Marine enthusiasts are appealing to policymakers to establish travel bubbles with source markets, citing how the absence of tourists in diving communities forced residents to overfish to the detriment of aquatic life. Alfredo Mancao, commissioner at the Philippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving (PCSSD), said the public and private sectors should work on marine conservation after aquatic resources were drained by locals who lost their jobs during the pandemic. He cited, for one, the situation in Cebu, where some tilapia caught this year shrank to as small as round scad or galunggong.

Rosales, E. F. (2021, June 14). Marine groups want travel bubbles with source markets. The Philippine Star, p. 2.