocean floor.

This was disclosed by scuba divers who recently explored the depth of the surrounding waters around the islands, which continue to attract domestic and foreign tourists.

Mayor Hernani Braganza said this is quite significant because it jibes well with the plan of the city government to promote the Hundred Islands as a major diving area in the Philippines.

“The dolphins and schools of fin fishes teeming in the water are additional delight to
tourists flocking the Hundred Islands all year-round,” he said.

This happened only three months after the Alaminos City government took over the management and supervision of the Hundred Islands from the Philippine Tourism Authority.

Baganza attributed the return of various species of fish to the success of the coastal resources management program undertaken by the city government, which included the massive planting of mangroves.

Now growing robustly, the mangroves are where the fish are sheltering and breeding before they go out to the wild.

Braganza met with the city’s fisherfolk Tuesday where he outlined a plan of the city government to declare one-half of the Hundred Islands as “no fishing zone” so fish can grow and breed.

He explained that they will just close one-half of the Hundred Islands area for fishing but all
of it is still open to tourism.

“We will declare protected areas in the Hundred Islands where fishing is strictly prohibited all-year round and areas where we can declare open and close seasons for fishing,” Braganza said.

He said that they will enforce a city ordinance declaring the months of March to April as close season for fishing because this is the spawning season for fin fishes like malaga (siganid) and ‘barangen’.

There is also a need to protect the eggs of ’sabalo’ and lapu-lapu during their spawning season, he said.

The Hundred Islands is where giant clams were seeded a few years ago by the University of the
Philippines Marine Science Institute. (PNA)